You find me in a reflective mood today, as I want to talk
about the future of investing in property in Maidenhead. The truth is that we
have got fat and lethargic, with many people having mistaken the ever-rising
Maidenhead (and in fact the whole of the South East) property market since the
1960’s as the eternal gift that kept giving as property prices have constantly
risen and doubled every five to seven years.
The days of making money from property as easy
as falling off a log, like taking candy from a baby are
sadly
over my Maidenhead Property Blog reading friends
Whilst George Osborne has decided now is the time to milk
the ‘Golden Cow’ of UK’s private landlords, with changes in taxation for buy to
let property, many pundits are predicting the end of buy to let as we know it.
However, it is still possible to make a reasonable, profitable and safe return
on property with these changes. You see, I have always seen investing in the
Maidenhead buy to let market (as I would anywhere in the UK), as I might see
Mother Nature, creating some truly wonderful stunning warm weather but at the
same time, she will bite, creating catastrophic situations such as snowstorms
and hurricanes. You need to study the
market, take advice and opinions from many people and then decide what the
proverbial property weather will be … remember, tenants will always want a roof
over their head and I don’t see the HM Government building the millions of
houses required to house them?
Nobody knows the future, and yes people can predict but I
wouldn’t be afraid of this change .. because as a famous French proverb says,
(I told you I was a reflective mood today), ‘the more things change, the more
they stay the same’. I mean, no one
could have predicted how the property market has changed in Maidenhead over the
last couple of decades? Looking specifically at the Maidenhead Parliamentary
Constituency, twenty years ago, 25,443 households (meaning 75.03% of property)
were owned and only 1,924 households were privately rented (meaning 5.67% of
property was rented out by private landlords), with the remainder being
primarily council owned. Roll the clocks on twenty years and the change has
been seismic …. Now 29,944 of properties in the Constituency are home-owners (a
drop to only 73.42% being owner occupied) and the jump in private renting has
been out of this world, as 5,390 properties are now privately rented
proportionally 13.21%). (NB Neighbouring Constituencies show similar changes as
well)
Who would have predicted in 1995 the private rental sector
in
Maidenhead would have grown by 132.98% in the proceeding 20
years?
Also, if you had asked someone in 1995 to predict what would
happen to property values over the proceeding 20 years (ie between 1995 and
2015), they might have predicted similar growth to the growth experienced over
the previous 20 years (ie between 1975 and 1995), which was a very impressive
351.55%. Yes, property values in Maidenhead have increased over the last 20
years (between 1995 and 2015), but by a more modest 318.64% (and most of that
can be attributed to house price growth between 2000 and 2006.)
The property market is constantly changing and buy to let
for too long has been heavily dependent solely on house price growth, where
yield has been almost forgotten. I see
the changes in tax and landlord and tenant law in a different perspective to
the doom-mongers and see it as bringing many opportunities. You might need to
change your buy to let benchmarks, your approach to financing or even consider
places other than Maidenhead in which to invest your money, but this will shine
a light on investing in properties with healthier yields and create more
realistic long term buy to let opportunities, instead of short term growth bets
and wagers.
The advice I give to my landlords, and you my blog reading
friends is this; these changes will make some landlords panic, meaning
competition for decent Maidenhead buy to let bargains will reduce as fear of
change kicks in and amateur investors flee the market. These opportunities will
provide a more stable platform for knowledgeable and wise Maidenhead buy to let
landlords to thrive in. If you want to learn more about the Maidenhead Property
Market, feel free to pop in for a coffee at our office for a chat with me, or
failing that, visit the Maidenhead Property Blog, where you will find many more
articles like this ..solely on the one topic of the Property Market in
Maidenhead
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