How Affordable is Property for Royal Tunbridge Wells’ Average Working Families?

The simple fact is we are not building enough properties. If the supply of new properties is limited and demand continues to soar with heightened divorce rates, i.e. one household becoming two, people living longer and continued immigration, this means the values of those existing properties continues to remain high and out of reach for a lot of people, especially the blue collar working families of Royal Tunbridge Wells.

Looking at some recent statistics released by the Government, the ratio of the lower quartile house prices to lower quartile gross annual salaries in Tunbridge Wells Borough Council has hit 13.21 to 1. 

What does that mean exactly and why does it matter to Royal Tunbridge Wells’ landlords and homeowners?

If we ordered every property in the Tunbridge Wells Borough Council area by the value of those properties, the average value of the lower quartile properties (i.e. lowest 25%) would be £265,500. If we then did the same, and ordered everyone’s salary in the same council area, the average of the lowest quartile (lowest 25%), the average salary of the lowest 25% is £20,097 pa, thus dividing one with the other, we get the ratio of 13.21 to 1.

Assuming there is one wage earner in the house, the chances of a Royal Tunbridge Wells working family being able to afford to buy their own home, when it’s over thirteen times their annual salary, is very slim indeed. The existing affordability crisis of people wanting to buy their own home is the unavoidable outcome of the decade on decade failure to build enough homes to keep up with demand. Nevertheless, improving affordability is not a case of just constructing more homes. Tunbridge Wells Borough Council needs to ensure more properties are not only built, but built in the right locations and of the right type and at the right price to ensure the needs of these lower income working families are met, because at the moment, they presently have few options apart from the private rental sector.

Looking at the historic nature of the ratio, it can clearly be seen in the graph below that this has been an issue since the early to mid 2000’s.

However, if one looks at the historic data, those on the bottom rung of the ladder (those in the lower quartile of wage earners) used to be housed by the local authority instead of buying. However, the vast majority of council houses were sold off in the 1980’s, meaning there are much fewer council houses today to house this generation.

Many of the lower quartile working class families were given a lifeline to buy their own homes in middle 2000’s, with 100% mortgages, but the with the credit crunch in 2009, that rug (of 100% mortgages) was rudely pulled from under their feet. You see it is cheaper to buy than rent ... it’s the finding of the 5% deposit that is the challenging issue for these Royal Tunbridge Wells working class families. 

So unless the Government allow 100% mortgages back, the fact is, demand for rental properties will outstrip supply.

In the long term, to alleviate that, I would suggest the Royal Tunbridge Wells community hold their local politicians at Tunbridge Wells Borough Council to account for the actions they could take to ensure the affordability of housing and the extent to which they work with private developers and housing associations and aggressively use the planning tools at their disposal to safeguard the local community getting the new households we need. Tunbridge Wells Borough Council could make certain parcels of residential building land for private rented development only, eliminating the opportunity of the land being bought to develop large executive homes, which do not solve the current problem. 

Yet in the short term, all this means is demand for rental properties will continue to grow, keeping Royal Tunbridge Wells house prices high and Royal Tunbridge Wells rents high.

858 Royal Tunbridge Wells Landlords Plan to Expand Their Buy To Let Portfolios

A noteworthy number of buy to let landlords in Britain plan to buy more properties over the next year notwithstanding the frustrations, challenges and seismic changes in the private rented sector. According to Aldermore, the specialist Buy To Let lender, their research shows around 41% of portfolio buy to let landlord’s objective is to grow their buy to let portfolio (Portfolio landlords are landlords that own more than one property). 

So, I thought, “Are Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords feeling the same?” If so, if these numbers were applied to the Royal Tunbridge Wells private rental market, what sort effect would it have on the Royal Tunbridge Wells property market as whole?

Talking to the landlords I deal with, most are feeling quite optimistic about the future of the Royal Tunbridge Wells rental market and the prospect it presents notwithstanding the doom and gloom prophecies that the property market will shrink. Many of those landlords who are looking to enlarge their portfolio are doing so because they still see the Royal Tunbridge Wells rental market as a decent investment opportunity. 

With top of the range Bank and Building Society Savings Accounts only reaching 1.5% a year, the rollercoaster ride of Crypto currency and the yo-yoing of the Stock Market, the simple fact is, with rental yields in Royal Tunbridge Wells far outstripping current savings rates, the short term prospect of a minor drop in property prices isn’t putting off Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords.

The art to buying a Royal Tunbridge Wells buy to let investment is to buy the profit on the purchase price, not the anticipation of the future sale price.

