Norden Road, Maidenhead - 3 Bed end of terrace - Popular Investment Area

Good Morning Everyone! This house is located in the Boyne Valley Road area, this is always a popular area for investors as tenants love this part of town which means the demand is high and the risk of void periods low. This place looks in fairly good condition, you may want to consider replacing a couple of carpets with something a bit more neutral colour wise..... but apart from that it looks good to go. You could expect a rental income of around £1,300 per month with some steady capital growth.... so all in all its worth investigating!

It's on with Haart for £400K so give them a call, more details on the link below:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-54830395.html

Boulters Close, Maidenhead - 5 Bed Detached - Development Opportunity

Hello everyone! Braxton's have just released to the market this 5 bedroom house that needs a complete overhaul and renovation. This will get so much interest from all you developers and owner occupiers alike! Needless to say, I would fully expect a property like this to get so much interest that it will probably end in a sealed bids.... so if you are interested get yourself in for a viewing... and start calculating what those refurb costs will stack up to as I fully expect this to go for more than the asking price of £875K!

More details below:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-41913528.html

53.9% of Maidenhead Voters voted to Remain in the EU – What now for the 21,410 Maidenhead Landlords and Homeowners?

It’s 5.50am as I start to type this article and David Dimbleby has just announced the UK will be leaving the EU as the final votes are counted. As most of the polls suggested a Remain Vote, it came as a surprise to most people, including the City. The Pound has dropped 6% this morning after the City Whiz kids got their predictions wrong and MP’s from the Remain camp are using words like “challenging times ahead”.

.. and now the vote has been made .. what next for the 17,758 Maidenhead homeowners especially the 9452 of those Maidenhead homeowners with a mortgage?

The Chancellor in the campaign suggested property prices would drop by 18%. Using Treasury estimates, their method of calculating this was tenuous at best, but focused around the abrupt and hasty increase in UK interest rates, which in turn would raise the cost of mortgages, and therefore lower demand for property, causing a drop in property prices.… and I would say, yes .. that will probably happen.

Maidenhead Property Values

Maidenhead property values may well drop in the coming 12 to 18 months – but by 18% - I am sorry I find that a little pessimistic and believe that figure was rhetoric to get homeowners and landlords to vote in a particular way. But the UK property market is quite a monster.

Since the last In/Out EU Referendum in June 1975,

property values in Maidenhead have risen by 2149.1%

(That isn’t a typo) and whilst property prices did drop nationally by 18.7% between the peak of 2007 and bottom of the market in 2009, when one compares property values today in the country, compared to that all-time high of 2007, (the period before the financial crisis of the Credit Crunch of 2008/9) they are still up 10.14% higher.

Another Credit Crunch?

And so, notwithstanding the Credit Crunch, the worst global economic outlook since the 1930s and the recession it brought us, a matter of a few years later, the Government was panicking in 2012/13/14 that the housing market was a runaway train.

Now the same Credit Crunch doom-mongers and Sooth-Sayers that predicted soup kitchens in 2008/9 are predicting Brexit meltdown. Bad news sells newspapers. Stock markets may rise, stock markets may fall, yet the British public continued to buy property in 2009/10 and beyond. Aspiring first time buyers and buy to let landlords dusted themselves down, took a deep breath and carried on buying… because us Brit’s love our Bricks and Mortar .. we need a roof over our head.

However, as mentioned previously, if the value of the pound drops, in the past UK Interest Rates have risen to reverse that drop. However, whilst a cheaper pound will make your pint of Sangria a little more expensive on your Spanish holiday this year and make your brand new BMW pricier it will make British export cheaper! Which is great for the economy.

Interest rates

… and what of interest rates? Since 2009, interest rates have been at 0.5% and lots of people have become accustomed to those sorts of levels. So what if interest rates rise….. end of the world? Interest rates in the 1986/88 property boom were on average 9.25%, the 1990’s they were on average around 6.5% and uber-boom years (when UK property values were rising by 20% a year for three or four straight years across the UK) .. 4.5%. Many of you reading this who are in their 50’s and older will remember interest rates at 15%.

But I suspect interest rates won’t rise that much anyway, as Mark Carney (Chief of the Bank Of England) knows, raising interest rates causes deflation – which is the last thing the British economy needs at the moment. In fact they have been printing money (aka Quantitative Easing) for the last few years (which causes inflation) to the tune of £375bn a month. A bit of inflation because the pound has slipped on the money markets (not too much mind you) might be a good thing?

.. because whilst property values might drop in the country, they will bounce back. It’s only a paper loss.. because it only becomes real if you sell. And if you have to sell, again as most people move up market when they sell, whilst your property might have dropped by 5% or 10%, the one you want to buy would have dropped by the same 5% to 10% .. and here is the best part – (and work your sums out) you would actually be better off because the more expensive property you would be purchasing would have come down in value (in actual pound notes) than the one you are selling.

