Bexley Borough Property News

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...