No matter what the historical economy has thrown at us, with the global meltdown in 2008/9, dotcom crash of 2000, ERM in 1992, the three day week, oil crisis and hyperinflation in the 1970’s (the list goes on) ... the housing market has always bounced back stronger in the long term. That’s the point ... long term. Investing in buy to let is a long-term strategy. The simple fact is, over the long term with the increasing demand for rental properties, predominantly among Millennials as many cannot afford to get on the property ladder, and with councils not building enough properties of any kind, many youngsters are having to resort the private rental market for their accommodation needs.

So, what of the numbers involved in Royal Tunbridge Wells?

There are 961 landlords that own just one buy to let (BTL) property in Royal Tunbridge Wells and 2,093 Royal Tunbridge Wells’ landlords, who are portfolio landlords. Between those 2,093 Royal Tunbridge Wells portfolio BTL landlords, they own a total of 4,393 Royal Tunbridge Wells BTL properties and they can be split down into the size of landlord portfolio in the graph below….

If I apply the Aldermore figures that means 858 Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords have plans to expand their BTL portfolio in the coming year or so.

However, the Aldermore Research also showed that 8% of private landlords intended to reduce the number of properties they own. They put this down to continuing Government intervention in the housing market (as many landlords mentioned too many limitations and higher taxation) while some believed that tenants are excessively protected to the disadvantage of the landlord.

I would say there is no repudiating that the buy to let market has taken a bit of a beating, thanks to a plethora of Government regulation, new mortgage underwriting rules in 2014 and George Osborne’s tax changes. Yet there still remains an overall consciousness of optimism among the vast majority of Royal Tunbridge Wells’ buy to let landlords. Despite these latest changes, many landlords still view buy to let as a good investment, as long as you buy right and expand your portfolio taking into account the second rule of buy to let … assess your position on the ‘buy to let seesaw’ of capital growth and yield.

If you want to buy right and assess your own portfolio on the yield/capital growth seesaw ... drop me a note. I don’t bite and the opinion I give, whether you are landlord of mine or not as the case may be, is given freely, without obligation or cost. The choice is yours. Thank you for reading this article. To read others, please visit my Royal Tunbridge Wells Property Blog.

Extra Funding Is Required for Affordable Homes in Royal Tunbridge Wells

In my blog about the Royal Tunbridge Wells Property Market I mostly only talk about two of the three main sectors of the local property market, the ‘private rented sector’ and the ‘owner-occupier sector’. However, as I often stress when talking to my clients, one cannot forget the third sector, that being the ‘social housing sector’ (or council housing as some people call it). 

In previous articles, I have spoken at length about the crisis in supply of property in Royal Tunbridge Wells (i.e. not enough property is being built), but in this article I want to talk about the other crisis – that of affordability. It is not just about the pure number of houses being built but also the equilibrium of tenure (ownership vs rented) and therein, the affordability of housing, which needs to be considered carefully for an efficient and effectual housing market.

An efficient and effectual housing market is in everyone’s interests, including Royal Tunbridge Wells homeowners and Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords, so let me explain ..

An average of only 110 Affordable Homes per year have been built by Tunbridge Wells Borough Council in the last 9 years

The requirement for the provision of subsidised housing has been recognised since Victorian times. Even though private rents have not kept up with inflation since 2005 (meaning tenants are better off) it’s still a fact there are substantial numbers of low-income households in Royal Tunbridge Wells devoid of the money to allow them a decent standard of housing.

Usually, property in the social housing sector has had rents set at around half the going market rate and affordable shared home ownership has been the main source of new affordable housing yet, irrespective of the tenure, the local authority is simply not coming up with the numbers required. If the local authority isn’t building or finding these affordable homes, these Royal Tunbridge Wells tenants still need housing, and some tenants at the lower end of the market are falling foul of rogue landlords. Not good news for tenants and the vast majority of law abiding and decent Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords who are tarnished by the actions of those few rogue landlords, especially as I believe everyone has the right to a safe and decent home.

Be it Tory’s, Labour, SNP, Lib Dems, Greens etc, everyone needs to put party politics aside and start building enough homes and ensure that housing is affordable. Even though 2017 was one of the best years for new home building in the last decade (217,000 home built in 2017) overall new home building has been in decline for many years from the heady days of the early 1970s, when an average of 350,000 new homes were being built a year.  As you can see from the graph, we simply aren’t building enough ‘affordable’ homes in the area.

The blame cannot all be placed at the feet of the local authority as Council budgets nationally, according to Full-Fact, are 26% lower than they have been since 2010.  

