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Showing posts from 2018

Bexley Borough Property Market – Which Houses are Actually Selling?

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Beast from the East, Russia, Facebook, Brexit, Trump, House prices up, House prices down ... the Press is full of column inches on Brit’s favourite subjects of politics, scandal, weather and not forgetting (and I appreciate the irony of this!) the property market. As an agent belonging a national group of letting and estate agents, talking to my fellow property professionals from around the UK, the one thing that is immediately apparent is the UK does not have one property market. It is a hodgepodge patchwork (almost like a fly’s eye) of lots of small property markets all performing in different ways. … And that made me think … is there just one Bexley Borough Property Market or many? I like to keep an eye on the property market in Bexley Borough on a daily basis because it enables me to give the best advice and opinion on what (or not) to buy in Bexley Borough, be that a buy-to-let property for a landlord or an owner occupier house for a home owner.  So, I thought, how cou...

79% More Bexleyheath Home Owners Wanting to Move Than 12 Months Ago

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As I have mentioned a number times in my local property market blog, with not enough new-build properties being built in Bexley Borough area to keep up with demand for homes to live in (be that tenants or homebuyers), it’s good to know more Bexley Borough home sellers are putting their properties on to the market than a year ago. At the start of 2007 there were 84 properties for sale in Bexleyheath (DA6) but by May 2008, when the credit crunch was really beginning to bite, that number had risen to 162 properties on the market at a time when demand was at an all-time low, thus creating an imbalance in the local property market. Basic economics dictates that if there is too much supply of something and demand is poor (which it was in the Credit Crunch years of 2008/9) … prices will drop. In fact, house prices dropped between 15% and 20% depending on the type of Bexleyheath property between the end of 2007 and Spring 2009. However, over the last five years, we have seen a steady ...

Bexleyheath Property Market Worth More Than the Ocado Group

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The value of all the homes in Bexleyheath has risen by more than 290% in the past two decades, to £3.510bn, meaning its worth more than the stock listed company Ocado Group, which is worth £3.421bn. Those Bexleyheath homeowners and Buy-to-Let landlords who bought their homes twenty or more years ago have come out on top, adding thousands and thousands of pounds to the value of their own Bexleyheath homes as the younger generation in Bexleyheath continue to be priced out of the market.  This is even more remarkable because, in those twenty years, we had the years of 2008 and 2009 following the global financial crisis, where we saw a short term drop in Bexleyheath house prices of between 15% and 20% (depending on the type of property). And although there have been a number of consecutive years of growth in property values recently in Bexleyheath it hasn’t been anywhere near the levels seen in the early 2000’s. Twenty years ago, the total value of Bexleyheath property was wort...

Bexley Council Tax Payers Stung by 40.18% above Inflation Rise

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Buying and selling a home in Bexley isn’t the easiest or cheapest thing you will ever do. Estate Agent fees, Solicitors fees, Survey fees, Mortgage fees, Removal Van … the costs just mount up throughout every step of the move. Last week, a Bexley landlord asked me whether the Council Tax Band made a difference to a property’s appeal, be it tenanted or to owner occupiers, when it comes to being sold on the open market and whether extensions or improvements made a difference to the tax banding? Well, like I said, the first point you should always be aware of is what Council Tax Band your new house or apartment will fall under. Being aware of this before you buy/move will help when planning month by month for life in your home (or investment). But what exactly are Council Tax Bands, and how do they affect landlords/tenants/homebuyers? How much Council Tax you pay depends on two variables. The first is which Council Tax Band your property is in. A property is placed into a specific ...

Homeownership Amongst Bexley’s Young Adults Slumps to 57.75%

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The degree to which young Bexley people are locked out of the Bexley housing market has been revealed in new statistics. A Bexley landlord was asking me the other week to what effect homeownership rates in Bexley in the early to middle aged adult age range had affected the demand for rental property in Bexley since the Millennium. I knew anecdotally that it affected the Bexley rental market, but I wanted some cold hard numbers to back it up. As you know, I like a challenge when it comes to the stats.. so this is what I found out for the landlord, and I’d like to share them with you as well. As anyone in Bexley, and most would say those born more recently, are drastically less likely to own their own home at a given age than those born a decade earlier, let’s roll the clock back to the Millennium and compare the figures from then to today. In the year 2000, 58.5% of Bexley 28-year olds (born in 1972) owned their own home, whilst a 28 year old today born in 1990) would have a 31...

