Tag Archives: tsi
Demand from overseas buyers in the Alps rising, says latest index report
Demand for Alpine property is rising, spurred on by a more resilient Eurozone, greater clarity over tax and the second home cap in Switzerland, as well as a weaker euro, the latest index report says. Val d’Isere and Meribel in France have seen the biggest annual growth in property prices with a rise of 5.8% and 4.5% respectively, according to the 2015 Ski Property Index from international real estate firm Knight Frank. The index, which tracks the price performance of prime ski chalets across 15 key resorts in the French and Swiss Alps, indicates that prime sales activity in the French Alps is focussed between €1.5 and €2.5 million with resorts such as Chamonix and Courchevel 1550 increasingly popular. It also shows that the number of sales completed in Megeve in the first half of 2015 was double the number of sales agreed during the whole of 2014 and adds that previous uncertainty in the Swiss market is giving way to renewed optimism as clarity emerges surrounding taxation and the second home cap. Overall it says that the market is broadly stable with only 13% percentage points separating the strongest and weakest performer and currency movements have played a pivotal role in determining demand across the region. French resorts occupy the top five rankings this year as uncertainty surrounding Lex Weber in Switzerland dampened sales, and as a result price growth. In the past year ski homes in Europe’s top resorts have continued on the same trajectory that they have been following since 2008; no radical acceleration or deceleration just small single digit shifts year on year. Overall, the index proved largely static with only a marginal 1% fall recorded in the year to June 2015 and explains that in the case of a resort like Val d’Isere, for example, the length of its ski season explains its long standing appeal, particularly with British buyers. Few other Alpine resorts can guarantee sufficient snow to ski during both the Christmas and Easter holiday periods, it continues and in Meribel’s case, a combination of its location in the heart of The Three Valleys and its pricing explains its annual growth. Meribel provides better value than Courchevel 1850, but can compete with 1550 and 1650 in terms of facilities. Investment in the form of new residential developments such as Olympe in Les Allues and Point de Vue in Meribel Village has also helped to build confidence amongst buyers. In real price terms, the exclusive resorts of Courchevel 1850 and Gstaad come out on top, with prime prices typically around €25,000 and CHF30,000 per square meter respectively. A prime ski chalet in Gstaad is, on this basis, four times the price of an equivalent property in the French resort of St Gervais. The report also shows that in the French Alps, the focus of sales activity in the last 12 months has been within the €1.5 million and €2.5 million price bracket. The super prime market at… Continue reading
Tighter buy to let regulation could push up rents in UK
Measures which discourage investment in the private rented sector in the UK in the face of population growth and low housing supply can only push up rents and harm tenants more than landlords, a new report suggests. The report from the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) which examines the key issues facing the main segments that make up today’s mortgage market, warns that tighter buy to let regulation could restrain supply. Assessing the possible impacts of July’s buy to let tax changes, the IMLA argues that a higher tax burden for landlords, which will push some into losses after tax and raise the effective tax rate on their buy to let above 100%, may slightly skew the market in favour of owner occupied house hunters, by reducing the price that landlords are prepared to pay for any given property. The risk, however, is that these changes and the threat of tighter buy to let mortgage regulation will constrain the supply of available rental properties at a time when the fundamentals of population growth and low housing supply are driving an increase in demand, and that institutional investment will fail to make up the gap. The IMLA report shows total lending across the mortgage market this year was running below its 2014 level from January to May. Since then, there has been a sharp recovery and 2015 may be shaping up to be a mirror image of 2014. Subdued lending in the first half of the year may have reflected uncertainty in the run up to the general election but a clear cut election result has removed this level of doubt. The bedding down of the Mortgage Market Review (MMR), which disrupted some lending with its introduction in 2014, has also contributed to the recovery, it explains. By far the most robust recovery has come in buy to let, but this must be placed in context of an 81% decline after the recession between 2007 and 2009, the report points out. This compares with a 60% drop in remortgaging volumes, 56% among home movers and 53% among first time buyers over the same period. Buy to let lending volumes remained 40% below their 2007 peak in 2014, and the IMLA argues that it is responding to rather than driving growth in tenant demand in the private rental sector. While buy to let has rebounded, the remortgage market has been slow to respond, but conditions are ripe for a resurgence. IMLA’s analysis shows that in the second quarter of 2015 remortgage volumes were up 11% on the previous quarter to record the best performance since 2009. At just under 3%, the price differential between standard variable rates (SVRs) and discounted variable rate deals is greater this year than ever before. Interest rates are also expected to rise, and for the first time in the second quarter households’ aggregate housing equity surpassed the £5 trillion mark. Only 20% of gross UK housing wealth is now… Continue reading
Slow broadband can hamper rural commercial leasing, new report says
Slow broadband is a major constraint in the successful letting of commercial workspace in the countryside in the UK and has an impact on rents achievable according to new research. It is also becoming more of an issue in some locations for residential property available to rent, the latest analysis sector survey report from real estate firm Savills shows. The survey reveals that nearly 70% of respondents confirmed slow broadband is a constraint on letting residential property in rural areas and 80% confirmed slow broadband is a constraint on letting commercial workspace. The survey also showed that in many cases a poor speed deters potential tenants from even making an appointment for a viewing and where space is let, on average rents are 16% and 25% less respectively where the broadband speed is slow. ‘Broadband speed is now generally one of the first topics raised by perspective tenants who are looking to rent some commercial office space in a rural area,’ said Ben Knight, director of Savills Rural. ‘Where it is poor vacant periods are often longer and in some cases there is no demand for a building however good the space and other facilities are. And with more people choosing to work from home for at least part of the week it is becoming a more common question from perspective residential tenants,’ he explained. The report suggests that landlords looking to develop commercial space should assess the speed of broadband as part of the viability study and are in cases shelving a project if the speed is poor or taking matters into their hands and creating high speed networks using grant funding where applicable. While the start-up costs are significant around £20,000-£30,000 in the first year, annuity income from those using the broadband is a valuable new income stream and of course the likelihood of finding tenants for the commercial space greatly improves the report says. Two estates which have successfully developed their own broadband schemes are The Alscot Estate in Warwickshire and The Rushmore Estate in Dorset. The Alscot Estate near Stratford-upon-Avon established the network South Warwickshire Broadband in 2014 which has led to a diverse range of businesses occupying premises and a 100 per cent occupancy rate. The tenants all have access to upload and download speeds of up to 36Mb per second plus voice over internet protocol (VOIP) and cloud services. ‘The benefits to the estate of having full occupancy with happy tenants are extremely valuable. Increasingly estates are having to diversify away from agriculture as farm incomes are pressurized by weak commodity prices and former traditional farm buildings provide attractive offices once converted,’ said Knight. ‘At Alscot we were able to immediately connect a gaming business taking one of the serviced offices so that they were up and running within 24 hours, which created a great relationship with the tenant from the outset,’ he added. The Rushmore Estate in Dorset via Wessex Internet is now able to offer residential and commercial… Continue reading