The Maidenhead landlords of the 4,701 Maidenhead buy to let properties have nothing to fear neither, nor do the 11,612 tenants living in their properties.

Buy to let is a long term investment. I think there might even be some buy to let bargains in the coming months as some people, irrespective of evidence, panic.  Even if we pull up the drawbridge at Dover and immigration stopped today, the British population will still increase at a rate that will exceed the current property building level. Britain is building 139,600 properties a year, but needs according to the eminent ‘Barker Review of Housing Supply Report’, the country needs to build about 250,000 properties a year to even stand still, and as the birth rate is increasing, the population is living longer and just under a quarter of all UK households now are occupied by a single person demand is only going up whilst supply is stifled. Greater demand than supply equals higher prices. That is definitely a fact.

So, what will happen next?

Well, there are many challenges ahead. The country has spoken and we are now in unchartered territory – but we have been through a couple of World Wars, an Oil Crisis, Black Monday, Black Wednesday, 15% interest rates and a Credit Crunch … and we survived!

And the value of your Maidenhead property? It might have a short term wobble… but in the long term -it’s safe as houses regardless.

The Maidenhead Property Market and The Euro 2016 Football Tournament

With the Referendum on EU membership this week and the relentless media coverage we have had for months now, wouldn’t  it be nice for us to concentrate on something European that doesn’t involve party political broadcasts or politician’s treating us all like children?? So let’s talk about the Euro 2016 Football Tournament! Maidenhead is home to all different backgrounds and nationalities so if you're not lucky enough to be jetting off to France for any of the UEFA Euro 2016 football matches, have no fear! For a bit of fun (although there is a serious side to this – you know there would be with me!) I have taken a look at which European people live in Maidenhead so I know who to soak up the best atmosphere with!

During my research some interesting numbers appear. Going into the Euro 2016 tournament, France were 3/1 favourite’s, then Germany 7/2, third Spain 11/2, then England 9/1, Italy 16/1, Poland 50/1, Romania and Wales at 100/1, Ireland at 150/1 and Northern Ireland 500/1 (although Leicester were 5000/1 at the start of last season!).

Of the 101,770 residents of Maidenhead, of the Home Nations going into the competition, 81,999 of them are from England, 1,594 from Wales, 494 from Northern Ireland and 1,008 from Ireland, although I do feel sorry for the 2,013 Scots who didn’t get into the finals. Now interestingly, looking at the Mainland Europeans residents in Maidenhead, it might not surprise you that they make up 4.28% of the population as a whole (more specifically 2.49% from Western Europe and 1.79% from Eastern Europe).

Broken down into the relevant football teams, there are within the Maidenhead 

Constituency:

81,999 English

1,594 Welsh

1,069 Polish

1,008 Irish Republicans

570 Germans

494 Northern Irish

454 Italians

432 French

252 Spanish

100 Romanians

….. so we should have plenty of diversity and atmosphere when watching the matches around town!

But what does this have to do with the Maidenhead property market? Quite a lot, in fact. Many of these European people were economic migrants, especially those from Eastern Europe. There is no preferential treatment for council housing in Maidenhead, so EU migrants have in fact increased demand for privately rented accommodation in Maidenhead. 

This has meant, as demand for housing in Maidenhead has remained strong, Maidenhead landlords have continued to buy properties to rent out to keep up with this demand. Therefore, the value of every homeowner’s property in Maidenhead has been kept high because of the demand from these Maidenhead landlords buying starter homes to rent out, releasing existing homeowners to go up the property ladder – benefiting everyone in the chain.

However, rents have remained relatively subdued, in Maidenhead rents are only 20.1% higher than they were in 2005, not bad when you consider we have had 38.52% inflation in the UK economy as a whole over the same 11 years.

So, regardless of how you intend to vote this week, EU migration has contributed (amongst other factors) to stronger property prices in Maidenhead whilst rents have been kept in check by wage inflation, meaning existing homeowners, landlords and the economy as a whole in Maidenhead have benefitted.

Now I wonder who will win the footy? Back to the TV!

For more thoughts on the Maidenhead property market like this – visit the Maidenhead Property Blog

10,167 ‘Spare’ Bedrooms in Maidenhead – Is this the cause of the Maidenhead Housing Crisis?

That isn’t a typo, of the 25,407 households in Maidenhead, 10,167 of those properties don’t only have one spare bedroom, but two spare bedrooms! … and it is this topic I want to talk about this week, my Maidenhead Property Market Blog readers – because this could be the cure for Maidenhead’s housing crisis.  The fundamental problem of the Maidenhead housing ‘crisis’, is the fact that the supply of homes to live in has not historically met demand, increasing property values (and in turn rents), thus ensuring home ownership becomes an unattainable ambition for the twenty something’s of Maidenhead.

