Walsall Property Market

Comment on the Walsall property market

Have Walsall Rents Truly Risen?

Head of Juicing @Ashmore Lettings & Sales Ltd Walsall Property Market , , , , , , , , ,
Have Walsall Rents Truly Risen?
Have Walsall Rents Truly Risen?

Back in the Spring, there was a surge in Walsall landlords buying buy-to-let property in as they tried to beat George Osborne’s stamp duty changes which kicked in on the 1st April 2016. If you are a football fan, think of it like transfer deadline day!

To give you an idea of the sort of numbers we are talking about, below are the property statistics for sales either side of the deadline in the WS1 postcode taken from the Land Registry;

Jan 2016 – 20 properties sold

Feb 2016 – 19 properties sold

March 2016 – 36 properties sold

April 2016 – 9 properties sold

May 2016 – 17 properties sold

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Walsall Landlords and Tenants : What does the Tenant Fee Banning order mean for you?

Head of Juicing @Ashmore Lettings & Sales Ltd Walsall Property Market , , , , , , , ,
walsall-letting-fees-ban
walsall-letting-fees-ban
  • Tenant Fees set to be banned within 12 to 18 months
  • Rents due to rise as those fees passed to Landlords
  • Landlords won’t be worse off – and neither will tenants or agents

With our new Chancellor of the Exchequer revealing a ban on tenant fees in his first Autumn Statement on Wednesday what does this actually mean for Walsall tenants and Walsall landlords?

The private rental sector in Walsall forms an important part of the Walsall housing market and the engagement from the chancellor in last Wednesday’s Autumn Statement is a welcome sign that it is recognised as such. I have long supported the regulation of lettings agents which will establish and cement best practice across the rental industry and, I believe that measures to improve the situation of tenants should be introduced in a way that supports the growing professionalism of the sector. Over the last few years, there has been an increasing number of regulations and legislation governing private renting and it is important that the role of qualified, well trained and regulated Lettings Agents is understood.

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Walsall’s Spare Rooms..Perhaps the Answer to our Housing Crisis?

Head of Juicing @Ashmore Lettings & Sales Ltd Walsall Property Market , , , , , , , , ,
Walsall’s Spare Rooms..Perhaps the Answer to our Housing Crisis?
Walsall’s Spare Rooms..Perhaps the Answer to our Housing Crisis?

Of the 107,822 households in Walsall, 33,667 of those properties don’t only have one spare bedroom, but two spare bedrooms! Could this be the cure for Walsall’s housing crisis?

The fundamental problem is the fact that the supply of homes to live in has not historically met demand, increasing property values and rents, thus ensuring home ownership becomes an unattainable ambition for the youngsters of Walsall.

Let’s state the obvious..demand needs to drop or supply needs to rise to stop this trend getting worse for the generations to come.  Don’t get me wrong, I admire Downing Street’s plans to build 200,000 starter homes which will be offered to first time buyers under 40 with a minimum 20% discount price.  However, the building of starter homes on current building sites, where new homes builders already have to build a certain number of affordable ‘starter’ homes at the moment under a different scheme, does not increase the stock of new ‘starter’ homes, it simply replaces one affordable scheme with another.

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Walsall Landlords vs Walsall Savers

Head of Juicing @Ashmore Lettings & Sales Ltd Walsall Property Market , , , , , , , , , ,

A couple of articles back, I did a piece on the effect of the 0.25% base rate on the Walsall property market. This time, I want to look at the situation that Walsall ‘savers’ find themselves in.

What, you might ask, has the plight of Walsall savers have to do with the Walsall property market… well, everything in fact!

Read the newspapers, and every financial wizard is stating that with the decision of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee in early August to cut the Bank of England base rate to an all time low of 0.25%, savers should prepare themselves for interest rates to stay low well into the early 2020’s.

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Which month of the year is ‘best’ to sell your Walsall property?

Head of Juicing @Ashmore Lettings & Sales Ltd Walsall Property Market , , , , , , , ,
Which month of the year is ‘best’ to sell your Walsall property?
Which month of the year is ‘best’ to sell your Walsall property?

I had a homeowner from Bloxwich email me the other day. She said she had been following my blog for a while and wanted to pick my brain on when I thought is the best time of the year to sell a property in Walsall. Trying to calculate the best time to put your Walsall property on the market can often seem something akin to witchcraft and whilst I would agree that there are particular times of the year that can prove more productive than others, there are plenty of factors that need to be taken into consideration.

Even if you are putting your property on the market, you don’t know how long it will take to find a buyer. At the moment, for the latest set of figures for all 52 Estate Agents that cover the Walsall area (not including the online), the average length of time it takes to find a buyer for any Walsall property is as follows…

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Nearly Half of Walsall Tenants are ‘Middle Class’!!

