The Royal Tunbridge Wells Property Market and The Euro 2016 Football Tournament

With the Referendum on EU membership out of the way, our households can concentrate on something European that doesn’t involve party political broadcasts or politician’s treating us all like children – the Euro 2016 Football Tournament. Royal Tunbridge Wells is home to all different backgrounds and nationalities so if you're not lucky enough to be jetting off to France for the UEFA Euro 2016 football tournament, have no fear! For a bit of fun (although there is a serious side to this – you know there would be with me!) I have taken a look at which European people live in Royal Tunbridge Wells so I know who to soak up the best atmosphere with!

During my research some interesting numbers appear. Going into the Euro 2016 tournament, France were 3/1 favourite’s, then Germany 7/2, third Spain 11/2, then England 9/1, Italy 16/1, Poland 50/1, Romania and Wales at 100/1, Ireland at 150/1 and Northern Ireland 500/1 (although Leicester were 5000/1 at the start of last season).

Of the 105,070 residents of the Tunbridge Wells West Constituency for Westminster, of the Home Nations going into the competition, 91,749 of them are from England, 859 from Wales, 395 from Northern Ireland and 625 from Ireland, although I do feel sorry for the 1,415 Scots who didn’t get into the finals. Now interestingly, looking at the Mainland Europeans residents in the Tunbridge Wells West Constituency, it might not surprise you that they make up 3.53% of the population as a whole in the Westminster area.

However, even more fascinating, of those 3.53% European’s residents, 1.74% are from Western Europe because EU residents from Eastern Europe - i.e. the Accession Countries to the EU between 2003 to 2007 (Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania) - only make up 1.79% of the population of the Tunbridge Wells West Constituency.

Broken down into the relevant football teams, there are in the Tunbridge Wells West Constituency …  

414 French people

470 Germans

186 Italians

149 Spanish

1,059 Poles

104 Romanians

… I feel sorry for the Romanian football supporters in Royal Tunbridge Wells!

But what does this have to do with the Royal Tunbridge Wells property market? Quite a lot in fact. Many of these European people were economic migrants, especially those from Eastern Europe. A lot of people’s concerns over migration are exaggerated as this EU migration has acted to fill gaps in skills and labour supply during growth periods of the mid 2000’s and subsequently over the last five years in Royal Tunbridge Wells, EU migrants have done little to displace native workers but do the jobs us Brits don’t often want to do. There is no preferential treatment for council housing in Royal Tunbridge Wells, so EU migrants have in fact increased demand for privately rented accommodation in Royal Tunbridge Wells. 

This has meant, as demand for housing in Royal Tunbridge Wells has remained strong, Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords have continued to buy properties to rent out to keep up with this demand. Therefore, the value of every homeowner’s property in Royal Tunbridge Wells has been kept high because of the demand from these Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords buying starter homes to rent out, releasing existing homeowners to go up the property ladder – benefiting everyone in the chain.

However, rents have remained relatively subdued, in Royal Tunbridge Wells rents are only 20.1% higher than they were in 2005, not bad when you consider we have had 38.52% inflation in the UK economy as a whole over the same 11 years.


EU migration has meant existing homeowners, landlords and the economy as a whole in Royal Tunbridge Wells (and the UK) have benefitted from better economic conditions, property prices not slumping whilst rents have been kept in check by wage inflation. Now I wonder who will win the footy? Back to the TV!

Asking Prices of Royal Tunbridge Wells Property up 8% in the last year

I had an interesting question the other day from a homeowner in Denny Bottom who asked me the difference between asking prices and values and why it mattered. When it comes to selling property, there must be agreement between the purchaser (buyer) and seller (vendor) for a property sale to take place. The value a buyer applies to a property can massively differ from the value a seller or mortgage company places upon it. The seller, the buyer and the mortgage company must find an agreeable value to assign to a property so the sale can proceed.

In many of my articles about the Royal Tunbridge Wells property market, I talk about values, i.e. what property in Royal Tunbridge Wells actually sells for, but I haven’t spoken about asking prices for while. Now asking prices are important as they are one of the four key matters a potential buyer will judge your property on (the others being location, bedrooms and type). Price yourself too high and you will put off buyers. So let’s take a look at the Royal Tunbridge Wells numbers.

Over the last 12 months asking prices (i.e. the price advertised in the paper and on Rightmove) in Royal Tunbridge Wells have increased by 8%, taking the average asking price in Royal Tunbridge Wells to £578,900 (up from £535,800 twelve months ago).

