Bexley Borough Property News

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%....

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...

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...

My research shows that certain types of Bexley property are more affordable today than before the 2007 credit crunch. Roll the clock back to 2007 just before the credit crunch hit which saw Bexley property values plummet like a lead balloon and the Bexley property market had reached a peak with the prices for Bexley property hitting the highest level they had ever reached.  Between 2008 and 2010, Bexley property values lay in the doldrums and only started to rise in 2011, albeit quite slowly to begin with. Nevertheless, even though property values have now passed those 2007 peaks, my research indicates that Bexley property, especially flats/apartments, are now more affordable than they were before the 2008 credit crunch. Back in 2007, the average value of a Bexley flat/apartment stood at £240,750 and today, it stands at £294,424, a rise of £53,674 or 22.3%. However, between 2007 and today, we have experienced inflation (as measured by the Government’s Consumer...

Well, the fallout from the recent budget is ongoing.  I was chatting to a couple of movers and shakers from the Bexley area the other day when one said, “There isn’t enough land to build all these 300,000 houses Philip Hammond wants to build each year”. If you read the Daily Mail, you would be forgiven for thinking the country was at bursting point ... or is it? 60 years ago, the first satellite, Sputnik, was launched. All the superpowers have used them to take high definition pictures of each other for decades, but now satellites and their high-powered cameras are being used for more peaceful purposes. The European Environment Agency (EEA) has been taking high definition pictures of the UK from outer space to give us a focused picture of what every corner of the country really looks like, and the findings will come as a surprise. As my blog readers know, I always like to ask the important questions relating to the Bexley property market. If you are a Bexley landlord or Be...

I miss the good old days of George Osborne as Chancellor, with his hard hat and hi-vis jacket. He must have visited every new home building site in the UK with his trademark attire! For the last few years, the nearest Philip Hammond has got to donning a ‘Bob the Builder’ outfit was at his grandchild’s birthday party. However, with what appears to be a change in focus by the Tories to ensure they return to power in 2022, they seem to have fallen in love with house building again, with the Chancellor’s promise to create 300,000 new households in a year. Nationally, the number of new homes created has topped 217,344 in the last year, the highest since the financial crash of 2007/8. Looking closer to home, there were 764 ‘net additional dwellings’ in total in the last 12 months in the London Borough Bexley Council area, a decent increase of 79% on the 2010 figure. The figures show that 104% of this additional housing is found in new build properties. In total, 796 new dwellings were b...

It’s now been a good 18/24 months since annual rental price inflation in Bexleyheath peaked at 4.3%. Since then we have seen increasingly more humble rent increases. In fact, in certain parts of the Bexleyheath rental market over the autumn, the rental market saw some slight falls in rents. So, could this be the earliest indication that the trend of high rent increases seen over the last few years, may now be starting to buck that trend? Well, possibly in the short term, but in the coming few years, it is my opinion Bexleyheath rents will regain their upward trend and continue to increase as demand for Bexleyheath rental property will outstrip supply, and this is why. The only counterbalance to that improved rental growth would be to meaningfully increase rental stock (i.e. the number of rental properties in Bexleyheath). However, because of the Government’s new taxes on landlords being introduced between 2017 and 2021, that means buy-to-let has (and will) be less attracti...