Newest Home Worth Index, flat conversions, older renters and different UK property information

Present property information headlines have a tendency to color an image of falling home costs. However a narrative in Which? journal on the 1^st of December indicated that common costs – based mostly on official Land Registry figures – have fallen by solely 0.1% up to now 12 months. The typical worth of a house within the UK stays near the all-time excessive of £293,000 recorded in November final yr.

In opposition to that background, let’s take a peek at a few of the different property information.

Home Worth Index: November 2023

When it compiled its home worth index for November, the web listings web site Zoopla recorded a considerably steeper annual dip in common home costs – down 1.2% to £264,600 in contrast with the common worth only one yr in the past.

Though rising mortgage rates of interest have dampened demand, says Zoopla, the amount of transactions holds fairly regular because the variety of properties available on the market reached a six-year excessive.

This has created one thing of a consumers’ market, with sellers granting reductions of a mean of 5.5% or £18,000 on the marketed worth.

Zoopla forecasts a continued decline in common costs through the course of 2024, however the fall might be arrested if mortgage rates of interest are diminished.

Flat conversions could not want planning permission

Throughout his Autumn Assertion to Parliament on the 25^th of November, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt revealed authorities plans to abolish the necessity for planning permission when homeowners select to transform a single home into two flats.

In its protection of the proposals, the Mail On-line acknowledged that the transfer is proving controversial as a result of it might deny native communities the correct of enter to modifications that would alter the character of the world.

Nonetheless, the federal government – and supporters of the plans – argues that the proposed “permitted improvement proper” would encourage a rise within the provide of properties each for hire and on the market whereas additionally serving to to decrease the common price of extra inexpensive dwellings.

Slashing the necessity for pink tape might assist to extend the variety of inexpensive properties, say commentators, though a better variety of residents will exacerbate parking issues and possibly invite opposition from these already dwelling within the neighbourhood.

As much as 50% of southern England landlords trying to promote up

The exodus of landlords from the purchase to let market continues apace – although with notable variations within the south of England in contrast with the north, argued an article in Landlord Zone on the 30^th of November.

Landlords in elements of southern England, for instance, are promoting up and leaving the market altogether on the alarming fee of 52%. Whereas half of the prevailing variety of landlords are leaving on this a part of the nation, the speed is “solely” 26% and 22% within the northern conurbations of Leeds and Manchester respectively. Throughout the nation as an entire, the proportion of landlords giving up their purchase to let companies is round 17%.

The explanations for the north-south divide are many and diverse. A minimum of one motive superior for the distinction in attitudes amongst landlords is that the north has seen a better fee of development within the worth of residential property up to now yr – creating the impression of it being a safer place for funding than the south of the nation.

Older renters shifting to cheaper areas and smaller properties

In opposition to the background of rising rents and a dearth of accessible properties, older tenants need to cheaper elements of the nation and usually smaller properties by which to maneuver, in line with a narrative in Landlord Right this moment on the 30^th of November.

The pattern is supported by figures on the sorts of tenancy agreed by older renters with incomes of between £30,000 and £70,000 a yr. On this pattern, a latest survey indicated that through the first six months of this yr fewer than half of recent tenancies had been for properties with three or extra bedrooms (the rest had been for one and two-bedroom rental properties.

Throughout the identical interval in 2020, nonetheless, 57% of recent tenancies had been for properties providing three or extra bedrooms.