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Rural locations becoming more attractive to home movers in the UK
People in the UK want to live in villages but the need to have easy access to shops, transport and medical facilities and good broadband, new research has found. Some 21% of people who are moving home said that they wanted to live in a village, making it easily the most popular type of location, compared to 14% for a market town and only 12% for either a big city or a suburb, according to the study by Strutt & Parker. The Housing Futures Report found that broadband and mobile connections are essential to rural life. Access to broadband was a key factor for 49% of those intending to move to a village, while 38% highlighted mobile connectivity. It reveals that with 60% want to be able to walk to shops, 48% close to local transport and 45% near to medical facilities. ‘The UK might seem to be focused on urbanisation but we believe a new, overlooked trend is set to shape Britain’s housing market over the coming decades and this is the desire to move back to rural locations,’ said Stephanie McMahon, head of research at Strutt & Parker. She explained that while some research would suggest cities have the upper hand over villages as the urban trend has gathered pace in the UK, a number of negative traits have begun to appear such as a rise in inadequate housing provision, urban sprawl and increased pollution. She pointed out that the shift away from cities is being driven by people looking for neighbourhood safety at 86%, while 58% want space between neighbours and 48% are looking for a strong community feel. The report also point out that technology is helping to change the rural economy, which plays a key role in creating jobs and prosperity. England’s rural economy now accounts for £210 billion of economic output and hosts over 25% of all registered businesses, according to DEFRA. New companies are thriving in rural locations, including hi-tech manufacturing, food processing, the service sector, retail and power supply. ‘The expansion of broadband and mobile communications has seen a greater uptake of working from home in rural locations compared to urban areas. It seems that the same factors that once drove urbanisation, improving economic and social conditions, are now inspiring the village revival,’ added McMahon. And it’s not just those wishing to sell up from their city lives to buy in a village setting, with the report showing a significant increase in respondents looking for rental accommodation. 10% of those wanting to move to a village would live in a professionally managed private rental unit, up from 1% in 2013. The South East, South West and North East are the three leading destinations for people who are intending to move in the next five years. London’s strong economy and housing market will have a direct effect on the South East, which… Continue reading
Research suggests buy to let landlord confidence in the UK is low
Recent and forthcoming changes to tax for buy to let landlords in the UK seems to have dented confidence with new pieces of research showing many are set to re-evaluate their situation and put new strategies in place. One new report reveals that just one in five landlords believe there is still money to be made in the buy to let market even although many purchased buy to let property in the last three months to beat the Chancellor's stamp duty reforms. The study conducted by online letting agent PropertyLetByUs, shows that 43% of landlords are considering putting their properties into a limited company to beat the tax rises. Some 5% of landlords have sold buy to let property because of the increased tax burden and 6% plan to reduce their property portfolio and invest their capital in stocks and shares. However, despite all the rhetoric about buy to let profits, only one in six landlords are seeing a reduction in their profits and many of them appear to have strategies in place to off-set the tax rises such as opting for incorporation, but they are also set to increase rents. The surge in landlords investing in buy to let property in the first quarter of 2016 has created a bubble of new rental properties in some parts of the UK, according to a separte report from research consultants BDRC Continental. It suggests that in the longer term, it is likely that the tax changes will limit the supply of rental property and discourage potential new landlords from investing in the buy let market. The good news is that tenant demand will continue to rise, as unaffordable house prices push home owning out of reach for many people. Indeed, according to BDRC Continental’s latest quarterly Landlord’s Panel research report confidence is at the lowest level since the research began almost a decade ago. ‘There are few happy ever after tales here. Many private landlords in Britain are really concerned about the impact of the 2015 Budget when tax relief on private rental properties was cut, and given the housing shortage, the potential knock-on effect on renters and the supply of rental homes is something that we all need to care about,’ said Mark Long, director at BDRC Continental. The report says that confidence in three key metrics has seen the biggest falls year on year; that’s business expectations for the UK Private Rental Sector, UK Financial Markets and Own Letting Business. The majority of landlords, 59%,believe that the 2015 Budget will decrease their profitability Some 81% of private landlords with 20 plus properties believe that they will experience a decrease in profitability, twice as many as single property landlords. Landlords with buy to let mortgages feel hardest hit. Just 39% of those with a buy to let mortgage rate their short term prospects as good or very good, compared to 48% of landlords who are not leveraged. The research also… Continue reading
Majority of Australians feel the housing market is heading for a downturn
Two thirds of Australians now think the housing market is vulnerable to a sustainable downturn with the sentiment affecting all regions of the country, a new poll shows. While the survey results suggests that respondents are concerned about a crash in home values, this remains unchanged from a year ago, and lower than the 68% of respondents who indicated ‘yes’ to this question six months ago. The higher proportion of respondents who were concerned about a large correction in the housing market was broad with all regions indicating at least 61% of respondents were concerned about a housing market crash, according to the CoreLogic-TEG housing market sentiment survey. The result indicates that a significant proportion of the community are wary of substantial value falls across the nation’s largest and most important asset class, which according to CoreLogic RP Data is currently worth an estimated $6.5 trillion. Recent housing market forecasts from CoreLogic RP Data and Moody’s Analytics indicate dwelling values are likely to experience falls, however the peak to trough declines are likely to be short lived and relatively slight, followed by a longer period of relatively sedate housing market conditions. Home values are already trending lower in Perth and Darwin with both cities recording a peak to current fall of 4.6%. Additionally, the pace of capital gains in Sydney and Melbourne, where dwelling values have surged higher over the past two growth cycles, is moderating in what has been a controlled trajectory to date. The survey also revealed a slowdown in the proportion of survey respondents who think now is a good time to buy; 61% indicated they would consider buying a home, however a year ago the reading was much higher at 71%. Perceptions around buying conditions worsened across most regions over the past 12 months, with Tasmanian and Sydney buyers the most pessimistic about buying conditions. Only 40% and 50% of respective respondents in these cities indicated they felt it was a good time to buy. However, buying sentiment improved over the past year in some of the weakest markets where listing numbers are higher and housing prices have reduced. The proportion of survey respondents who indicated that current market conditions represent a good time to buy increased by 1% over the year in Perth while buyer sentiment in the Northern Territory increased by a substantial 20% compared with a year ago. When survey respondents were asked whether they thought home values would rise, fall or remain stable over the coming six and 12 months, most respondents expect values to remain stable, however 17% of respondents are expecting values to fall over both the next six and 12 months. A year ago, 49% of survey respondents were expecting dwelling values to rise over the coming six months compared with only 31% over the most recent quarter. Respondents based in Sydney have seen the most substantial deterioration in the proportion expecting values to rise over the next half year. A year ago,… Continue reading