So, what does this mean for Royal Tunbridge Wells homeowners? Well, an undersupply of affordable homes will artificially keep rents and property prices high. That might sound good in the short term, but a large proportion of my Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords find their children are also priced out of the housing market. Also, whilst your Royal Tunbridge Wells home might be slightly higher in value, due to this lack of supply of homes at the bottom end of the market, as most people move up the market when they do move, the one you want to buy will be priced even higher.

Problems at the lower end of the property market will affect the middle and upper parts. There is no getting away from the fact that the Royal Tunbridge Wells housing market is all interlinked .. it’s not called the Property ‘Ladder’ for nothing!

Royal Tunbridge WellsProperty Market – Asking Prices Down 1.1% in the Last 12 Months

The average asking price of property in Royal Tunbridge Wells dropped by 1.1% or £6,141 compared to a year ago, taking the current average asking price to £535,131 compared with £541,272 this time last year.

The overall drop in asking prices is being put down to sellers being more realistic with their pricing and looking to benefit from the impending mortgage interest rate rises later in 2018. This is great news for first, second and third time buyers in Royal Tunbridge Wells starting their property hunting in the usually active spring market this year facing the opportunity of paying less for the property of their dreams. Even better news is that whilst first time buyers also have to pay less for their property, they also have the bonus of the Chancellor stopping Stamp Duty being paid by first time buyers!

Looking at the different sectors of the Royal Tunbridge Wells property market, splitting it down into property types, one can see what is happening to each sector of the market with regard to their average asking prices now compared to a year ago. Firstly, looking at the Pound note amounts… 

Interestingly, when one looks at the percentages, the biggest drop in average asking price pressure is in the apartments property type sector. 

Now, I must stress this overall drop in the asking prices of Royal Tunbridge Wells property doesn’t necessarily mean the value of Royal Tunbridge Wells’ property is going down by the same amount. 

Only time will tell if the current levels of Royal Tunbridge Wells asking prices is a correction of optimistic house sellers after a couple of months of enthusiastic asking price rises in the lead up to Christmas, or is it an initial sign that property values are slipping. To judge what is really happening to the Royal Tunbridge Wells property market, I believe these asking prices must be viewed in conjunction with both the values achieved and the length of time it takes to sell the property. 

Also, these figures are averages, so it might also mean less expensive types of Royal Tunbridge Wells apartments are on the market now, this dragging the average down, compared to a year ago.

One thought I would like to share with the Royal Tunbridge Wells homeowners and landlords wanting to sell their property, is the fact they need to be aware of the competition of other people selling their homes. One factor that could be contributing to a subdued demand for local property is the progressively strained buyer mortgage affordability (i.e. banks telling people they can only afford so much on a mortgage), meaning more and more buyers are hitting their maximum on the amount they are able to borrow on a mortgage sooner than they thought. 

So, what does this all mean, especially for buy to let landlords in Royal Tunbridge Wells? During these months of flux, there could be some property bargains to be had. Lower asking prices mean you are buying in better yields and potential capital growth at the same time. Many Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords pick the phone up or email me with Rightmove links, asking my opinion on the BTL potential of property. I don’t charge for that service, so if you don’t want to miss out on such opinion, follow what they do and make contact ... I don’t bite!

Royal Tunbridge Wells Millennials Have Spent £155,978 On Rent By The Age of 35

The Millennials were born between the mid 1980’s and late 1990’s thus making them between the age of around 22 to late 30’s. They are the imaginative, artistic youngsters who grew up with the newest tech and computers and who are huge aficionados of music festivals, gourmet pizzas, emoji’s, selfies and old school nostalgia. Also known as Generation Rent, many Millennials have discovered that renting is a good choice for their shelter and accommodation needs without the hassle that comes from buying a home. Nonetheless, that is not the only reason they don’t buy property. When they should be concentrating on their profession, putting down roots and starting a family, Millennials are still going through the pressure and strain of student loan liabilities whilst, at the same time, finding it tough to pay rent.

The hot topic at the moment is the cost of renting, as both political parties have seen mileage in wooing these Millennial Generation Renters. The average rent in Royal Tunbridge Wells is currently £1,092 per month making this a big-ticket item on the monthly budget. I was inquisitive to find out exactly how much Royal Tunbridge Wells Millennials will spend on rent by the time they reach their mid 30’s. The average age people leave home in the UK is 22; so looking at a Royal Tunbridge Wells 22-year-old (or Millennial) who left home in 2005 then between 2005 and today that Royal Tunbridge Wells Millennial will have shelled out £155,978 in rent.

