Rents Paid By Tenants In Bingham On The Rise?

I was talking to a landlord from Cropwell Bishop the other day about what is happening to the level of rents that are being achieved in the Bingham property market.

In terms of Bingham, it appears that rents being achieved for re-lets (ie when the tenant moves out and new tenant moves in) have risen in the order of 3% in the last 12 months on top of the range modern properties, yet remained static for older Victorian terraced houses and converted apartments. 

However, landlords with existing sitting tenants, irrespective of age are not increasing their rents, as most landlords prefer to keep their existing tenant paying the same rent and have the peace of mind that their tenant remains, paying the rent (thus reducing the risk of a void period).

It must be remembered rents dropped by 7.7% over 2008/9, due to oversupply in the rental market in 2009.) A lot of the people who couldn’t sell their property in Bingham in 2008/9 when the Credit Crunch hit in 2008, decided to let their house out instead of selling at a loss. In fact, the number of houses on the market in Bingham dropped by 77.1% between March 2008 and April 2010, a lot of which came on to the rental market in Bingham. However, looking at the longer term though, tenants have had it good  because since the turn of the Millennium, average wages have grown by 46%, but rents outside London have only grown by 36% rental growth over this period.

I told the landlord that there is a lack of new rental properties in Bingham coming on the market, in fact according to the Office of National Statistics, there are only 24 new rental properties are coming to the market each year in Bingham but the population of Bingham is rising by 36 people a year – something will have to give soon! This is compounded by the fact a number of landlords are looking to sell their rental properties in the coming months, as the property market in Bingham has improved. This further compounded as tenants in existing rental properties appear to be staying in properties for longer periods of time.

Looking at the rents charged in Bingham, historic evidence in the UK suggests private market rents have moved in line with general inflation. Government figures only go back as far as the year 2000, but looking at other countries with similar housing markets (America, Australia, Ireland and Holland) the fact is rents paid by tenants tend to rise in line or just ahead of inflation.

As short term wage growth in Bingham has eased off recently, rising by only 1.3% in the last 12 months, taking average salaries in Bingham to £34,010pa, with the tax breaks announced by The Chancellor in the Budget, I believe, even though rents have kept pace with inflation in the past, renting as an option has become more affordable, and is increasingly seen as a lifestyle choice. With returning economic growth and expected increases in the rate of growth of wages, above inflation rental growth could rise.

If you want a chat about the local Bingham property market, pop in to my office in the Market Place, or email me at Katie.archer@belvoirlettings.com

Bingham Property Market – What is really happening?

I had an interesting conversation with a local Bingham accountant the other day. He is quite an observant chap (I know this because I have known him for a few years .. but I suppose you have to be to be an accountant!). Anyway, he mentioned a few things he had noticed recently in Bingham, one that Bingham property prices had gone up in the last few years but nowhere near the growth levels that were being achieved in central London, and secondly, that he thought the number of for sale boards in Bingham (and more importantly ones with sold slips on them)  had increased over the last couple of years.

The rate of house price inflation in Bingham continues to slow with growth of 4.1% in the 12 months to February compared to 5.6% just over six months ago, according to the latest Land Registry data. However, there is considerable local variation with house price growth ranging from 1.6% in Leicester  to 8.3% in Northamptonshire over the last 12 months.

Whilst Bingham hasn’t seen the 20%+ per year in house price growth of London over the last couple of years,  Bingham has seen  a sharp uplift in the number of properties sold throughout  2014 as base line demand for housing grows, which suggests there is substance to the recent pick-up in house price growth in the town. Since the Second World War in the UK, when the number of properties sold has grown, property values grew soon after. The 14.3% uplift in property transactions in Bingham in 2014, compared to 2013, indicates the most significant recovery in house market activity in Bingham (outside London) since 2007.

When you compare Bingham with London, you could be looking at two different countries. In London, its mid/late teens house price to earnings ratios are impacting demand (ie the average property value is often 15 or 17 times the average wage in London .. in fact in Knightsbridge the ratio can be 30 to 1).  However, the number of people wanting to sell has dropped considerably, meaning that falling sales volumes combined with a general slowdown in activity in the run up to the General Election are resulting in lower mortgage approvals for home purchase.

Transactions are a great indicator for house prices. The acceleration in house price growth in London in the last two years was preceded by three years of rising transactions. A similar pattern is being registered in the Bingham area, as pent up demand returns to the market supported by low mortgage rates and an improving economic outlook.

But before you get the Champagne out, while the uplift in activity is welcome news, the number of Bingham property sales in 2014 are still 22.5%  lower than the level seen in 2007 and property values are 9.5% below the 2007 levels. The ongoing housing recovery is far from broad based and remains focused on middle to higher value areas within Bingham where households have equity and find it easier to access mortgage finance.

If you want to know more about the Bingham Property Market, please give me a call on 01949 714101 or email me on Katie.archer@belvoirlettings.com

Great buy to let investment in Calverton

This 3 bed semi detached property is a great family home.  Nice sized rooms, lovely kitchen / diner and a pretty private garden make it a favourite with tenants.  Add to that a popular village location with good schools and only 8 miles from Nottingham and you are definitely on to a winner.