151 First Timer Buyers in Bexleyheath Bought Their First Home in 2017

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A little bit of good news this week on the Bexley Borough Property Market as recently released data shows that the number of first time buyers taking out their first mortgage in 2017 increased more than in any other year since the global financial crisis in 2009. The data shows there were 151 first time buyers in Bexleyheath, the largest number since 2006. I expect in 2018 that this increase of first time buyers will level out and maybe dip slightly as, nationally, figures demonstrate that first time buyer’s average household income was £40,691 and this represented 17.3% of their take home pay. Although, it might surprise readers that it is actually cheaper to buy than it is to rent at the ‘starter home’ end of the housing market. Many of you can remember mortgage rates at 12% ... even 15%. Today, at the time of writing this article, I found on the open market, 189 first time buyer mortgages at 95% (meaning only a 5% deposit was required) with 3 year fixed rates from a reputable H...

An extension could add £99,275 to the value of your Bexleyheath home

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As our families grow bigger the need for more space, be that bedrooms or reception rooms, has grown with it. Also, as our older generation lives longer and nursing home bills continue to rise quicker than a rocket on the 5th of November  (the average nursing home bill in the area being £862.50 per week) many families are bringing two households into one larger one. So, should you move somewhere larger, or extend your Bexleyheath property to make it large enough for you and your family? In some circumstances the choice has been made for you. If you live in an apartment with no garden, there isn’t much of an opportunity of making it larger. But if you have a house with a garden or an attic with sufficient headroom, extending your home becomes a real prospect. Even if it makes more sense to extend or move, the choice hangs on a number of different dynamics – your future plans, money (both saved and access to finance), in what way you are emotionally attached to your home, the p...

Is This a Good Time To be Buying Brand New in Bexley?

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According to the National House Building Council (NHBC), more than 17,800 new homes were registered to be built in London last year, an increase of 1.5% on 2016 levels of 17,500 dwellings. Great news when you consider it is one of the highest number of new builds in the region since the pre-recession levels of the Credit Crunch and the uncertainty of Brexit and the General Election. So, when a landlord recently asked me why the brand-new property she was considering buying was a lot more expensive compared to a second-hand/existing property of similar type, accommodation, location and structure I thought this would make a fascinating topic to do some homework on … homework I want to share with the homeowners and landlords of Bexley. You might believe that the difference between purchasing a new build home against purchasing a second-hand/existing home is just individual preference. Some buyers/tenants like the ostentatious trendy modern feel of a new home, whilst others like a h...

Bexley’s ‘Millennials’ set to inherit £1,063,667 each in property!

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That got your attention ... didn’t it! But before we start, what is Generation X, let alone Generation Z, Millennials, Baby Boomers  ... these are phrases banded around about the different life stages (or subcomponents) of our society. But when terminologies like this are used as often and habitually as these phrases (i.e. Gen X this, Millennial that etc.), it appears particularly vital we have some practical idea of what these terms actually mean. The fact is that everyone uses these phrases, but often, like myself, they are not exactly sure where the lines are drawn ...until now… So, for clarity … Generation Z: Born after 1996 Millennials: Born 1977 to 1995  Generation X: Born 1965 to 1976 Baby Boomers: Born 1946 to 1964 Silent Generation: Born 1945 and before My research shows there are 4,040 households in Bexley owned by Bexley Baby Boomers (born 1946 to 1964) and Bexley’s Silent Generation (born 1945 and before). It also shows there are 3,860 Genera...

Bexleyheath’s £55,591,920 “Rentirement” Property Market Time Bomb

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Yes, I said ‘rentirement’, not retirement ... rentirement and it relates to the 207 (and growing) Bexleyheath people, who don’t own their own Bexleyheath home but rent their home, privately from a buy to let landlord and who are currently in their 50’s and early to mid-60’s. The truth is that these Bexleyheath people are prospectively soon to retire with little more than their state pension of £155.95 per week, probably with a small private pension of a couple of hundred pounds a month, meaning the average Bexleyheath retiree can expect to retire on about £200 a week once they retire at 67. The average rent in Bexleyheath is £1,119 a month, so a lot of the retirement “income” will be taken up in rent, meaning the remainder will have to be paid for out their savings or the taxpayer will have to stump up the bill (and with life expectancy currently in the mid to late 80’s, that is quite a big bill …  a total of £55,591,920 over the next 20 years to be paid from the tenant’s sa...

Bexleyheath Private Rents Hit £18.04 per sq. foot

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As I am sure you are aware, one the best things about my job as an agent is helping Bexley Borough landlords with their strategic portfolio management. Gone are the days of making money by buying any old Bexley Borough property to rent out or sell on. Nowadays, property investment is both an art and science. The art is your gut reaction to a property, but with the power of the internet and the way the Bexley Borough property market has gone in the last 11 years, science must also play its part on a property’s future viability for investment. Many metrics most property professionals (including myself) use when deciding the viability of a rental property is what properties are selling for, the average rent, the yield and an average value per square foot. However, another metric I like to use is the average rent per square foot. The reason being is that is a great way to judge a property from the point of view of the tenant ... what space they get for their money. Now of course, lo...

£1,539.50pm – The Profit made by every Bexley Property Owner over the last 20 years

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As we go headlong into 2018, I believe UK interest rates will stay low, even with the additional 0.25% increase that is expected in May or June. That rise will add just over £20 to the typical £160,000 tracker mortgage, although with 57.1% of all borrowers on fixed rates, it will probably go undetected by most buy-to-let landlords and homeowners. I forecast that we won’t see any more interest rate rises due to the fragile nature of the British economy and the Brexit challenge. Even though mortgages will remain inexpensive, with retail price inflation outstripping salary rises, it will still very much feel like a heavy weight to some Bexley households. Now it’s certain the Bexley housing market in 2017 was a little more subdued than 2016 and that will continue into 2018. Property ownership is a medium to long-term investment so looking at that long-term time frame; the average Bexley homeowner who bought their property 20 years ago has seen its value rise by more than 338%....

What do I think about the future of the Bexleyheath Buy-To-Let Market?

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I was recently reading a report by the Home website which suggested that hordes of landlords are selling their buy-to-let investments due to increasing burdens on them in the buy-to-let market. Their findings suggest the number of new properties that came onto the market nationally (for sale) jumped by 11% across the UK as a result. Those increasing burdens include new tax rules coming in over the next 3 to 4 years and the announcement that all self-managing landlords ( i.e. landlords that don’t use a letting agent to look after their buy-to-let property ) will soon need to register with a compulsory redress scheme to resolve tenant arguments and disputes; as Westminster wants to heighten standards in the Private Rented Sector.  Interestingly I was chatting with a self-managed landlord from Erith, when I was out socially over the festive period, who didn’t realise the other recent legislations that have hit the Private Rented sector, including the ‘Right to Rent’ regula...

Youngsters struggling to buy their first home in Bexleyheath – Are the Baby Boomers and Landlords to Blame?

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Talk to many Bexleyheath 20 something’s, where home ownership has looked but a vague dream, many of them have been vexatious towards the Baby Boomer generation and their pushover ‘easy go lucky’ walk through life; jealous of their free university education with grants, their eye watering property windfalls, their golden final salary pensions and their free bus passes. If you had bought a property in Bexleyheath for say £18,000 in first quarter of 1977, today it would be worth £421,051 a windfall increase of 2239.17%. But to blame the 60 and 70 year olds of Bexleyheath for that sort of rise seems a little unfair, with the value of the homes rising like rocket, I don't believe they can be censured or made liable for that. A few weeks ago, I discussed in my blog the number of people in the Bexleyheath area who have two or more spare bedrooms (meaning they are under-occupying the house). I see many mature members of Bexleyheath society, rattling around in large 4/5 bed ho...