Head of Juicing @Ashmore Lettings & Sales Ltd Walsall Property Market , , , , , , , , ,
Nearly half of Walsall tenants are ‘Middle Class’!!
Nearly half of Walsall tenants are ‘Middle Class’!!

With Walsall youngsters not able to buy their own property, my research would suggest the progressively important role the private rented sector has been playing in housing people in need of a roof over their head. This, at a time of increasing affordability problems for first time buyers and growing difficulties faced by social housing providers – local authorities and housing associations – in their ability to secure funding from Westminster and then compete against the likes of the Taylor Wimpey, Barratt and Persimmon Homes of this world to buy highly priced building land.

Renting isn’t like it was in the 1960’s and 70’s, where tenants couldn’t wait to leave their rack-rent landlords, charging sky-high rents for properties with Second World War wood chip wallpaper, no central heating and drafty windows. Since 1997 with the introduction of buy-to-let mortgages and a new breed of Walsall landlord, the private rented sector in Walsall has offered increasingly high quality accommodation for younger Walsall households.

So, whilst I knew in my own mind that the type and ‘class’ of tenant has improved over the last 20 years, I had nothing to back that up… until now.

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Walsall Landlords & Investors – does your letting agent go THIS far?

Head of Juicing @Ashmore Lettings & Sales Ltd Walsall Property Market , , , , , , , , , ,

Walsall Landlords & Investors – does your letting agent go THIS far?
Walsall Landlords & Investors – does your letting agent go THIS far?
A local Walsall landlord recently contacted me after he found my blog (the Walsall Property Blog) and thought to take me up on my offer of advice.  He lives in Parkhall and was thinking of purchasing a property he had seen.  As I’ve always maintained, opinion costs nothing and I am always happy to pass my opinion on any property in the open market.

After he sent me the link to the advertised property I started my research and found some interesting facts.  The property in Walsall was a 3 bed mid-terrace advertised for £129,950.  Just four weeks ago, when it was first advertised, it was priced at £134,950.  So a drop of £5,000 in a month! I smelt a potentially motivated seller. Here’s what makes it more interesting…when I dug deeper…I found the property had been on the market two years ago but for some reason, didn’t sell so was taken off market at that time!!

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Walsall Landlords…Avoid the Fire Sale!!

Head of Juicing @Ashmore Lettings & Sales Ltd Walsall Property Market , , , , , , , ,
Walsall Landlords…Avoid the Fire Sale!!
Walsall Landlords…Avoid the Fire Sale!!

Apologies in advance… another article that refers to the EU vote… but this time, its better news for Walsall property owners!

Let’s face it; even the sanest person in Britain has to admit that the Brexit vote will, in one shape or another, affect UK property. We must exclude central London, however, which is another world! Most commentators are saying prices will be affected by around 5%. So looking at their thoughts in more detail, property values in Walsall will be 5% lower than they would have been if we hadn’t voted to leave the EU.

As the average value of a property in the Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council area is £159,900, this means property values are set to drop for the average Walsall property by £7,995… batten down the hatches… stock up with soup and milk… mega recession here we come… it’s going to get rough!

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The Side-Effects of the 0.25% interest rate on Walsall Property.

Head of Juicing @Ashmore Lettings & Sales Ltd Walsall Property Market , , , , , , , ,
The Side-Effects of the 0.25% interest rate on Walsall Property.
The Side-Effects of the 0.25% interest rate on Walsall Property.

I had an interesting chat with a Sutton Coldfield landlord who owns a few properties in Walsall. He said he was in town shopping with his wife.  Whilst she was shopping for clothes he thought he would call me whilst taking a break over a coffee.  In his words he went on to say; “Talking about the Walsall property market is a lot more interesting than clothes shopping”!

We had never spoken before as he uses another agent in the town to manage his Walsall properties,  yet after reading my blog on the Walsall market for a while, the landlord wanted to know my thoughts on how the recent interest rate cut would affect him and the property market in general.

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Walsall Letting Agent..Corporate or Independent?

Head of Juicing @Ashmore Lettings & Sales Ltd Walsall Property Market , , , , , , , , , ,
Walsall Letting Agent..Corporate or Independent? Walsall Letting Agent..Corporate or Independent?

Recently I read a really interesting article by Christopher Watkin, renowned property guru, which really made me think about whether landlords and vendors actually know who they are instructing when putting their property for let or for sale and the implications of being unaware of whether one of the large corporate owns your local agency!

I have noted my opinions and thoughts at the bottom of the article..

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