Brexit – What’s the ‘Deal’ with Walsall House Prices?
On a daily basis in Walsall I am talking to landlords and homeowners from all walks of life. Some are serial investors whilst others are accidental landlords or holding a small portfolio. I have always shared my thoughts on the local property market in Walsall and Brexit has come up a few times. Here are some links to past articles I have written on the topic:
I have been holding off giving my thoughts, as I did not want to add fuel to the stories being banded around in the national press. However, it’s obviously a topic that you as Walsall buy to let landlords and Walsall homeowners are interested in…
We may or may not as the case may be, have a potential deal in the offering, there is still an amount of ambiguity about the exit plan so I am going to try and give you what I consider a fair and impartial piece on what would happen in Walsall if a hard Brexit takes place in March 2019.
Walsall Landlords – Are you abiding by all the laws?
As the dust finally settles on the manic world of returning to work after a small hiatus, my thoughts return to the Blog. I have been asked on many occasions where I get inspiration from when writing such ‘out there’ and ‘interesting’ articles (which I take with compliment). The truth is a lot of my inspiration comes from talking to Walsall landlords and Walsall property owners.
Approximately a fortnight ago I was talking to a professional landlord who has an extensive portfolio up and down the country including a few in Walsall. We got talking about Housing Law and all the regulations/ legislation that landlords need to adhere to.
Did you know, there are over 125 individual acts of legislation that landlords must adhere to if they’re to remain on the right side of the law? Most landlords can’t name the specific acts but know and understand the basics, which are:
Tenancy deposit protection
Annual gas safety inspections
Energy Performance Certificates
Smoke alarms
Carbon monoxide alarms, and;
Serving of prescribed information
But, can you name the acts these rules come from? Can you name the recent legislation that demands an energy efficiency assessment be ordered before the property to marketed to let and a valid EPC in place within 7 days and where reasonable to do so, this can be extended up to 21 days. This is detailed in the act The Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015.
What about the relevant act that gives tenants the powers to report poor housing conditions? This is covered by Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. It is this act that obliges tenants to keep the property in a “tenant-like manner”. Later acts gave tenants the right to complain without fear of revenge evictions making it a criminal offence to evict a tenant who requests “too many” repairs.
More legislation is working its way through parliament, being written into law, including the upcoming tenant fee ban, deposit cap and potential three-year minimum tenancies!!
Now, more than ever, landlords should give strong consideration to letting their property and managing it themselves. With more than 125.. and counting.. acts of legislation that landlords must be aware of and adhere to, it is no wonder that we regularly see Walsall landlords and Walsall Letting Agents regularly falling short of fulfilling their obligations.
Walsall Property Blog is Taking a Well Earned Rest!!
Keeping a blog updated can be an exhausting affair and the last time I took a break was August 2017 so, I’ve decided to take a well earned rest!! I hope to return to the blog towards the end of November 2018.
In the meantime, why not visit these property related websites to hone your property investor acumen?
http://www.landlordlaw.co.uk/ – This is a great resource of useful information, especially on legal issues and Tessa Shepperson’s Blog has some golden nuggets…
www.periodproperty.co.uk is, as you can imagine, the place to find a thatched, listed or historic home, while www.propertyauctions.com lists dates and reserve prices on upcoming auctions plus tips for those bidding for the first time (great resource if you are seeking a fixer-upper.
This resource/ guide from Martin Lewis is extremely useful for first-time buyers www.moneysavingexpert.com.
Think you can’t afford to buy a property just yet? How about buying as a co-sharer with a friend or family? Visit www.ourproperty.co.uk to learn more about turning this possibility into reality.
Whilst I’m away if there is anything you would like me to pick up on/ discuss/ write about upon my return please send me an email or message me via any of my social media sites. Take care and wish me happy holidays…
Over the last couple of decades, the rise in the number buy to let properties in Walsall has been nothing short of extraordinary. Many in the “left leaning” press have spoken of a broken nation, the fact many youngsters are unable to buy their first home with the rise of a new cohort of younger renters, whom have been daubed ‘Generation Rent’ as landlords hoover up all the properties for their buy to let property empires. Government has been blamed in the past for giving landlords an unfair advantage with the tax system. It is also true many of my fellow professionals have done nothing to cover themselves in glory, with some suspect, if not on some rare occasions, downright dubious practices.
Yet has the vilification and unfair criticism of some Walsall landlords gone too far?
It was only a few weeks ago, I read an article in a newspaper of one landlord who had decided to sell their modest buy to let portfolio for a number of reasons, one of which being the new tax rules on buy to let that were introduced last year. The comments section of the newspaper and the associated social media posts were pure hate, and certainly not deserved.
Like all aspects in life, there are always good (and bad) landlords, just like there are good (and bad) letting agents… and so it should be said, there are good tenants and in equal measure bad tenants. Bad letting agents and bad landlords should be routed out… but not at the expense of the vast majority who are good and decent.
