East Midlands property asking prices jumped by more than £4,000
to £177,100 in February according to Rightmove, an increase of 2.3% from
January and 4.7% higher than a year ago. After the traditionally quiet months
of January and February, the property market has started to warm up, but talking
to some Erewash Estate Agents, they are
reporting their lowest ever stocks of quality property for sale. However,
asking prices have no relation to what property sells for (ie their REAL value),
is the issue a lack of supply?
Putting aside Erewash ’s continual housing supply shortage,
(we only built 2,468 properties in the last decade but the population of Erewash
grew by 1,982), this is now, according
to some people, being exaggerated by an increase in homes being owned by buy to
let investors, who tend to be buying a property as part of a long term pension plan
and are more likely to keep it for longer than an owner occupier would. I have
also seen unwillingness among homeowners looking to move, to put their own
property on the market as they can find few suitable properties to make it
worth their while going through the whole moving process.
Talking to some Erewash landlords only last week, I said that I
believe this is the new norm in the Erewash property market, and is the consequence of
over 35 years of not enough homes being built to meet the escalating growth in
household numbers, resulting in a lack of quality homes for sale in many popular
areas of Erewash .
When one looks at the historic data, in April 2007 there
were 705 properties on the market in Ilkeston compared to today’s 327. Should
we be worried? Well in July 2009, there
were only 293 properties for sale in Ilkeston but seven months later in February 2010, this
had jumped to 593 properties, for it to drop to 281 properties in April 2014.
The number of properties on the market is a cyclical thing in Ilkeston , it
always has been and always will be. As we go into the Spring of 2015, the
number of new properties coming onto the market will increase ... just as the
daffodils will flower.
So are landlords to blame? Well, on one side of the coin,
yes they are. If they buy a property to rent out, that means someone can’t buy
it to live in. However, it doesn’t matter if someone wants to live in a
property if they can’t afford the deposit and upkeep .. and the youngsters of Erewash
still need a roof over their head. So on
the other side of the coin, if the Council aren’t building any properties and
people can’t afford the large deposit for the mortgage, then Erewash landlords have stepped in and bought property
to rent out to them. Erewash landlords
have bought 3,057 properties over the last decade (investing approximately £320.9million
buying those Erewash rental properties), meaning there were at the last count, 12,666
Erewash properties being privately
rented out to tenants. Erewash tenants
are in fact getting a good deal as well, as average rents in Erewash are 4.5% below where they were seven years ago.
That sounds like a win-win situation for everyone to me. Stop blaming landlords
and start building more properties in Erewash .. that is the only answer.
In the meantime, the demand from Erewash tenants for Erewash property is only set to rise over the coming
years. If you want some advice and opinion on where (or not) to buy, please
visit the Erewash Property Blog where we
discuss such matters in greater depth: www.ilkestonpropertyblog.co.uk
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