Call me a realist, but it’s obvious that either demand needs to drop or supply needs to rise to stop this trend getting worse for the generations to come.  Don’t get me wrong, I admire Downing Street’s plans to build 200,000 starter homes which will be offered to first time buyers under 40 with a minimum 20% discount price.  However, the building of starter homes on current building sites, where new homes builders already have to build a certain number of affordable ‘starter’ homes at the moment under a different scheme, does not increase the stock of new ‘starter’ homes, it simply replaces one affordable scheme with another.

One option that could resolve the housing crisis is if the Government literally looked closer to home, concentrating on matching households with the appropriate sized home.

In Maidenhead, 18,390 households have one spare bedroom and of these, 10,167 have two or more spare bedrooms.

This compares to 1,055 households in Maidenhead that are overcrowded (i.e. there are more people than bedrooms in the property).

Looking specifically at the homeowners of Maidenhead, 6,061 owner occupied Maidenhead houses have one spare bedroom.  Now having a spare bedroom is not considered a luxury.  However, in addition to those 6,061 households with one spare bedroom, there are on top, a further 9,187 owner occupied Maidenhead households with two or more spare bedrooms.  

Therefore, I am beginning to see there is the spare capacity in the Maidenhead housing market.  Principally, I will concentrate on the group that makes up the bulk of this category, the owner occupiers of large properties, in their 60’s and 70’s, where the kids flew the nest back in the 80’s and 90’s.  They call it ‘downsizing’, when you sell a big property, where the extra bedrooms are no longer required, to move into a smaller and, usually, less expensive property.

However, there are many explanations why these individuals do not downsize.   These people have lived in the same house for 30, 40 even 50 years, and as one matures in life, many people do not want to depart from what they see as the family home.  Much time has been invested in making friends in the area and it’s nice to have all those rooms in case every grandchild decided to visit, at the same time, and they brought their friends!  But on a more serious note, more and more people are beginning to downsize earlier, but in my opinion, not at a fast enough rate.  As the years go one, we will have a situation where younger families will be living in smaller and smaller houses, whilst all the large houses with a couple of 70 something empty-nesters rattling around them!  I believe the Government should put more weight behind downsizing, because with the right incentives, many could be encouraged to think again and make the spare rooms available.

.. and it would have to be incentives, as the using the stick (instead of the carrot) would be political suicide for any party, especially the Tory’s.  One option is to allow retired downsizers not to pay stamp duty on the new property, saving them thousands of pounds and another for the planners to work with builders to build not only starter homes for under 40’s, but also have housing built just for retired downsizers ... or is this one step too far in ‘social engineering’?

The fact is not enough properties are being built in Maidenhead, and with population rising at a faster rate, something needs to be done.  However, I believe the Maidenhead population (and in fact the whole of the UK) is slowly turning into a more European model of house ownership.  In Europe, most people rent in their 20’s and 30’s, only buying in their 40’s and 50’s, when they inherit money from the sale of their late parent’s property.   That works particularly well in Germany and I can’t see why it can’t work here.  In the meantime, there is an opportunity in the coming 20 years for people to supplement their pension by buying smaller properties to rent out, as that is where the demand will be in the next few decades in Maidenhead.  For even more thoughts on the Maidenhead Property Market – visit the Maidenhead Property Blog 

Stonefield Park, Maidenhead - 2 Bed end of Terrace - Popular Location

Good Morning, this place in Stonefield Park has just come on the market with Braxton's for £410K.... this is a really popular location for tenants so you would have no issue in flipping this back onto the market as rental! For a 2 bedroom in this location you can expect a rental income of around £1,200 PCM..... so in order to get the best return there may need to be some haggling on the price....

Well worth a look.....

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/40718695

Woodstock Close, Maidenhead - 4 Bed end of terrace - Good value....?!

Good Afternoon, just seen this come on the market. It's pretty rare for a 4 Bedroom house to come on the market in Maidenhead within this price range.... so either as an investment property or a family home 4 beds at this price will gain interest! It's on the market with Braxton's for £425K.... there is an upcoming Open Day so I would register your interest quickly as I don't think this will be on the market for long!

More Pics below.....

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/40700623

Summerleaze Road, Maidenhead - 3 Bed Semi - Quite a Project!

Good evening! This place has just been released to the market by Roger Platt for £495K. As you all know I like to bring to your attention houses that need a bit of work.... and this one certainly fits that criteria. Before you start bidding on this one you really need to do your maths in terms of what all those renovation costs will add up to.... Summerleaze Road does offer real capital growth opportunity but it all comes down to picking this up at the right price!

More Details Below....

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/40634516