But are the 3,983 Walsall portfolio buy to let landlords at fault?
The Tories allowed people to buy their own Council house in the 1980’s, taking them out of the collective pot of social rented houses for future generations to rent them. Landlords have been vilified by many, as it has been suggested by some they have an unhealthy and ravenous materialism approach to make cash and profit at the expense of poor renters, unable to buy their first home. Yet, looking beyond the headline grabbing press, this is in fact ‘fake news’. There are seven reasons that have created the perfect storm for private renting to explode in the 2000’s.
An immaculately presented two bedroom Semi Detached house, Shropshire Close, Walsall, WS2. The asking price is for offers over £130k and currently marketed by Bairstow Eves (01922 321033). At a rental of at least £600.00 the yield will be 5.54%. Let’s check out why this is such a good investment. The full property details can be found here.
The location is ideal for an investment property being on a very popular estate for rentals and close enough to Walsall and Bloxwich town centres. There is easy access to major transport routes, school and other amenities.
The effect of the recent Interest Rate increase on Walsall Property…
I wrote my thoughts in an article in October 2016 after interest rates were slashed to 0.25%. You can read the full article by clicking here. Then in December 2017 I wrote a further article when it was announced interest rates would be increased to 0.50%. The full article can be found by clicking here. Existing clients and Blog reading friends alike have been asking me for my thoughts on the recently announced increase…the current average value of a property in Walsall currently stands at £181,994 so what will the recent increase in the base rates to 0.75% from 0.50% do to the local property market?
In many of my articles, I talk about what is happening to property values over the short term (i.e. the last 12 months or the last 5 years), but to answer this question we need to go back over 40 years, to 1975.
The average value of a Walsall property in 1975 was £8,285
However, since 1975, we have experienced in the UK, inflation of 807.5%.
Are We Building Enough Affordable Homes in Walsall?
Before we begin… no, that’s not a location picture of Walsall-on-Sea!!
Within my blog about the Walsall Property Market I mostly only talk about two of the three main sectors of the local property market, the ‘private rented sector’ and the ‘owner occupier sector’. However, as I often stress when talking to my clients, one cannot forget the third sector, that being the ‘social housing sector’ (or council housing as some people call it).
In previous articles, I have spoken at length about the crisis in supply of property in Walsall (i.e. not enough property is being built), but in this article I want to talk about the other crisis – that of affordability. It is not just about the pure number of houses being built but also the balance of tenure (ownership vs rented) and therein, the affordability of housing, which needs to be considered carefully for an efficient and effectual housing market.
An efficient and effectual housing market is in everyone’s interests, including Walsall homeowners and Walsall landlords, so let me explain ..
Walsall Rent Inreases Outstrips Inflation Since 2005
Millennials were born between the mid 1980’s and late 1990’s making them between the age of around 22 to late 30’s. They are the imaginative, artistic youngsters who grew up with the newest tech and computers and who are huge enthusiasts of music festivals, gourmet pizzas, emoji’s, selfies and old school nostalgia AKA…generation rent.
Countless Millennials have discovered that renting is a good choice for their shelter and accommodation needs without the hassle that comes from buying a home. Nonetheless, that is not the only reason they don’t buy property. When they should be concentrating on their profession, putting down roots and starting a family, Millennials are still going through the pressures and constraints on their finances of student loan liabilities whilst, at the same time, finding it hard-hitting to pay rent.
The hot topic at the moment is the cost of renting, as both our main political parties have seen mileage in wooing these Millennial Generation Renters. The average rent in Walsall is currently £618 per month making this a big-ticket item on the monthly budget. I was inquisitive to find out exactly how much Walsall Millennials will spend on rent by the time they reach their mid 30’s. The average age people leave home in the UK is 22; so looking at a Walsall 22-year-old (or Millennial) who left home in 2005 then between 2005 and today that Walsall Millennial will have shelled out £90,348 in rent.
A question posed by a local portfolio landlord of mine last week. Who would be the gainers and losers…?
Those Walsall people wanting property values to drop would be those 30 or 40 something’s, sitting on a sizeable amount of equity and hoping to trade up (because the percentage drop of your current ‘cheaper’ property will be much less than the same percentage drop of the more expensive property– and trading up is all about the difference). If you have children planning to buy their first home or you are a 20 something wanting to buy your first home – you want them to drop. Also, Walsall landlords looking to add to their portfolio will want to bag a bargain (or two) and they would love a drop!
Yet, if you have recently bought a Walsall property with a gigantic mortgage, you’ll want property values to rise. If you are retired and are preparing to downsize, you will also want Walsall property values to rise (because you will have more cash left over after the move). Also, if you, a landlord looking to sell your portfolio or a Walsall home owner, who has remortgaged to raise money for other projects (meaning you have very little equity), you will want property values to rise to enable you to put a bigger deposit down on the next purchase.
So, before I discuss my thoughts on the future, it’s important to look at the past…
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