House Prices in Maidenhead rise by more than 16% in the last 18 months

Over the last month, the Maidenhead property market has seen some interesting movement in house prices, as property values in the Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council area rose by 0.7% in the last month, to leave annual price growth at 12.9%. These compare well to the national figures where property prices across the UK saw a monthly uplift of 0.42%, meaning the annual property values across the Country are 8.3% higher, this is all despite the constraining factors of Stamp Duty changes in the spring and more recently our friend Brexit.

Looking at the figures for the last 18 months makes even more fascinating reading, whereby house prices are 16.6% higher, again thought provoking when compared to the national average figure of 13.6% higher.

However, it gets more remarkable when we look at how the different sectors of the Maidenhead market are performing. Over the last 18 months, in the Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council area, the best performing type of property was the terraced, which outperformed the area average by 0.64% whilst the worst performing type was the detached, which under-performed the area average by 0.67%.

Now the difference doesn’t sound that much, but remember two things, this is only over eighteen months and the gap of 1.31% (the difference between the terraced at +0.64% and detached at -0.67%) converts into a few thousand pounds disparity, when you consider the average price paid for a terraced property in Maidenhead itself over the last 12 months was £430,100 and the average price paid for a Maidenhead detached was £820,300 over the same time frame.

I know all the Maidenhead landlords and homeowners will want to know how each of the property types have performed, so this is what has happened to property prices over the last 18 months in the area...

• Overall Average                  +16.6%
• Detached                           +15.8%
• Semi Detached                   +17.3%
• Terraced                            +17.3%
• Apartments                        +16.1%

So what does all this mean to Maidenhead homeowners and Maidenhead landlords and what does the future hold? 

When I looked at the month-by-month figures for the area, you can quite clearly see there is a slight tempering of the Maidenhead property market over these last few months. I have mentioned in previous articles that the number of properties on the market in Maidenhead has increased this summer, something that hasn’t happened since 2008. 

Greater choice for buyers means, using simple supply and demand economics, that top prices won’t be achieved on every Maidenhead property. You see, some of that growth in Maidenhead property values throughout early 2016 may have come about because of a surge in house purchase activity, an indirect result of the increase in stamp duty on second homes from April, thus providing a temporary boost to prices.

It may be possible the recent pattern of robust employment growth, growing real earnings and low borrowing costs will tilt the demand/supply seesaw in favour of sellers and exert upward pressure on prices once again in the quarters ahead? However, in my opinion, and assuming everything goes well with Brexit, house prices in Maidenhead will continue to remain fairly level for the foreseeable future…. Keep reading the Maidenhead Property Blog and I will do my best to keep you updated with an honest opinion on the local market. 

Westborough Road, Maidenhead - 2 bed terrace - Character Property

Good morning! I really like the look of this place, it's full of character and that always makes it stand out from the crowd compared to other rental properties. All done up you could expect to receive just over £1,000 PCM...... It is on the market with Braxtons for £325K so give them a call and get yourself booked in! 

Take a look at the link below for more pics.

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/41949435

Clare Road, Maidenhead - 3 Bed Semi Detached - Complete refurb required!

Good Evening, there seems to be quite a few projects out there at the moment if renovating houses is your strategy.....

Personally, I still believe that investing in houses in Maidenhead should be a medium to long term strategy, given that the sales market has eased off in the past months I am more convinced with this approach. That's why I like this place, it's in a great area for rental plus, at the right purchase price, you may even get some capital appreciation in the short term.... that's not a bad achievement in the current market.

It's on with Roger Platt for £395K so get yourself around for a viewing.

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/41969571

What will the 0.25% Interest Rate do to the Maidenhead Property Market?

