Bexley Borough Property News

As most of the polls suggested a Remain vote, most of us were surprised when David Dimbleby announced that the UK will be leaving the EU. The pound has dropped 6% this morning, after the City whizz kids got their predictions wrong. MPs from the Remain camp are saying things like “challenging times ahead”. … and now the vote has been cast - what next for the 82464 Bexley homeowners, especially the 45598 with a mortgage? In the campaign, the Chancellor suggested property prices would drop by 18% in the event of a Leave vote. Using Treasury estimates, their method of calculating this was tenuous at best. It focused on an abrupt and hasty increase in UK interest rates, raising the cost of mortgages, and creating lower demand for property, causing a drop in prices. I have to agree that this will probably happen. Where I differ, however, is in the detail. While property values in Bexley are likely to cool off in the coming 12 to 18 months, I doubt that it will be by as much as 18...

Some commentators are saying that buy to let is about to die, with the new stamp duty changes and how mortgage tax relief will be calculated. Have you heard the phrase “Bad news sells newspapers”? Some claim that, nationally, 500,000 rental properties will flood the market in the next 12 months as landlords leave the rental market. I’m here to explain why buy to let in Bexley Borough is only going in one direction – and not the one the papers say! According to Sheffield University, a centre of excellence on the topic, buy to let landlords will continue fuelling the growth of the private rented sector in coming decades. They estimate that the rate of homeownership nationally will fall to 50% (today it is 84% in the area) by 2032, while the rate of private sector renting will increase to 35% (interestingly, in the Borough it’s currently less than half of this). This shows that the demand for rental accommodation in Bexley Borough is only going to increase. These are the reas...