Being marketed with Gascoines at £128,000 it could see a return of up to 6%.

Snap up this great investment property today!

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34227135.html


              

“The way it works in Bingham is this, you have to rent where you want to live, or buy where you don’t want to live,”

I had this really interesting chat with some of my tenants the other day at an inspection. They are a lovely couple in their early thirties and I know they have decent jobs near Bingham. They have been tenants of ours for quite a while, so I know them quite well.  We got talking and I enquired if they ever thought of buying a property for themselves, to which they replied back with the title of this article. It made me think and so I did some more research into the subject which I want to share with you.

After the end of the Second World War, just over a quarter of the UK population owned their own home, the rest rented from private landlords or the local Council. If someone told you in the 1970’s and 1980’s that they rented, they were considered a second class citizen. Everyone wanted to own their own home .. it was the done thing.   We think that home ownership will inevitably happen, but it won't.

It all changed in the 1970’s, when two things happened. Firstly, the number of people who owned their own home broke through the 50% barrier in 1971 and by 1981 it was at 57%. Tied in with that, the average house prices in Bingham were doubling at one point every four years in the 1970’s so property and profit started to feed off each other.

To put that growth in context, if we were to look at the last 85 years in Bingham, in 1930, the average Bingham property was £453.  It took 16 years for Bingham property values to double, rising to £1,119 by 1946. Another 15 years and the average Bingham property doubled again to £2,125 in 1961. The next doubling only took 10 years, as by 1971 the average Bingham property had reached £4,320 in value.

It was (as mentioned above) the 1970’s when things really took off, as by 1975 (ie only four years) they had doubled to £9,041 and they doubled again to £18,098 by 1980. It took another eight years for values to double again, as an average Bingham property reached £37,855 in 1988. Twelve years had to pass until the doubled again in 2000 (£77,889) and just six years to double again by 2006, when they reached £157,092.  Where are we today? The average property value in Bingham currently stands at £213,500.

We could blame Margaret Thatcher for making home ownership the ultimate goal, but what we now need to consider is that the country is turning on its head and we need to, as a country,  love renting again. Some blame the banks, but obtaining a 95% mortgage is hard work, but nowhere near impossible. A typical Bingham first time buyer would only need to save £7,000 for a deposit and fees and they could buy a very decent property. For example, you could buy a property in Carnarvon Place in Bingham, and it would be cheaper each month in mortgage payments than renting.

People might say on the surveys they want to buy, when it comes down to it. If you have been living in a top of the range large property in Mallow Way  , but the bank will only lend you enough to buy a smaller property in Carnarvon Place, what would you do? Don’t get me wrong, Carnarvon Place has really pulled its socks up over the last ten years, but it isn’t Mallow Way, is it? Again, if you were a twenty something, what would you do? Look again at the title of the post ... “The way it works is, you have to rent where you want to live, or buy where you don’t want to live,”

With tenant demand only going in one direction, that is probably why more and more people are getting into buy to let in Bingham. With the new rules on pensions and the ability to use them to buy residential rental properties from April onwards, this could be the time for you to buy a rental property. You must take advice on your pension from a Independent Financial Advisor (there are plenty in Bingham) and you must take advice from people who know what to buy (and not to buy) in Bingham to ensure you get the best from your investment.

If you would like to chat about buy to let possibilities in / around Bingham, then please email me on katie.archer@belvoirlettings.com or call me on 01949 714101 for honest impartial advice.

Fab family home in Calverton

This 3 bed semi detached property in Calverton will really wow tenants.  A modern kitchen is just what tenants look for these days.  With a new bathroom and neutral decor throughout, it is a great investment property with no cosmetic work to be done.

For sale at £130,000 with Holden Copley, it should see a return of around 5.5%.

Check it out here:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50924972.html

2 Bed BTL Langdale Grove, Bingham

This 2 bedroom property, for sale with Hammond Property Services, has got buy to let written all over it!

With a ground floor extension and 2 similar sized bedrooms, it is perfect for tenants and would let very easily.

Click the link below to arrange a viewing:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50428589.html

      

Your Pension could now buy a Buy to Let property in Bingham

In a recent article, I mentioned that pension rules are changing this April. It certainly created a few emails, with people asking questions about it. Therefore, this week, I want to look a little deeper into the subject of your pension and the Bingham property market. 

George Osbourne, in last years’ Budget, announced pension reforms that come into effect this April, which will give people with pensions unprecedented access to their pension pot and the freedom to look for alternatives. In a nutshell, after the 6^th of April, anyone aged over 55 will be allowed to withdraw all or part of their pension pot and spend it as they wish. Until now, you were allowed to take out a quarter of it and were forced to buy an annuity policy with the rest.