I had an interesting chat with a Taplow landlord who owns a few properties in the town. We had never spoken before, but he approached me after reading my blog on the Maidenhead Property Market. The landlord wanted to know my thoughts on how the recent interest rate cut would affect the Maidenhead property market and I would also like to share these thoughts with you……

Well it’s been a few weeks now since interest rates were cut to 0.25% by the Bank of England as the Bank believed Brexit could lead to a materially lower path of growth for the UK, especially for the manufacturing and construction industries. You see, for the country as a whole, the manufacturing and construction industries are still performing well below the pre-credit crunch levels of 2008/09, so the British economy remains highly susceptible to an economic shock. This is especially important in Maidenhead, because even though we have had a number of local success stories in manufacturing and construction, a large number of people are employed in these sectors. In Maidenhead, of the 32,658 people who have a job, 4,685 are in the manufacturing and construction industries meaning 14.3% of Maidenhead workers are employed in Manufacturing

and Construction.

The other sector of the economy the Bank is worried about, slightly less relevant to the Maidenhead economy, is the Financial Services industry which employs 1,052 people in Maidenhead, making up 3.2% of the Maidenhead working population.

Together with a cut in interest rates, the Bank also announced an increase in the quantity of money via a new programme of Quantitative Easing to buy £70bn of Government and Private bonds. Now that won’t do much to the Maidenhead property market directly, but another measure also included in the recent announcement was £100bn of new funding to banks. This extra £100bn will help the High St banks pass on the base rate cut to people and businesses, meaning the banks will have lots of cheap money to lend for mortgages ….. which will have a huge effect on the Maidenhead property market (as that £100bn would be enough to buy half a million homes in the UK).

It will take until early in the New Year to find out the real direction of the Maidenhead property market and the effects of Brexit on the economy as a whole, the subsequent recent interest rate cuts and the availability of cheap mortgages. However, something bigger than Brexit and interest rates is the inherent undersupply of housing (something I have spoken about many times in my blog and the specific affect on Maidenhead). The severe undersupply means that Maidenhead property prices are likely to increase further in the medium to long term, even if they remain flat in the short term. This only confirms what every homeowner and landlord has known for decades .. investing in property is a long term project and as an investment vehicle, it will continue to outstrip other forms of investment due to the high demand for a roof over people’s heads and the low supply of new properties being built.

Norden Road, Maidenhead - 2 end of terrace -

Just seen this place on the internet listings, it's on the market with Roger Platt for £350K. If you are thinking of getting on the investment ladder this type of house may well be a good starting point. From the pics there doesn't seem like there is much to do, apart from giving the yellow walls a lick of paint. You could expect a rental income of around £1,000 PCM. 

More pics on the link below....

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/41930162

New House Building in Maidenhead slumps by 74.2% in the last year

Let me speak frankly, even with Brexit and the fact immigration numbers will now be reduced in the coming years, there is an unending and severe shortage of new housing being built in the Maidenhead area (and the UK as a whole).  Even if there are short term confidence trembles fuelled by newspapers hungry for bad news, the ever growing population of Maidenhead with its high demand for property versus curtailed supply of properties being built, this imbalance of supply/demand and the possibility of even lower interest rates will underpin the property market.

When the Tories were elected in 2015, Mr. Cameron vowed to build 1,000,000 new homes by 2020.  If we as a Country hit those levels of building, most academics stated the UK Housing market would balance itself, as the increased supply of property would give a chance for the younger generation to buy their own home as opposed to rent.  However, the up-to-date building figures show that in the first three months of 2016 building starts were down.  Nationally, there were 35,530 house building starts in the first quarter, a long way off the 50,000 a quarter required to hit those ambitious targets.

Looking closer to home, over the last 12 months, new building in the Royal Borough Council Maidenhead and Windsor area has slumped.  In 2014/15, for every one thousand existing households in the area, an additional 7.64 homes were built.  For 2015/16, that figure is now only 1.97 homes built per thousand existing households.  Nationally, to meet that 1,000,000 new homes target, we need to be at 7.12 new homes per thousand.

