Bexley Borough Property News

April Fools’ Day 2016 was no joke for some landlords, as they rushed to make buy to let property purchases throughout late March to beat the extra 3% stamp duty George Osborne imposed on such properties after the 31 st . All the property professionals in the borough have noticed that the demand to buy from these landlords has eased since April and May. The Brexit issue is also having a tempering effect. You may recall that I wrote about this a few weeks ago, stating that Brexit won’t prompt the end of the world scenario some suggest. In another article, I spoke of the growth rate of Bexley Borough property values and how, whilst the rate of growth is slowing, Bexley Borough property values are still 13.3% higher year on year, although the month on month growth rate has started to moderate compared with the heady days of 2014 and 2015.  Intriguingly, a recent members’ survey of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors states that only 17% believed property values would ...

Renting was a dirty word in the 60s and 70s. You either lived in a “Rigsby Rising Damp” style bedsit with wood chip on the wall and a coin-operated electric meter (that buzzed in the night), or you lived in a council house. In the latter part of the 20 th century, the British believed that rent payments were “wasted money”. However, nowadays owning often makes less financial sense than renting. Everyone is doing it now, and the rate of homeownership is starting to drop substantially. The stigma that there was once is gone. In fact, of the 283,134 residents of Bexley, 71,088 of us rent from either the local authority/social provider (i.e. the council or a housing association) or private landlords. That means that 25.10% of Bexley people are tenants. The idea of homeownership is deeply embedded in the British soul. 208,009 (73.46%). Bexley people live in an owner-occupied property. Housing is at the heart of government policy, as they have promised 200,000 new properties a year so ...