Property Management Walsall

The effects of a ‘Hard Brexit’ on the Walsall Property Market…

Head of Juicing @Ashmore Lettings & Sales Ltd Walsall Property Market , , , , , ,
The effects of a ‘Hard Brexit’ on the Walsall Property Market…
The effects of a ‘Hard Brexit’ on the Walsall Property Market…

Through the many conversations I have with my clients on a daily basis I find the Brexit effect is a real and worrying one for many.  This is usually the case when there is uncertainty in the air and as many questions remain unanswered…we can but attempt to make educated guesses on the how, what, when and if’s of the Brexit effect on the Walsall Property Market.  I can only comment on matters as they unravel and we learn together what the strategies of this exit may be as and when these are revealed to us.

Recently I feel Theresa May has wasted an opportunity to give peace of mind to our EU co-workers by not confirming their rights as EU citizens working and living in Walsall (and the rest of the UK). No.10 Downing Street’s point of view is that in promising the rights of EU citizens in the UK, it will postpone the same guarantee to the 1.5 million UK citizens living in the other nations of the EU.

For a moment let’s put aside the politics…the simple fact is now Article 50 has been set in motion, we have two years to make a deal with the EU, otherwise it will be a ‘hard Brexit’.  Now you might not think a hard Brexit will affect you in your home in Walsall…but nothing could be further from the truth.

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Rents in Walsall Will Increase More Than Walsall Property Prices By 21%!

Head of Juicing @Ashmore Lettings & Sales Ltd Walsall Property Market , , , , , , , , , ,
Rents in Walsall Will Increase More Than Walsall Property Prices In Next 5 Years!
Rents in Walsall Will Increase More Than Walsall Property Prices In Next 5 Years!

Last weekend I had a meeting with a professional landlord who has an extensive portfolio of properties.  By his own admission, he confirmed that he has somewhat neglected the portfolio which he has kind of left to look after itself.  In recent years his focus was his family-run business so the portfolio wasn’t a priority.  He wanted to change this attitude and become more aggressive with his Walsall property ambitions by expanding on a healthy and varied portfolio.

During our meeting he asked me where in Walsall and what type of property he should purchase to create the best capital growth and great rental yields.  This got me thinking about our property market in Walsall and what has actually happened to rents and property prices..and more importantly for him..projections for the future.

Some fascinating changes are in the air in the Walsall property market.  Just to give you a flavour of the full article below, upon conclusion of my research I found that the rent private tenants pay will rise faster than property prices over the next five years. Creating further issues to Walsall’s growing multitude of renters.  In fact, my examination of statistical forecasts found that –

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Walsall Unemployment Rates Drop to 7.3%! What Does This Mean for Walsall’s Property Owners?

Head of Juicing @Ashmore Lettings & Sales Ltd Walsall Property Market , , , , , , , ,
Walsall Unemployment Rates Drop to 7.3%! What Does This Mean for Walsall’s Property Owners?
Walsall Unemployment Rates Drop to 7.3%! What Does This Mean for Walsall’s Property Owners?

It was late May 2016, The Right Hon. Member for Tatton, Mr George Osborne, published an official HM Treasury analysis stating UK house prices would be lower by at least 10% (and up to 18%) by the middle of 2018 compared with what is expected if the UK remained in the European Union.  So, eight months on from the Referendum, are we beginning to show signs of that prophecy?

The simple answer is yes and no.

Good barometers of the housing market are the share prices of the big UK builders. Much was made of Barratt’s share price dropping by 42.5% in the two weeks after Brexit, along with Taylor Wimpey’s equally eye watering drop in the same two weeks by 37.9%. Looking at the most recent set of data from the Land Registry, property values in Walsall are 5.75% up month on month (however, the month before that, they had seen decrease of 0.1%) – so is this the time to panic and shout?

Doom and Gloom then?  Well, let me consider the other side of the coin.

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Today’s Buy To Let Deal, Excellent 2 Bed Town house, Walsall, WS3. With Yields Of 6.60%.

Head of Juicing @Ashmore Lettings & Sales Ltd Walsall Buy to Let Property Deals , ,

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A two bedroom town house in the Bloxwich area of Walsall, WS3.

This is a an absolutely superb spec and should be able to be let as is. The asking price is for offers over £90000 with Springbok Properties (0161 300 3968).

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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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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 Tenants are Setting Their Own Rents!!

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

Last week I went to meet a landlord who found me through my blog.  The property was a traditional end of terrace in north Walsall between Leamore and Coalpool.  The landlord had the property with an agent from out of the area and wanted my opinion.  Or at least that’s what I thought…

Quite often, when talking about the rental market, we talk about property, condition, area, location, amenities/ facilities etc. and seem to forget one of the most important parties to the equation… tenants.

Without tenants, there is no demand for the rental property. The profile of the Walsall tenant has changed and continues to change.  Although this is in part due to the credit crunch, job mobility and the raising of deposits, an increased number of people in their twenties are choosing to rent rather than buy and have done so, even when they were in a position when they could have bought a property.

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Can Empty Properties in Walsall be the Solution to our Housing Crisis?

Head of Juicing @Ashmore Lettings & Sales Ltd Walsall Property Market , , , , , , , ,
Can Empty Properties in Walsall be the Solution to our Housing Crisis?
Can Empty Properties in Walsall be the Solution to our Housing Crisis?

Easy problems should have easy solutions  – shouldn’t they?

Problems like Walsall’s housing crisis, where we have a rudimentary numerical problem of too few homes for too many people… the answer is clearly to build more property in Walsall – but that, unfortunately for those desperately seeking to purchase or let a property, takes a lot of time and huge amounts of money.  So what of other solutions?

Whilst at the first BBQ of the ‘summer’ with friends recently, the subject of property was mentioned, as it usually does when I’m around!  During this particular conversation, someone mentioned empty properties as the solution to the problem.  On the face of it, it seems so obvious.  It got me thinking so, the next day; I did some research on this topic to see if this was a plausible potential solution.  The results of which are very interesting indeed…!

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