17.7% of Walsall owner-occupying OAP’s are in poor health!
“Why should Walsall’s pensioners be forced to downsize? A question I received via social media a couple of weeks ago. The mature member of a Walsall society came across my article I wrote at the start of the year (see article HERE), about Walsall pensioners feeling trapped in their homes.
There are around 24,000 home owning OAP’s in Walsall.
After working hard for a life time and buying a home for themselves and their family, the children have flown the nest and now they are left to rattle around in a big house. Many feel trapped in their large homes, hence I dubbed these Walsall home owning mature members of our society, ‘Generation Trapped’.
So, should we force OAP Walsall homeowners to downsize?
“When Walsall people move home how far do they actually go?” This was a fascinating question asked by one of my clients the other week. Readers of my blog will know I love a challenge, especially when it comes to talking about the Walsall Property Market!
For the majority, the response is not very far. It is much more common for homeowners and tenants in Great Britain to move across town than to the next town or county. Until now, it’s been hard to say how many homeowners and tenants moved from (and to) relatively far away to buy or rent their new home. However, I carried out some research and requested some statistics from the Royal Mail. What came back was very interesting to say the least!
Are Walsall landlords denying our Walsall youngsters?
I received a very interesting letter the other day from a Walsall resident. He affirmed he was a Walsall homeowner, retired and mortgage free. In the letter he stated how unaffordable Walsall’s rising property prices were and that he worried how the younger generation of Walsall could ever afford to buy? He went on to ask if it was right for landlords to exploit the inability of others to buy property and if, by purchasing a buy to let property, Walsall landlords are denying the younger generation the ability to, in fact, buy their own home?
Whilst doing my research for my many blog posts on the Walsall Property Market, I know that a third of 25 to 30 year olds still live at home. It’s not surprising then that people are kicking out against buy to let landlords; as they are the gluttonous bad people who are cashing in on a social woe. In fact, most people believe the high increases in Walsall’s (and the rest of the UK’s) house prices arethe very reason owning a home is outside the grasp of these younger would-be property owners.
As a Walsall landlord is it wise to set up a Limited company?
A question I get asked all too often is around whether to set up a limited company or not? I’ve always maintained my expertise is not around tax (as much as it is the Accountant’s job and that’s why I have one..you should do too), but on this platform I can always share my thoughts with you.
In November 2015, George Osborne disclosed plans to restrain the buy to let (BTL) market, implying its growing attractiveness was leaving aspiring first time buyers contesting with landlords for the restricted number of properties on the market. One of things he brought in was that tax relief on BTL mortgages would be capped, starting in April 2017. Before April 2017, a private landlord could claim tax relief from their interest on their BTL mortgage at the rate they paid income tax – (i.e. 20% basic /40% higher rate and 45% additional rate).
So, for example, let’s say we have a Walsall landlord, a high rate tax payer who has a BTL investment where the rent is £600 a month and the mortgage is £400 per month. In the tax year just gone (16/17), assuming no other costs or allowable items …
Walsall needs to build 5,400 mixed tenure properties in 7 years..
I was having a most interesting chat the other day with a Walsall landlord when we were looking at a property he was thinking of buying. As I am sure you are aware, I am always happy to cast my eye over any potential buy-to-let purchase in Walsall, be that you emailing me a Rightmove/ Zoopla link, a brochure in the post or even treading the carpet and seeing it together. I don’t charge for that, and you don’t even need to be a client of mine.
We got talking about the Walsall Property Market and this landlord brought up the subject of a report he had read that stated almost 1.8m new rental homes are needed by 2025 to keep up with current demand from tenants. He wanted to know what this meant for Walsall.
Well my blog reading friends, some commentators said last winter that buy-to-let was about to die, what with the new stamp duty changes and how mortgage tax relief will be calculated. Others even said 500,000 rental properties would flood the market nationally in the 12 months after the new Stamp Duty rules came into force on the 1st April 2016 as landlords left the rental market. Well, all I can say is, I wish all the landlords of those half a million properties would hurry up and put them on the market – because I have plenty of other potential landlords wanting to buy them!