Interestingly though, when we look at, say semi-detached property and a flat/apartment, a slightly different picture appears. Twelve months ago, the average asking price for a semi-detached house in Royal Tunbridge Wells was £451,100 and today its £553,900 (a rise of 23%); whilst over the same 12-month period, the average asking price of a flat/apartment was £278,100 a year ago, and today its £314,200 (a rise of 13%).  Decrease in other property types have reduced the overall asking price.

However, my research shows that the supply of property for sale in Royal Tunbridge Wells is beginning to increase. In December 2015, there were 374 on the market in Royal Tunbridge Wells today there are 465 properties on the market (up 24%). This will mean homeowners looking to sell will need to be conscious of how their property compares against others on the Royal Tunbridge Wells property market. The Royal Tunbridge Wells property market still has substantial momentum and sufficient demand remains to provoke more modest asking price rises. This noteworthy increase in supply since Christmas is currently providing more choice for buyers and is tempering asking price rises.

… And here is the second point to make. Asking prices are one thing, but what a property sells for (i.e. value) is a completely different matter. These are the average prices achieved (i.e. what they sold for or the average value) for property in Royal Tunbridge Wells over the last 12 months...

·      Overall Average          £414,100

·      Semi-detached           £413,600

·      Flat/Apartment          £241,000

You can quite clearly see, there is a difference between what people are asking for property and what it is selling for. The underlying fundamentals of low interest mortgages and tight supply remain prevalent in the Royal Tunbridge Wells property market however, the number one lesson has to be this ... if you want to sell, be realistic with your pricing.

59.4% of Royal Tunbridge Wells Tenants are White Collar Middle Class

With Royal Tunbridge Wells youngsters not able to buy their own property, my research would suggests the progressively important role the private rented sector has been playing in housing people in need of a roof over their head, especially at a time of increasing affordability problems for first time buyers and growing difficulties faced by social housing providers (local authorities and housing associations) in their ability to secure funding from Westminster and then compete against the likes of the Bovis’s and David Wilson’s of this world to buy highly priced building land.

Renting isn’t like it was in the 1960’s and 70’s, where tenants couldn’t wait to leave their rack-rent landlords, charging sky-high rents for properties with Second World War wood chip wallpaper, no central heating and drafty windows. Since 1997 with the introduction of buy to let mortgages and a new breed of Royal Tunbridge Wells landlord, the private rented sector in Royal Tunbridge Wells has offered increasingly high quality accommodation for younger Royal Tunbridge Wells households.

So whilst I knew in my own mind that the type and class of tenant has improved over the last 20 years, I had nothing to back that up ... until now. According to some detailed statistics from Durham University just released, for the Tunbridge Wells Council area, the current situation regarding social status of tenants shows some very interesting points. Using the well known Demographic ABC1 grade classifications which refers to the social grade definitions (which describe, measure and classify people of different social grade and income and earnings levels, for market research, social commentary, lifestyle statistics, and statistical research and analysis) this is what I found out.

Of the 12,005 tenants who live in a private rented property in the Tunbridge Wells Council area, 26.26% (or 3,152) of those tenants are classified in the AB category (AB Category being Higher and intermediate managerial / administrative / professional occupations), compared to 36.81% owner occupiers who own their property without a mortgage or 3.43% who rent their property from the local authority. Fascinating don’t you think?

Looking at the C1’s (C1’s being the Supervisory, clerical and junior managerial / administrative / professional occupations), of the already mentioned 12,005 tenants in the area, an impressive 3,988 of them are considered to be in the C1 category (or 33.22%). Again, when compared with the owner occupiers who own their property without a mortgage, that figure stands at 32.12%   and 14.40% who rent their property from the local authority.  So, if we use the conventional measurements recorded by the white-collar “ABC1” i.e. middle class ….

This means 59.48% of tenants are considered middle class in Royal Tunbridge Wells

I could go through all of the social categories through to ‘E’, but I humbly don’t want to bore you with too many numbers. The fact is that private tenants are moving up the social ladder and whilst back in the 1960’s and 70’s, the private rented sector in Royal Tunbridge Wells (and the rest of the UK) has customarily been viewed as a temporary tenure for 20 somethings before they bought a property, the increase in renting in Royal Tunbridge Wells, which I have talked about many times in the Royal Tunbridge Wells Property Market Blog may be a reflection of increasing difficulty for this group in accessing other tenures, but may also be a reflection that people nowadays choose to rent long term instead?

Royal Tunbridge Wells Landlords need to be aware that tenants now demand more from their properties, the agent and their landlord and whilst affordability for first-time buyers and tighter controls on lending may mean that potential first-time buyers are in the private rented sector for longer, they will still pay ‘top dollar’ rent for a ‘top dollar’ property.