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..
When my research showed me this statistic, the first question that popped into my mind was; “Is this a problem or an opportunity?”
The orthodox way of classifying property in the UK is to look at the number of bedrooms rather than its size in square metres – although now we are leaving the EU, I wonder if we can go back to feet and inches!
It seems that homeowners and tenants are happy to pay for more space. It’s quite obvious, the more bedrooms a house or apartment has, the bigger it is likely to be. The reason being, not only the actual additional bedroom space, but the properties with more bedrooms tend to have larger or more reception/ living rooms. However, if you think about it, this isn’t so astonishing given that properties with more bedrooms would typically accommodate more people.
In today’s Walsall property market, Continue reading
Walsall’s Generation Gap & Brexit – Did the Older Generation Let Down the Young?As we approach nearly 3 months since the Referendum vote and in Walsall, we have all had a chance to reflect on the momentous decision that the British public took. Many of you read the article I wrote on the morning of the results. I had gone to bed the night before with a draft of my ‘Remain’ article nicely all but finished, to be presented, at just after 5:00 a.m, with the declaration by the BBC saying we were leaving the EU. I don’t think any of us were expecting that.
For those who missed it, here is a link to that post Brexit article: https://walsallpropertyblog.com/2016/06/24/eu-referendum-67-9-of-walsall-voters-vote-with-their-feet/. In this piece, I would like to take my thoughts on from that initial article and now start to see the clearer picture as the dust settles on the UK, but more importantly, the Walsall Property Market.
Knowing how saleable a property is, is half the battle when deciding what (or not) to buy for your next property investment. Why? Well because one day, you may need to sell that property. If you go into the purchase with open eyes, you know most of the risks and can barter the price accordingly if you have to.
Call me old fashioned, but I do like the terraced house. In fact, I have done some research that I hope you will find of interest!
In architectural terms, a terraced or townhouse is a style of housing in use since the late 1600’s in the UK, where a row of symmetrical/identical houses share their side walls. The first terraced houses were actually built by a French man, Monsieur Barbon around St. Paul’s Cathedral within the rebuilding process after the Great Fire of London in 1666.
Interestingly, it was the French that invented the terraced house around 1610 in the Le Marais district of Paris with its planned squares and properties with identical facades. However, it was the 1730’s in the UK, that the terraced/townhouse came into its own in London and of course in Bath, with the impressive Royal Crescent.
However, we are in Walsall, not Bath, so.. Continue reading
I was talking to one of my portfolio landlords the other day as I was helping him to source another buy-to-let property when he mentioned something that made me think. He was complaining about the amount of additional Stamp Duty he had to pay (due to the increase in April 2016), which I have discussed in a previous article on this blog. This made me think about the other side of the property market who stood to benefit from the investors gripe..first-time buyers of course!!
There’s a whole legion of wannabe Walsall first-time buyers keen to get on the property ladder and they now have a 3% price advantage over the previously quicker responding army of Walsall landlords with cash at the ready. Since the start of April, buy-to-let landlords have had to pay an additional 3% stamp duty on their purchases so, whilst demand from some buy-to-let landlords has dropped away, in the interim, it offers first time buyers a chance to fill the vacuum with less competition from cash rich landlords – over two thirds of buy-to-let properties were purchased without a mortgage in the last 7 years – who could bid more and complete quicker.
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.
As most of the polls suggested a Remain Vote, it came as a surprise to most people, including the City. The Sterling has dropped 6% this morning (at time of typing article), after the City Whiz kids got their predictions wrong and MP’s from the Remain camp are using words like “challenging times ahead”.
.. and now the vote has been made .. what next for the 67,280 Walsall homeowners especially the 33,748 of those Walsall homeowners with a mortgage?
The Chancellor in the campaign suggested property prices would drop by 18%. Using Treasury estimates, their method of calculating this was tenuous at best, but focused around the abrupt and hasty increase in UK interest rates, which in turn would raise the cost of mortgages, and therefore lower demand for property, causing a drop in property prices.… and I would agree and say, yes .. that will probably happen.
I went out to a rental valuation a few days ago in Parkhall, Walsall and, as I always do, did my preparation on the property, the area and suitable tenants. I introduced myself but, before I could begin speaking, he said “How much then? What are your fees?”. Now don’t get me wrong, the subject comes up pretty much most of the time but not usually that quickly!
It got me thinking about landlord fees and how landlords perceive agents. Lots of agents advertise ‘Free fee deals’ – we have in the past! Do they work? No! But why don’t they?
During the course of my day to day activities I talk to a number of landlords. If you look on social media profiles you will probably find very few people, if any, who set their profile status as a landlord or claim to be one. As the market evolves with the Private Rented Sector having already outpaced the Social Housing Sector, I have noticed a shift in a new breed of investors entering the property rental market.
Many people in our part of the West Midlands, over the last few years, have seen the buy to let market become all about nest egg investment. It is fuelled by pitiful interest rates on building society savings and reflects the fact that building society savings accounts are paying half a per cent interest and pension returns are struggling to match expectations, turning more and more people into landlords to secure their future.
So what can you expect from your rental property investment? Continue reading
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