East Midlands property asking prices jumped by more than £4,000 to
£181,100 in February according to Rightmove, an increase of 2.3% from January
and 4.7% higher than a year ago. After the traditionally quiet months of
January and February, the property market has started to warm up, but talking
to some Nottingham Estate Agents, they are reporting their lowest ever stocks
of quality property for sale. However, as asking prices have no relation to
what property sells for (ie their REAL value), is the issue a lack of supply?
Putting aside Nottingham’s continual housing supply shortage, (we only
built 10,019 properties in the last decade but the population of Nottingham
grew by 38,662), this is now, according to some people, being exaggerated by an
increase in homes being owned by buy to let investors, who tend to be buying a
property as part of a long term pension plan and are more likely to keep it for
longer than an owner occupier would. I have also seen unwillingness among homeowners
looking to move, to put their own
property on the market as they can find few suitable properties to make it
worth their while going through the whole moving process.
Talking to some Nottingham landlords only last week, I said that I
believe this is the new norm in the Nottingham property market, and is the
consequence of over 35 years of not enough homes being built to meet the escalating
growth in household numbers, resulting in a lack of quality homes for sale in
many popular areas of Nottingham.
When one looks at the historic data, in April 2008 there were 10,809
properties on the market in Nottingham compared to today’s 3,505. Should we be
worried? Well in March 2010, there were
only 4,678properties for sale in Nottingham but seven months later in October
2010, this had jumped to 6,409 properties, for it to drop to 3,708 properties
in March 2014. The number of properties on the market is a cyclical thing in Nottingham,
it always has been and always will be. As we go into the Spring of 2015, the
number of new properties coming onto the market will increase ... just as the
daffodils will flower.
So are landlords to blame? Well, on one side of the coin, yes they
are. If they buy a property to rent out, that means someone can’t buy it to
live in. However, it doesn’t matter if someone wants to live in a property if
they can’t afford the deposit and upkeep .. and the youngsters of Nottingham
still need a roof over their head. So on the other side of the coin, if the
Council aren’t building any properties and people can’t afford the large deposit
for the mortgage, then Nottingham landlords have stepped in and bought property
to rent out to them. Nottingham landlords have bought 12,099 properties over
the last decade (investing approximately £2.075bn buying those Nottingham rental
properties), meaning there were at the last count, 27,300 Nottingham properties
being privately rented out to tenants. Nottingham tenants are in fact getting a
good deal as well, as average rents in Nottingham are 4.5% below where they
were seven years ago. That sounds like a win-win situation for everyone to me.
Stop blaming landlords and start building more properties in Nottingham.. that
is the only answer.
In the meantime, the demand from Nottingham tenants for Nottingham
property is only set to rise over the coming years. If you want some advice and
opinion on where (or not) to buy, please email me at jaclyn.bartlett@centrickproperty.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment