Tag Archives: lifestyle
Private rented sector in UK seeing rapid growth, new tenant survey reveals
The private rented sector is continuing its rapid growth across the UK and is now well established as the second biggest form of tenure after home ownership, new research shows. It has overtaken the social rented sector and large scale investment into the private rented sector (PRS) by funds and other institutions is set to treble over the next five years boosting growth further, according to the new tenant survey from real estate firm Knight Frank. The Tenant Survey carried out by YouGov on behalf of Knight Frank estimating that total investment will rise to £50 billion over the next five years and large scale investors are operating an average gross to net yield of 26% for new Build to Rent developments. It also shows that some 53% of tenants favour a six month or one year tenancy for rented accommodation and 52% said living close to work or their place of study is a key priority while 30% said the main reason for moving between rented properties was to ‘upgrade’ to a nicer or larger property. The survey found that 38% of tenants have lived in five or more rental properties and while the majority of respondents had moved within a mile of their previous property, some 19% had moved more than 60 miles, indicating a relocation for work or study, highlighting the flexibility of PRS as a tenure. Some 24% of Londoners are prepared to pay 50% as a maximum amount of their gross annual income on rent, up from 22% last year and a quarter of those living in the PRS do not want to, or don’t know if they want to buy a home in the future. Of those that express a desire to eventually buy a home using a mortgage, less than half are currently saving towards a deposit. Also, a quarter of those living in the private rented sector live alone, while 34% live in a couple without children. Some 43% of 18 to 24 years olds share with other adults in a flat share. Grainne Gilmore, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank, pointed out that the private rented sector is continuing to grow in size, with around 5.4 million, or 20% of households now being let out to private tenants. ‘There has been a generational shift in the private rented sector. More households are now living in rented accommodation for longer, and while housing affordability is certainly a factor here, rented accommodation is also becoming an established flexible form of tenure, an attribute welcomed especially among younger workers,’ she explained. Indeed, this was confirmed in last year’s Tenant Survey, with 38% of under 35s saying they didn’t want a mortgage or that renting suited their lifestyle, rising to 49% for those aged under 25. The number of under 45s living in the sector has more than doubled, to nearly 3.1 million over the last decade, and those aged 25 to 34… Continue reading
UK housing market needs to address needs of ageing population, says new report
The need for an increase in the supply of new housing across the UK is now recognised as a key social and political issue but it needs to include housing for a rapidly ageing populations, says a new report. New home building needs to be widened with policymakers looking at how it can meet the needs of different buyers, especially older people, according to the latest Retirement Housing report from real estate firm Knight Frank. It points out that the population in the UK is expected to increase by nearly 10 million over the next 25 years, taking the total number of people to 74.3 million by 2039 and says that a rapidly growing population has ramifications for an already stretched housing market in the UK. But within this overarching challenge there is an issue which is becoming more pressing and that is providing housing suitable for an ageing population. Around 23% of the population are currently aged over 60. During the next 20 years this proportion will rise to 29%. This will push the median age across the UK from 40 today to nearly 43 in 2039, by which time nearly one in 12 people will be aged 80 or over, according to forecasts from the Office for National Statistics. In terms of housing, official data shows that households headed by older people account for nearly 30% of all dwellings. Of the projected increase in all households between 2012 and 2037, more than three quarters will be headed up by someone aged 65 or over, the report says. It explains that a significant cohort of home owners do not want to move house in older age, and instead will make changes to their current home to accommodate changes in their lifestyle and health as time goes on. ‘However, there are also a notable proportion of older people who do envisage moving house or downsizing to a home that better suits their requirements. This may mean moving to a more manageable property and moving to be much closer to amenities in the centres of towns and cities,’ the report adds. Specialist Knight Frank research shows that around 25% of those aged over 55 said they wanted to move into some sort of retirement housing in the future. This equates to around 2.5 million households. Meanwhile, a recent snapshot of buying intentions across 1,500 UK households within Knight Frank’s House Price Sentiment Index, produced in conjunction with Markit Economics, showed that 29% of over 55s planned to buy a property at some point in the future, while 35% were undecided. It adds that while some of these intentions may relate to investment property, the overall picture is one where the idea of downsizing is not being ruled out. It also explains that the UK housing market currently has a significant supply shortage, but the scale of the undersupply in retirement housing is highlighted when we examine the pipeline of new housing being built. Only… Continue reading
Some urban homes values in the US outpacing traditional suburbs
Homes values in some urban areas in the United States are outpacing the value of homes in the suburbs in most top tier metros, new analysis has found. City life is gaining in popularity and high-end condos are popular in Boston, Washington, D.C., Seattle, and other cities with fast changing downtowns, according to a report from real estate firm Zillow. It points out that homes in the suburbs, a longstanding symbol of the American Dream, have typically been worth more, on average, than homes in urban areas. While that is still true in much of the country such as Nashville, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Richmond in Virginia, elsewhere things are changing. The change is most marked in in Boston, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco where the mean value of urban homes has recently surpassed the mean value of homes in suburban areas. And urban homes are gaining ground in Denver, Phoenix, and Chicago. The shift reflects demographic trends of millennials delaying family life and choosing condos, and shifting preferences, as people seek walkable neighbourhoods with urban amenities, the research suggests. It has vast implications for low income people who have traditionally lived in cities to be near services and employment. Zillow recently found that, in San Francisco and Seattle, high income people are making shorter commutes to downtown, while low income people are traveling much further to get to work in the urban core. Zillow based its analysis of urban and suburban home values on a survey of how people define their own neighbourhoods as either urban, rural, or suburban and then used characteristics of those places to extrapolate the results and define ZIP codes all over the country. By looking at home values within those areas, Zillow could see how home values have fared in each type of place over the years. ‘This trend, in part, reflects home buyers' changing preferences, as they seek amenity-rich, dense and walkable areas that are often closer to their workplace,’ said Zillow chief economist Svenja Gudell. ‘In the future, this lifestyle trend will change some suburbs as we know them, and they'll start to feel more urban as buyers move further from city centres in search of affordable housing in communities that still feel urban,’ she added. Nationally, suburban home values grew 5.9% in 2015, while urban home prices increased by 7.5%. In 1997, urban home values grew at 3.8%, slower than suburban values which grew 4.1% that year. On a per square foot basis, home values for urban areas are way up, indicating that people are willing to pay more for less space to live in the city. In Washington, D.C., for example, urban homes in 1996 cost 6% more per square foot than suburban homes. Today, they cost 41% more per square foot. Continue reading
