Tag Archives: nature
Average rents in England and Wales fall by 0.2% month on month
Average rents for homes to let across England and Wales fell 0.2% in May month on month and now stand at £792 per month, according to the latest index data. This compares to a long term average monthly rise of 0.4% over every May since the recession but they are still up 1.8% over the last 12 months, the data from the buy to let index from Your Move and Reeds Rains shows. However, on an annual basis rents have seen half the annual rate of rental growth seen at the start of 2016, when in January this stood previously at 3.6%. According to Adrian Gill, director of lettings agents Your Move and Reeds Rains, the number of properties to let coming on the rental market has disrupted the normal dynamics of supply and demand. ‘Landlords escaping a much larger stamp duty bill by completing their purchases before 1st April have now finished their repairs and paperwork, with these homes to let competing for tenants in May and into June. That short term mismatch has made May an exceptional month, with excellent deals available for some prospective tenants,’ he explained. He believes that overall the tax changes to the buy-to-let industry will discourage some property investors, and most of the properties that became available to let in May will have been planned purchases brought forward from later in the year. ‘The net effect will not be more properties to let, quite the opposite. If new regulations and taxes produce a drought of homes to let, then the overall shortage of housing in the UK will only bite harder for tenants. Meanwhile, this heightened shortage and possibly higher rents as a result could also protect landlords somewhat from the financial effects of more punitive rules and regulations,’ Gill pointed out. A breakdown of the figures show that rent rises in London have slowed to just 1.0% over the year to May 2016. This compares to a peak seen in September 2015 when rents in London were 11.6% higher than a year before at the time. By contrast, the East Midlands have witnessed rent rises of 7.3% over the year, followed by the West Midlands with 5.5% annual rent rises and the East of England with 3.6%. All 10 regions of England and Wales have seen rents in May higher than a year ago. However the joint slowest annual rent rises have been in Wales and the South East, both seeing rents rise just 0.5% over the last 12 months. London also leads the negative trend on a monthly basis with average rents in the capital falling 0.7% between April and May, a faster drop compared to a more modest drop of 0.2% in the month before. London is followed by the East Midlands where rents are 0.6% lower than a month ago and Yorkshire and the… Continue reading
Rents in England and Wales reach new record level
Rents across England and Wales reached the highest level on record between August and September in a trend increasingly divergent from the wider rate of consumer price inflation, new data shows. Average rents now stand at a new record of £816 per month, after rising by 1.6% month on month and 6.3% year on year, according to the latest buy to let index from Your Move and Reeds Rains. Trends in the private rented sector are increasingly divergent from the official measure of wider inflation. According to the Office for National Statistics consumer prices are by contrast now 0.1% lower than in September 2014. On a cumulative basis the difference with inflation is starker, the index report shows. Rents are now 24.4% higher than in January 2010, while the index of CPI inflation is just 14.1% higher over the same period. This means rents have risen by 10.3% in real terms since the start of the decade. ‘Rents are rising strongly in real terms due to the recent acceleration in wages, and the much deeper and longer term shortage of available properties across the UK of all tenures,’ said Adrian Gill, director of estate agents Reeds Rains and Your Move. ‘Meanwhile, as the price of everyday essentials plateaus and even falls, rents are no longer following the same broad trends. The cost of a place to live has now uncoupled from the cost of living. As long as this supply and demand imbalance keeps up, it is hard to see any reversal in the speed of rent rises,’ he explained. ‘In many ways housing is more essential than other expenses, so this also raises important questions about the nature of inflation. In this case, reform of the UK housing market and planning system is the only serious way to maintain steadier rental inflation,’ he added. The data also shows that five out of 10 regions of England and Wales have also seen individual rent records in September. Rents in London are rising most rapidly, up 11.6% on an annual basis to a new record of £1,301 per month. The annual change in London has also overtaken the East of England, where rents are now rising marginally more slowly, yet are still up 8.8% over the last 12 months. Record rents in the East Midlands are now 6.7% higher than a year ago, at £603 per month, while the West Midlands has seen its own record of £592 per month, or 5.2% higher than in September 2014. Meanwhile, South Western rents have risen at a comparable annual rate of 5.5% to stand at a fresh local record of £691 per month. The final region to see a local record, rents in the South East now average £831 per month, but have risen more slowly, by 3.6% since September 2014. ‘We are in the middle of… Continue reading
In Agriculture, Uncertainty Is Certain
By Glen Cope For the Capital Press Published: September 26. 2013 Any farmer will tell you that with agriculture things don’t always go as planned. In fact, farmers often refer to farming as a gamble. We never know from the beginning of each growing season if our efforts will pay off in the end. A farm, like any business, is subject to many different variables that can each be vital factors in achieving a profit. One variable that sets agriculture apart is Mother Nature. The weather, when cooperative, can be a farmer’s best friend in terms of raising successful crops and providing ample forage for livestock. However, many times it has proven to be one of agriculture’s biggest adversaries. Both the widespread drought of 2012 and the more regional droughts during the previous year are prime examples of what a lack of moisture can do to food production. The flip side of that extreme is too much moisture. What farmer in the Midwest could forget the Mississippi River flood of 1993, which completely covered entire fields with water, drowning 20 million acres across nine states. Other examples of the tough hand Mother Nature can deal are frost, wind and hail damage to crops and infrastructure, which can also be common occurrences on the farm. Another uncertainty that many farmers find equally as frustrating as the weather is market fluctuations for the crops they grow. Aside from normal supply and demand pressures on the market, other influences include the state of both the global and U.S. economies, growing conditions in competing countries and even hedge fund managers, who may find agriculture commodities attractive investments one day and completely pull money from them the next. Farmers always try to plan for a small profit after crops and livestock are sold. However, one can imagine the disappointment when something completely out of a farmer’s control causes the market to plunge. This uncertainty can make financial planning difficult for the best of farmers. This is why the phrase “farmers are price takers not price makers” is often heard among the people who make their living off the land. With all the unknowns related to farming, it is extremely important that some of the risk be reduced. It is high time that our policymakers give farmers some assurance that if another bad weather year occurs, they won’t be financially ruined because of the high cost to put out a crop. If it were not for crop insurance, it would have been nearly impossible for even a debt-free family farm to survive a year like 2012. Crop insurance allows farmers to farm for another year. If another 1993 or 2012 occurs, many farmers will be forced to sell out because they have so much invested in the crop before it is even harvested. In light of all the uncertainty of farming, farmers need Congress to pass the farm bill and save the farm when disaster strikes again. Glen Cope is a fourth-generation cattle rancher from Missouri. In 2012, he served as chairman of the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee. – See more at: http://www.capitalpress.com/article/20130926/ARTICLE/130929927/1009#sthash.whf7ksKZ.dpuf Continue reading