It’s no wonder local Millennials can’t afford to buy a Royal Tunbridge Wells home given their tremendous debt. This means younger Royal Tunbridge Wells Millennials will probably carry on renting for the foreseeable future, simply because the prospect of buying a home is not yet achievable.. that is until you look more deeply at the numbers…

Looking at the chart above, the average rent of a Royal Tunbridge Wells property in 2005 was £898 per month (pm)  … if it had risen by inflation, today, that would be £1,265 pm. As I have already mentioned in the article, today it only stands at £1,092 per month. Looking over the last 12 years, adding up all the differences between what the average actual rent was compared to what it should have been if rent had gone up by inflation, the average Royal Tunbridge Wells Millennial tenant would have paid £169,851.

This means that an average 35-year-old Royal Tunbridge Wells Millennial tenant, who has been renting since 2005, is better off by £13,873 when comparing the actual rent paid compared to what it would have been if it had risen by inflation. In a nutshell, tenants have done well due to the sub-inflation growth in rents. 

In fact, if you recall I mentioned in an article a few weeks ago, the older Royal Tunbridge Wells Millennials are starting to use those savings and are gradually shifting towards home ownership. They are finally catching up with the British homeownership dream as Bank of Mum and Dad help with the deposit. Also, the scrapping of Stamp Duty from the Government starts to kick in together with the realisation that if the 5% mortgage deposit can be scrapped together (yes, 95% first time buyer mortgages have been available since 2009), it is still a lot cheaper to buy than rent, meaning this will unquestionably drive demand for Royal Tunbridge Wells homes for sale – good news for Royal Tunbridge Wells homeowners.

… and what does this mean for Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords? 

Well the vast majority of younger Millennials are still renters and I foresee this to be the case for at least the next ten to fifteen years.Landlords will need to keep improving their properties to ensure they get the best tenants and they will see a much higher rent achieved. Millennials will pay top dollar for a top dollar property. It is important to do things correctly as making money won’t be as easy as it has been over the last twenty years.  

With a greater number of properties on the market .. comes greater choice. Don’t buy the first thing you see, buy with your head as well as your heart … because as I promised a few weeks ago, the first rule of Buy To Let Investment …..“You are not going to live in the property yourself”

Royal Tunbridge Wells Property Market – Which Houses are Actually Selling?

Beast from the East, Russia, Facebook, Brexit, Trump, House prices up, House prices down ... the Press is full of column inches on Brit’s favourite subjects of politics, scandal, weather and not forgetting (and I appreciate the irony of this!) the property market. As an agent belonging a national group of letting and estate agents, talking to my fellow property professionals from around the UK, the one thing that is immediately apparent is the UK does not have one property market. It is a hodgepodge patchwork (almost like a fly’s eye) of lots of small property markets all performing in different ways.  

… And that made me think … is there just one Royal Tunbridge Wells Property Market or many?

I like to keep an eye on the property market in Royal Tunbridge Wells on a daily basis because it enables me to give the best advice and opinion on what (or not) to buy in Royal Tunbridge Wells, be that a buy-to-let property for a Royal Tunbridge Wells landlord or an owner occupier house for a home owner.  So, I thought, how could I scientifically split the Royal Tunbridge Wells housing market into segments, so I could see which part of the market was performing the best and the worst. 

I decided the best way was to split the Royal Tunbridge Wells property market into four equal size price bands (into terms of households for sale). Each price band would have around 25% of the property in Royal Tunbridge Wells, from the lowest in value (the Lowest Quartile or 25%) all the way through to the highest 25% in terms of value, the Upper Quartile.  Looking at the market, I have calculated that these are the price bands in Royal Tunbridge Wells are as follows:

·      Lowest Quartile (lowest 25% in terms of value) … Up to £280,000

·      Lower/Middle Quartile (25% to 50% Quartile in terms of value)...  £280,000 to £400,000

·      Middle/Upper Quartile (50% to 75% Quartile in terms of value)... £400,000 to £650,000

·      Upper Quartile (highest 25% in terms of value) ... £650,000 Upwards

So, having split the Royal Tunbridge Wells Property Market approximately into four equal sizes, the results in terms what price band has sold (subject to contract or stc) the most is quite enlightening -

The results are close, but the best performing price range in Royal Tunbridge Wells is the middle market. As I would expect, the upper quartile (the top 25%) is finding things toughest. Interestingly for Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords, the lower market is also selling well, meaning there are plenty of Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords buying properties to add to their buy to let portfolios. Even though the number of first time buyers did increase in 2017, it was from a low base and the vast majority of 20 something’s cannot buy, so need a roof over their head (hence the need to rent somewhere). 

It is a fact that British (and Royal Tunbridge Wells’s) housing markets have ridden the storms of Oil crisis in the 1970’s, the 1980’s depression, Black Monday in the 1990’s, and latterly the Credit Crunch together with the various house price crashes of 1973, 1987 and 2008. No matter what happens to us Brexit or anything else ... unless the Government starts to build hundreds of thousands extra houses each year, demand will always outstrip supply … so maybe a time for Royal Tunbridge Wells landlord investors to bag a bargain? 

