Bexley Borough Property News

A few weeks ago, I received an interesting email from someone in Bexley Borough that, with the sender’s permission, I am going to share with you. The gentleman in question lives in Upper Belvedere. He is in his mid-60s and still working. He has a decent pension, so when he retires in a few years he will have a comfortable lifestyle. Recently, he inherited £240,000 from an elderly aunt. If he puts it into a savings account, the best deal available is a two-year bond with the Post Office which pays 1.9%, meaning that he would get £4,560 in interest a year. Another option is to buy a local property to rent out. He wanted my advice on what to buy, mentioning that he did not want to take a mortgage out at his time of life, and that he was concerned about the implications of the tax changes for landlords that he had read about. Notwithstanding the war on landlords being waged by George Osborne, for many the attraction of bricks and mortar endures. As this gentleman is a cash buyer, ...

People are always going to need a roof over their heads, so having somewhere to live will never go out of fashion. Local residents aged 22 to 30 have a choice about their type of roof. They can rent from the council, they can rent from a private landlord, or they can get a mortgage and buy a house. In the 1970s, 80s and 90s, people were expected to go without luxuries for two years and save while living at home or renting a cheap two-up two-down, and then to buy their first house. More recently, fewer younger adults have been buying. Instead, they are choosing to rent, mainly from private landlords (councils have been selling off housing under right-to-buy schemes). The numbers are truly staggering... and I want to share them with you. 20 years ago, Bexley Borough was a different place. There were 86,373 households and 65,276 were owner occupied. Today, after a lot of building in the area, the total number of households has increased by 32.5% to 114,450. What surprises m...