Bingham Landlords Count the Cost of a Conservative Election Win

Can you remember 10.05pm on Thursday, 7^th May 2015 ... with the shock news that BBC Exit Polls suggested the Conservatives would be returned with majority? The middle classes in Aslockton and Scarrington exhaled a huge sigh of relief, as Bingham landlords, faced with rent controls from the Labour Party, now had something to cheer about.  The Conservatives were always considered to be a political party that accepted the importance of the rental market, supported its development while properly targeting the lawbreaker landlords renting out below standard rental accommodation.

Since May though, George Osborne announced future rises in stamp duty for buy to let landlords and a change in the interest relief on buy to let mortgages, some people have started to question that loyalty. 

The loss of higher rate tax relief on mortgages will mean that a number of properties do not stack up financially. The new rules are likely to slow demand in the Bingham housing market, which is in fact good news for the other landlords, as there is less competition from 'amateur' landlords offering too much.

Just a thought, but making Bingham landlords think twice and run their numbers more cautiously is not such a bad thing.

So looking at the numbers, the November figures have just been released and they show a slight drop of property values in Bingham of 0.3% over the month of November. That figure doesn’t surprise me due to the time of year. It’s quite dangerous to look at one month in isolation, so looking at a more medium term view, over the last 12 months, property values in Bingham have risen by 3.7%, not bad when you consider inflation is running at -0.1%.

However, regular readers of the Bingham Property Blog know my passion for looking deeper into the stats. The really interesting information is the value growth; but which types of property are actually selling in Bingham?  Looking at all the properties sold, as recorded by the Land Registry, within 1 mile of the centre of Bingham in September 2015 (this data always runs a couple of months behind the house price data) compared to September 2007 (a couple of months before the credit crunch started to bite and the subsequent property crash).

	Sept 2007	Sept 2015	Difference
Detached in Bingham	7	5	- 29%
Semis in Bingham	5	2	-60%
Terraced Houses in Bingham	1	5	+400%
Apartments / Flats in Bingham	2	0	-100%

Now I have mentioned in previous articles that the numbers of properties selling in the town has certainly dropped post 2008, but what amazed me were the drop in the number of detached, semis and apartments selling in Bingham compared to the rise in sales of terraced properties, which rose considerably.

Less properties are selling than last decade in Bingham and the types of properties selling have changed ... interesting times ahead for the Bingham Property market!

Therefore, all I can say to the landlords of Bingham is do your homework, make sure the numbers do stack up, take advice and opinion from professionals and above all, for those of you planning to add to your portfolio, buy the right property at the right price.

If you would like to discuss the Bingham property market or the viability of a potential investment please feel free to pop into our office on the Market Place in Bingham or give me a call on 01949 714101.