Want to know where those Royal Tunbridge Wells buy to let bargains are?  Follow my Royal Tunbridge Wells Property Blog or drop me an email because irrespective of which agent you use, myself or any of the other excellent agents in Royal Tunbridge Wells, many local landlords ask me my thoughts, opinion and advice on what (and not) to buy locally … and I wouldn’t want you to miss out on those thoughts ... would you?

37% More Royal Tunbridge Wells Home Owners Wanting to Move Than 12 Months Ago

As I have mentioned a number times in my local property market blog, with not enough new-build properties being built in Royal Tunbridge Wells and the surrounding area to keep up with demand for homes to live in (be that tenants or homebuyers), it’s good to know more Royal Tunbridge Wells home sellers are putting their properties on to the market than a year ago. 

At the start of 2007 there were 873 properties for sale in Royal Tunbridge Wells but by July 2008, when the credit crunch was really beginning to bite, that number had risen to 1,273 properties on the market at a time when demand was at an all-time low, thus creating an imbalance in the local property market. 

Basic economics dictates that if there is too much supply of something and demand is poor (which it was in the Credit Crunch years of 2008/9) … prices will drop. In fact, house prices dropped between 15% and 20% depending on the type of Royal Tunbridge Wells property between the end of 2007 and Spring 2009.

However, over the last five years, we have seen a steady decrease in supply of properties coming onto the market for sale and steady demand, meaning Royal Tunbridge Wells property prices have remained robust.  A stable housing market is one of the foundations of a successful British economy, as it’s all about getting the healthy balance of buyer demand with a good supply of properties. Nevertheless, if you had asked me a couple of years ago, I would have said we were beginning to see there was in fact NOT enough properties coming on to the market for sale … meaning in certain sectors of the Royal Tunbridge Wells property market, house prices were overheating because of this lack of supply. 

So, it is pleasing to note, looking at the recent numbers …

There are 37% more properties for sale in Royal Tunbridge Wells today than a year ago

There were 473 properties for sale 12 months ago, and today that stands at 648. Definitely a step in the right direction to a more stable property market.

Even better news, since the Chancellor announced the stamp duty rule changes for first time buyers (FTB), my fellow agents in Royal Tunbridge Wells say that the number of FTB’s registering on the majority of agent’s books has increased year on year. That has still to follow through into more FTB’s buying their first home, however, with the heightened levels of confidence being demonstrated by both Royal Tunbridge Wells house sellers and potential house buyers, I do foresee the Royal Tunbridge Wells Property Market will show steady yet sustained improvement during the first half of 2018.

What does this mean for Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords or those considering dipping their toe into the buy to let market for the first time? Landlords will need to keep improving their properties to ensure they get the best tenants. It is true that demand amongst FTB’s is increasing, albeit from a low base. Even with the new landlord tax rules, buy to let in Royal Tunbridge Wells still looks a good investment, providing Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords with a good income at a time of low interest rates and a roller coaster stock market. 

If you are thinking of investing in bricks and mortar in Royal Tunbridge Wells, it is important to do things correctly as making money won’t be as easy as it has been over the last twenty years.  With a greater number of properties on the market .. comes greater choice. Don’t buy the first thing you see, buy with your head as well as your heart … and don’t forget the first rule of Buy To Let Investment …..

I will tell you that 1^strule in a couple of weeks!

Royal Tunbridge Wells Property Market Worth More Than Sage Software

The value of all the homes in Royal Tunbridge Wells has risen by more than 270% in the past two decades, to £7.753bn, meaning its worth more than the stock listed software company Sage Group, which is worth £7.481bn.

Those Royal Tunbridge Wells homeowners and Buy-to-Let landlords who bought their homes twenty or more years ago have come out on top, adding thousands and thousands of pounds to the value of their own Royal Tunbridge Wells homes as the younger generation in Royal Tunbridge Wells continue to be priced out of the market.  This is even more remarkable because, in those twenty years, we had the years of 2008 and 2009 following the global financial crisis, where we saw a short term drop in house prices in Royal Tunbridge Wells of between 15% and 20% (depending on the type of property). And although there have been a number of consecutive years of growth in property values recently in Royal Tunbridge Wells it hasn’t been anywhere near the levels seen in the early 2000’s.

Twenty years ago, the total value of Royal Tunbridge Wells’ property was worth £2.091bn. 

