Royal Tunbridge Wells’s continuing housing shortage is putting the town’s (and
the Country’s) repute as a nation of homeowners ‘under threat’, as the number
of houses being built continues to be woefully inadequate in meeting the ever
demanding needs of the growing population in the town. In
fact, I was talking to my uncle the other day at a family get together; the subject of
the Royal Tunbridge Wells Property market came up in the conversation (as I am
sure it does at many family parties in Royal Tunbridge Wells) after the weather
and politics. My uncle said It used
to be that if you went out to work and did the right thing, you would expect
that relatively quickly over the course of your career you would be buying a
house, you would go on holiday every year, you would save for a pension. But
now things seem to have changed?
Back in the
Autumn, George Osborne, used the
Autumn Statement to double the housing
budget to £2bn a year from April 2018 in an attempt to increase supply
and deliver 100,000 new homes each year until 2020. The
Chancellor also introduced a series of initiatives to help get first time
buyers on the housing ladder, including the contentious Help to Buy Scheme and
extending Right to Buy from not just Council tenants, but to Housing
Association tenants as well.
Now that does all sound rather
good, but the Country is only building 137,490 properties a year (split down
114,250 built by private builders, 21,560 built by Housing Associations and and
a paltry 1,680 council houses).
Looking at the Royal Tunbridge
Wells house building figures, in the local authority area as a whole, only 200
properties were built in the last 12 months, split down into 90 privately built
properties and 10 housing association with not one council house being built. This is simply not enough and the shortage of supply has
meant Royal Tunbridge Wells property values have continued to rise, meaning
they are 8.4% higher than 12 months ago, rising 0.7% in the last month alone.
I was taught at school (all
those years ago!), that’s it’s all about supply and demand, this economics game. The demand
for Royal Tunbridge Wells property has been particularly strong for properties
in the good areas of the town and it is my considered opinion that it is likely
to continue this year, driven by growing demand among buyers (both Royal
Tunbridge Wells homebuyers and Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords alike). You see Royal
Tunbridge Wells’s economy is quite varied, meaning
activity is expected to remain relatively strong into the early Summer of 2016,
especially as some Royal Tunbridge Wells buy to let landlords try to complete
purchases ahead of the introduction of new stamp duty rules in April.
.. and of supply, well we have spoken
about the lack of new building in the town holding things back, but there is
another issue relating to supply. Of the existing properties already built, the
concern is the number of properties on the market and for sale. The
number of properties for sale last month in Royal Tunbridge Wells was 403,
whilst 18 months ago, that figure was 508, whilst four years ago it stood at 634…
a massive drop!
With demand for Royal Tunbridge
Wells property rising, minimal new homes being built and less properties coming
onto the market, that can only mean one thing ... now is a good time to be a
homeowner or landlord in Royal Tunbridge Wells.
For more articles like this,
please visit the Royal Tunbridge Wells Property Market Blog
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