However, my readers always know that I like to tell it ‘as it is’. There are always two sides to a story, good and bad. Let me tell you the bad news first. There are some hefty tax implications by taking money from your pension pot. As before, as per the old rules, the first 25% can still be withdrawn from the pension pot tax free but, here is the sting in the tail, if you take more than a quarter of your pot (25%), anything above that initial 25% level will be taxed as income. So if you took the whole lot out, the first 25% will be tax free but the remaining 75% will be taxed at your income tax rate of 20%, 40% (or even 45% if you earn over £150,000 a year) .

.. and now the good news!

Under the old scheme, if you bought an annuity, when you died your annuity normally died as well. You would have no asset to pass on to your family. Also, the returns from pensions are awful at the moment. The best rates according to Hargreaves and Lansdown (big wigs in the City) state if you were 55 years old, the best rate you would get on your annuity pension would be 4.4% fixed for life (so it would never go up) or 2.2% but the payment would go up with inflation.  The sort of rates (also known as yields in the property investing game) being achieved in Bingham are in the order of 3% to 6%.

The other aspect of property investment is how the fact property values have risen consistently over the last 50 years.  According to the Office of National Statistics, the life expectancy of a 65 year old male in Bingham is 19 years and 6 months (its only 18 years 8 months in Gedling). If we roll the clock back 19 years 6 months to September 1995, property values in Bingham have risen by 191.6% to today .. you wouldn’t have had that with your pension!   But this is the biggest win, even by taking a hit in income tax now,  by buying a property, you buy an asset that you can pass on to your family when you die.... (or the cats home if they aren’t nice to you!).

So where next? It totally depends which strategy you are going to look at, one strategy is to look to achieve relatively small rental returns (ie low yields) in an up market area which has decent capital growth or, alternatively, another strategy is to buy properties in not so good areas known to produce a high returns (ie high yields) but low capital growth (ie how much the value of the property goes up). Now, I am not financial advisor, so cannot offer financial advice on what the best thing for you with your pension is. 

However, I can share my knowledge and experience of the Bingham property market, what to buy, what not to buy and where to buy etc etc.  My thoughts on the Bingham Property market can always be found on the Bingham Property Blog  or please call me on 01949 714101 

Calverton Investment could give you a 6.3% return

This 2 bed apartment is up for sale with Frank Innes with a guide price starting at £100,000. This apartment would easily let for £525 pcm which if purchased for £100,000 the potential return would be 6.3%.

Its always worth looking into the management fees for an apartments as this will impact on the return - always do your research and seek honest professional advice.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-33508821.htm

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Are buy to let landlords in Bingham responsible for increasing house prices?

I was having an interesting chat the other day with a couple of solicitors at a Bingham business networking event, when the subject of a lack of property for first time buyers came into the conversation.  I followed the chat up with an email of my findings, findings that I would like to share with you today.

At the time of the last census in 2011, 3,401,675 properties in England were privately rented, of which it is estimated, over 1.25 million were owned by private landlords. The rapid growth of buy-to-let is hugely controversial, especially as only ten years before that, there were only 1,798,864 properties under private renting in England. Buy to let landlords have been held responsible for forcing up property prices and preventing our younger generations from being able to buy. There is also growing resentment toward the billions of pounds in tax relief (estimated to be nearly £10 billion) landlords claim on their mortgage interest -tax relief which is not available to homeowners.

They may be asset rich thanks to recently rising property values, but let us not make the landlords the bogeymen they could easily be. Despite all these benefits enjoyed by private landlords, let us not forget the good they have done, especially in Bingham.

Property values today in Bingham are still 9.5% below the 2007 property boom levels (2007 being the peak of last property boom before everything dropped in 2008/9), yet inflation has risen by 26% in the same time frame, so in real terms, properties today are 35.5% CHEAPER than they were in 2007. Just think how low they would be without landlords buying all those rental properties in the town. Interest rates are at an all time low and first time buyers only need to save a £7,300 deposit to secure a lovely 2 bed semi in the Wychwood Road area of Bingham with a 95% mortgage.

Forget what the papers say, first time buyers can borrow money relatively easily on a 95% mortgage and nine times out of ten, it’s cheaper to buy than rent. So why aren’t people buying?

The number of people choosing to rent, either for lifestyle or economic reasons, has grown over the last 15 years. I also believe they will continue to grow for some time to come (as does every report on the subject). In fact I would go as far to predict the number of rental properties in Bingham will have risen from the 414 properties recorded in 2011 to 625 by 2021. Sounds fanciful? Well in 2001, there were only 204 privately rented properties in Bingham.

It is a fact that we as a country are more and more turning into a European model when it comes to homeownership, where the norm is renting for the first ten years, as opposed to the norm from the 1960’s to 1990’s, where first time buyers were encouraged to buy as soon as they got a job.

Tenants will also feel the benefit from potential changes in the market. The likelihood of interest rate increases in late 2015, existing economic conditions, combined with the uncertainty of new Government manifestos following the General Election in May will result in low demand for people to buy yet also put a dampening effect on increases in rent. As long as landlords buy the right sort of property, that allows for a reasonable yield, decent capital growth, everyone will be a winner.

If you would like to chat about buy to let possibilities in / around Bingham, then please email me on katie.archer@belvoirlettings.com or call me on 01949 714101.