Over those twenty years, total property values have increased by £5.662bn, meaning today, the total value of all the properties in Royal Tunbridge Wells is worth £7.753bn. Even more remarkable, when you consider the FTSE100 has only risen by 40.84% in the same time frame. Also, when I compared it with inflation, i.e. the UK Retail Price Index, inflation had risen by 72.2% during the same twenty years.

So, what does this all mean for Royal Tunbridge Wells?  Well as we enter the unchartered waters of 2018 and beyond, even though property values are already declining in certain parts of the previously over cooked central London property market, the outlook in Royal Tunbridge Wells remains relatively good as over the last five years, the local property market has been a lot more sensible than central London’s. 

House values in Royal Tunbridge Wells will remain resilient for several reasons. Firstly, demand for rental property remains strong with persistent immigration and population growth.  Secondly, with 0.25% interest rates, borrowing has never been so cheap and finally, the simple lack of new house building in Royal Tunbridge Wells. Not even keeping up with current demand, let alone eating into years and years of under investment mean only one thing – yes it might be a bumpy ride over the next 12 to 24 months but, in the medium term, property ownership and property investment in Royal Tunbridge Wells has and always will, out ride out the storm.

In the coming weeks, I will look in greater detail at my thoughts for the 2018 Royal Tunbridge Wells Property Market. As always, all my articles can be found at the Royal Tunbridge Wells Property Market Blog 

£1,161 pcm – The Average Royal Tunbridge Wells Rent

The rents paid by Royal Tunbridge Wells tenants are now standing at £1,161 per calendar month (PCM), a rise of 0.42% year on year and 0.5% higher month on month.

However, this attention-grabbing monthly rent figure masks stark differences in the various different parts of the Royal Tunbridge Wells rental market. Demand in Royal Tunbridge Wells for high quality family homes with two or three bedrooms in good catchment areas for schools remains really robust due to tenants wanting access to the schools.  Other influencing factors that make certain areas popular are the proximity to transport links. However, I have noticed a drop in demand (and thus rents achieved) for property where the landlord hasn’t kept the property fresh; in terms of decoration, carpets, replacement windows and poor heating. 

So, what does all this mean for Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords and tenants?

With the new tax rules for landlords, many believed that the number of rental properties would narrow throughout 2017, as landlords sold up their Buy to let properties and looked to invest their money elsewhere, but evidently this hasn’t happened (yet).  Feasibly Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords are re-mortgaging their Royal Tunbridge Wells buy to let properties instead, as they still believe it’s a safer investment than looking, say at the stock market?

However, demand remained strong in 2017 for Royal Tunbridge Wells private rental properties, meaning the rents being achieved were at a decent level for landlords. Keeping your outgoings low is also an important consideration and so I looked on a well-known financial services comparison site this morning and found a High Street bank offering a 5-year fixed rate for Buy to let landlords with a 40% deposit/equity for 2.17% … I can remember (as I am sure many of my readers of this blog can) when mortgage rates were at 15% - this is cheap money!

Looking at property values in Royal Tunbridge Wells, over the last 12 months and specifically at the lower of the market where buy to let landlords tend to buy their rental properties.  Flats/apartments have risen in value by 0.69% whilst terraced properties have risen by 0.35%.

Some Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords have seen the yields they are achieving remain squeezed. 

However, most landlords can start to feel assured that as capital growth in Royal Tunbridge Wells remains at a more realistic figure (good for long term stability in the property market) and long-term rents are on the rise, the overall corresponding annual return on investment (Annual ROI being annual capital + annual yield) has stabilised in all areas and is now starting to grow. 

With additional people seeing renting as a long-term option, even with the challenges of the new tax regime, Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords, with the support of a good advice and opinion, should continue to see renting as a good investment vehicle.

Royal Tunbridge Wells Council Tax Payers Stung by 58.7% above Inflation Rise

Buying and selling a home in Royal Tunbridge Wells isn’t the easiest or cheapest thing you will ever do. Estate Agent fees, Solicitors fees, Survey fees, Mortgage fees, Removal Van … the costs just mount up throughout every step of the move. Last week, a Royal Tunbridge Wells landlord asked me whether the Council Tax Band made a difference to a property’s appeal, be it tenanted or to owner occupiers, when it comes to being sold on the open market and whether extensions or improvements made a difference to the tax banding?

Well, like I said, the first point you should always be aware of is what Council Tax Band your new house or apartment will fall under. Being aware of this before you buy/move will help when planning month by month for life in your home (or investment). But what exactly are Council Tax Bands, and how do they affect landlords/tenants/homebuyers?