The humble semi-detached house with its bay windows and net curtains has long been ridiculed as an emblem of safe, lacklustre and desperately uncool suburban life; the homes of the likes of Hyacinth Bucket in ‘Keeping up Appearances’ and more latterly Alan Partridge – but they could have the last laugh – having enjoyed one of the highest price growths of any property type in Walsall, up by an average 227% increase in the last twenty years!
The semi is, of course, still hugely popular on new build developments; although slightly more modern in appearance compared to its older ancestor!
The semi can now laugh in the face of its posher detached counterpart, which saw a rise of only 161% in the same 20-year period. Looking at smaller properties, flats/apartments rose 106%, whilst terraced houses did slightly better at 229% although they were starting from a lower base and demand from buy to let landlords has had a big part in driving up the values on that type of house based upon its rental potential.
5 reasons why NOT to use Gumtree to let a Walsall Property
Honestly I could write a book about this. Time and time again through my agency career I would have landlords calling me, desperate for advice after they’ve placed a “lovely” tenant in their property using a free (or low cost) DIY advertising website. The tenant presented themselves as honest, open, and above all very capable of paying the rent.
But the truth is a different matter. They got into the property by deception, and ended up costing these landlords thousands of pounds in damages, unpaid rent, and above all…the stress. These landlords had to cover the mortgage whilst funding the legal battle. One made very difficult because they weren’t aware of all the legislation surrounding lettings. This could prejudice their position in court. Didn’t serve the Prescribed Information? Didn’t register the deposit within 30 days? That means the tenant could actually sue you for 3 times the deposit amount! And there’s more…
It has been said that some 30% of the PRS is made up of accidental landlords (Source: Landlordnews.co.uk). Here lies the problem. As an accidental, or amateur (not a bad thing!) landlord, it is unlikely that they invest the time to make themselves aware of all the legislation surrounding lettings. There is a lot, but as the saying goes “you don’t know what you don’t know,” so most are blissfully unaware – until it goes wrong, and they can do with disastrous consequences!
Are Walsall landlords stifling the Walsall property market…?
Following the publication of a recent blog article about ‘Generation Rent’ a local homeowner of Walsall contacted me. He said that he felt that the plight of our Walsall youngsters (first time buyers), was that like of a novice football player trying to bend it like Beckham! You’re in a minus game playing Beckham at his own game right? Play him a 100 times and you’re bound to lose 100 times!! There is no doubt that buy to let landlords have played a major role in driving up property values in Walsall (and the UK) and from that made housing a lot less affordable for the 20-30 somethings of Walsall.
Let us look at how affordable Walsall is. The best way to measure affordability is to measure Walsall property prices against Walsall average salary (the higher the ratio, the less affordable properties are). Looking at the table below, for example in 2014, the average value of a Walsall property was 5.95 times higher than the average annual wage in Walsall.
The 2017 General Election and the Walsall Property Market.
The past does not equal the future however, it’s as good a barometer as any when it comes to making attempts to predict it.
Looking and analysing the past 5 general elections I have made some interesting discoveries on the before and after a general election and how this affects the property market…if at all.
Out of the five general elections (1997, 2001, 2005, 2010, 2015) two were not certain (2010 with the coalition government of Lib-Dems and Conservatives and 2015 with the surprising Tory majority). So I wanted to compare what happened to the number of houses sold and prices achieved between the three certain elections (1997, 2001 and 2005) against the unexpected ones of 2010 and 2015.
What is the relation to babies being born and the Walsall property shortage I hear you ask! Well…
….as more babies are being born to Walsall mothers, this increase will continue to add pressure to the already strained Walsall property market – and greatly affect the local property market in the future.
The past eight years of ever incremental increasing birth rates, a significant 3.96 babies were born for every new home that was built in the Walsall area in 2016.
My belief is that it has and will continue to aggravate the Walsall housing shortage. This means demand for housing (be it to buy or rent) has remained high. The high birth rate has meant Walsall rents and property prices have remained resilient and they will continue to remain high in the years to come – even with the challenges the economy has felt over the last eight years.
Walsall Property Blog 
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