How much Council Tax you pay depends on two variables. The first is which Council Tax Band your property is in. A property is placed into a specific band depending upon what the value of the property was in April 1991– the date when the tax band system was applied. In a nutshell, what your property is worth today has no relevance whatsoever to your banding.

Council Tax Bands have a letter of the alphabet and range from bands A-H.

The Council Tax Band values are:

Band A – up to £40,000

Band B – £40,001 to £52,000

Band C – £52,001 to £68,000

Band D – £68,001 to  £88,000

Band E – £88,001 to £120,000

Band F – £120,001 to £160,000

Band G – £160,001 to £320,000

Band H – more than £320,000

So, for example, if a property sold for £110,000 in April 1991 but is now worth £350,000 it will remain in Band E – NOTBand H), as this was the value when the bands were set in 1991. For new homes, the same thing applies: they are valued based on the 1991 market value. This safeguards that all homes and all buyers are treated equally and consistently. The second factor that determines how much Council Tax you pay is what each individual local authority decides each band will pay in Council Tax. (So for example, a householder/tenant in Leeds in a Band E property will pay a different amount in Council Tax each year to someone in Swindon or North London in Band E).

Interestingly, the average current level of Council tax paid by Royal Tunbridge Wells people stands at £1,509 per annum, up from £500 in 1993 (although if it had risen by inflation in those 25 years .. today that should only be £951) … meaning Council Tax has outstripped inflation by 58.70%. So unless the local authority changes its majority political party, the only way you can change the amount you pay in Council Tax is your banding i.e. you physically move to a higher or lower band. 

Contrary to what most people think, extensions and improvements do not change the Council Tax Band and existing householders/tenants only have to pay the same Council Tax as they would have without any extensions and improvements. However, the Valuation Office (The Government’s Property Valuers) do reserve the right to re-value the extended property if the property gets sold.  If you are a potential buyer, you should be aware of this review as it could change the amount of Council Tax you pay after the purchase. If a higher band is necessary, the new band will be based on what the extendedproperty would have been expected to sell for in 1991. However, this does not necessarily mean that the banding will jump one band, as this is contingent on the extent of the changes and whether the property falls towards the top or bottom of its existing band. More often than not – it isn’t an issue and the banding stays the same.

In terms of which band the property is in, this can be challenged. In my experience in the Royal Tunbridge Wells property market the only issue is one where there is an anomaly with the banding, when one property is in a different band to all the others in the street. This is much rarer than it used to be, as most such anomalies have been found and rectified. Anyone can check the banding of any property by going to Google and typing in “Check My Council Tax Banding”. I do need to mention a thoughtful warning though. Challenging your Council Tax Band is not something to do on a whim for one simple fact - you cannot request your band to be lowered, only 'reassessed', which means your band could be moved up as well as down. I have even heard of neighbouring properties band’s being increased by someone appealing, although this is the exception. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to drop me a line.

Homeownership Amongst Royal Tunbridge Wells’ Young Adults Slumps to 46.42%

The degree to which young Royal Tunbridge Wells’ people are locked out of the Royal Tunbridge Wells housing market has been revealed in new statistics. 

A Royal Tunbridge Wells landlord was asking me the other week to what effect homeownership rates in Royal Tunbridge Wells in the early to middle aged adult age range had affected the demand for rental property in Royal Tunbridge Wells since the Millennium. I knew anecdotally that it affected the Royal Tunbridge Wells rental market, but I wanted some cold hard numbers to back it up. As you know, I like a challenge when it comes to the stats.. so this is what I found out for the landlord, and I’d like to share them with you as well.

As anyone in Royal Tunbridge Wells, and most would say those born more recently, are drastically less likely to own their own home at a given age than those born a decade earlier, let’s roll the clock back to the Millennium and compare the figures from then to today. 

In the year 2000, 47% of Royal Tunbridge Wells 28-year olds (born in 1972) owned their own home, whilst a 28 year old today born in 1990) would have a 25.1% chance of owning their own home. Next, let’s look at someone born ten years before that. So, going back to the Millennium, a 38 year Royal Tunbridge Wells person (therefore born in 1962) would have a 69.4% chance of owning his or her own home and a 38 year today in Royal Tunbridge Wells (born in 1980) would only have a 54.0% chance of owning their own home. 

Since the Millennium, overall general homeownership in the 25 to 44 year old age range in Royal Tunbridge Wells has reduced from 64.19% to 46.42%

If you look at the graph below, split into the four age ranges of 25 year olds (yo) to 29yo, 30yo to 34yo, 35yo to 39yo and finally 40yo to 44 yo, you will quite clearly see the changes since the Millennium in Royal Tunbridge Wells. The fact is the figures in Royal Tunbridge Wells show the homeownership rate has proportionally fallen the most for the youngest (25yo to 29yo) age range compared to the other age ranges.

The landlord suggested this deterioration in homeownership in Royal Tunbridge Wells across the age groups could be down to the fact that more of those born in the 1980’s and 1990’s (over those born in the 60’s and 70’) are going to University and hence entering the job market at an older age or those young adults are living with their parents longer.

I read some national homeownership statistics of different age groups with the same number of years after they left education (rather than at the same age) and that gave an identical dip to the graph above.  Neither are these drops in homeownership related with a significant increase in the number of young adults living with their parents. Again, nationally, that has hardly changed over the last 20 years as the percentage of 30-year-olds living with Mum and Dad only increased from 22% of those born in the early ‘70s to 23% of those born in the early ‘80s. 

So, what does this mean for the rental market in Royal Tunbridge Wells?

Only one thing .. with the local authority not building Council houses, Housing Associations strapped for cash to build new properties and the younger generation not buying, there is only one way these youngsters can obtain a roof over their head and have a home of their own .. through the private landlord sector. Now with the new tax rules and up and coming licensing rules, Royal Tunbridge Wells landlords will have to work smarter to ensure they make the investment returns they have in the past. If you ever want to pick my brains on the future direction of the Royal Tunbridge Wells rental market .. drop me line or pop in next time you are passing my office.

324 First Timer Buyers in Royal Tunbridge Wells Bought Their First Home in 2017

A little bit of good news this week on the Royal Tunbridge Wells Property Market as recently released data shows that the number of first time buyers taking out their first mortgage in 2017 increased more than in any other year since the global financial crisis in 2009. The data shows there were 324 first time buyers in Royal Tunbridge Wells, the largest number since 2006.

I expect in 2018 that this increase of first time buyers will level out and maybe dip slightly as, nationally, figures demonstrate that first time buyer’s average household income was £40,691 and this represented 17.3% of their take home pay. Although, it might surprise readers that it is actually cheaper to buy than it is to rent at the ‘starter home’ end of the housing market. Many of you can remember mortgage rates at 12% ... even 15%. Today, at the time of writing this article, I found on the open market, 189 first time buyer mortgages at 95% (meaning only a 5% deposit was required) with 3 year fixed rates from a reputable High Street bank at 2.49% ... they even did a 3 year fixed rate 100% mortgage for 2.89%!

Interestingly, looking at the other end of the market, the buy-to-let investment in Royal Tunbridge Wells was subdued, with only 66 buy-to-let properties being purchased with a mortgage. However, I must stress, whilst there is no hard and fast data on the total numbers of landlords buying buy-to-let, as HM Treasury believes only 30% to 40% of buy-to-let property is bought with a mortgage. This means there would have been further cash only buy-to-let purchases in Royal Tunbridge Wells – it’s just that the data isn’t available at such a granular level.

In terms of the level of mortgage debt in Royal Tunbridge Wells, looking specifically at the TN1 to TN4 postcodes, you can see there has been a steady rise in borrowing over the last few years.

This is pleasing to see, as new mortgage debt is created by first time buyers, buy-to-let landlords and home movers themselves, that is being roughly equalled by the amount being paid off with mature mortgaged homeowners in their 50’s and 60’s finally paying off their mortgage.

So, what does all this mean for the Royal Tunbridge Wells Property Market?  Well, the stats paint a picture, but they don’t inform us of the whole story. The upper end of the Royal Tunbridge Wells property market has been weighed down by the indecision around the Brexit negotiations and rise in stamp duty in 2014, when made it considerably more expensive to buy a home costing more than £1m. The middle part of the Royal Tunbridge Wells property market has been affected by issues of mortgage affordability and lack of good properties to buy, as selling prices have reached the limit of what buyers can afford under existing mortgage regulations. The lower to middle Royal Tunbridge Wells property market was hit by tax changes for buy-to-let landlords, although this has been offset by the increase in first time buyers.

If you are in the market and selling now and want to ensure you get your Royal Tunbridge Wells property sold, the bottom line is you have to be 100% realistic with your pricing from day one and you might not get as much as you did say a year ago (but the one you want to buy will be less – swings and roundabouts?). I know it’s not comfortable hearing that your Royal Tunbridge Wells home isn’t worth as much as you thought, but Royal Tunbridge Wells buyers are now unbelievably discerning. 

So, if you are thinking of selling your Royal Tunbridge Wells property in the coming months, don’t ask the agent out a few days before you want to put the property on the market, get them out now and ask them what you need to do to ensure you get maximum value in the shortest possible time. I, like most Royal Tunbridge Wells agents, will freely give that advice to you at no cost or commitment to you.