To put those numbers into real chimney pots, over the last 12 months, in the Royal Borough Council Maidenhead and Windsor area,

• 120 Private Builders (e.g. New Homes Builders)
• Nil   Housing Association
• Nil   Local Authority

These new house building numbers are down to the fact that not enough is being done to fix the broken Maidenhead housing market.  We are still only seeing 120 new homes being built per year in the Royal Borough Council Maidenhead and Windsor area, when we need 434 a year to even stand still!

I am of the opinion Messer’s Cameron and Osborne focused their attention too much on the demand side of the housing equation, using the Help to Buy scheme and low deposit mortgages to convert the ‘Generation Rent’ i.e. Maidenhead ‘20 somethings’ who are set to rent for the rest of their lives to ‘Generation Buy’.  On the other side of the coin, I would strongly recommend the new Housing Minster, Gavin Barwell, should concentrate the Government’s efforts on the supply side of the equation.  There needs to be transformations to planning laws, massive scale releases of public land and more investment, as more inventive solutions are needed.

However, ultimately, responsibility has to rest on the shoulders of Theresa May.  Whilst our new PM has many plates to spin, evading on the housing crisis will only come at greater cost later on.  What a legacy it would be if it were Mrs May who finally got to grips with the persistent and enduring shortage of homes to live in.  The PM has already referenced the ‘need to do far more to get more houses built’ and stop the decline of home ownership.  However, she has also ruled out any changes to the green belt policy – something I will talk about in a future up and coming article.  Hopefully these statistics will raise the alarm bells again and persuade both residents and Councillor’s in the Royal Borough Council Maidenhead and Windsor area that housing needs to be higher on its agenda.

Ellington Park, Maidenhead - 3 Bed Semi - Work Required!

This house has just come to the market with Connells for £350K - From the pics there is obviously a significant amount to works that needs doing but at the right price this could a great opportunity for anyone looking to take that first leap into property development...... it's always difficult to gauge how much work actually needs to be done from the pics so I would give the guys at Connells a call to find out more details.

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/41871551

Are Maidenhead Landlords meeting the challenges of tenants bringing up their families in rental properties?

A few weeks ago I was asked a fascinating question by a local Councillor who, after reading the Maidenhead Property Blog, emailed me and asked me – “Are Maidenhead Landlords meeting the Challenges of tenanted families bringing up their families in Maidenhead?”

What an interesting question to be asked...!

Irrespective of whether you are tenant or a homeowner, to bring up a family, the most important factors are security and stability in the home. A great bellwether of that security and stability in a rented property is whether tenants are constantly being evicted. Many tenancies last just six months with families at risk of being thrown out after that with just two months’ notice for no reason.

Some “left leaning Politician’s” keep saying we need to deal with the terrible insecurity of Britain’s private rental market by creating longer tenancies of 3 or 5 years instead of the current six months. However, the numbers seem to be telling a different story. The average length of residence in private rental homes has risen in the last 5 years from 3.7 years to 4 years (a growth of 8.1%), which in turn has directly affected the number of renters who have children. In fact, the proportion of private rented property that have dependent children in them, has gone from 29.1% in 2003 to 37.4% today.

Looking specifically at Maidenhead compared to the National figures, of the 4,042 private rental homes in Maidenhead, 1,369 of these have dependent children in them (or 33.9%), which is interestingly (although expected) below the National average of already stated 37.4%.

Even more fascinating are the other tenure types in Maidenhead…

• 34.4% of Social (Council) Housing in Maidenhead have dependent children
• 47.2% of Maidenhead Owner Occupiers (with a Mortgage) have dependent children
• 10.6% of Owner Occupiers (without a Mortgage) have dependent children

Although, when we look at the length of time these other tenure types have, whilst the average length of a tenancy for the private rented sector is 4 years, it is 11.4 years in social (council) housing, 24.1 years for home owners without a mortgage and 10.4 years of homeowners with mortgages.

Anecdotally I have always known this, but this just proves landlords do not spend their time seeking opportunities to evict a tenant as the average length of tenancy has steadily increased. This noteworthy 8.1% increase in the average length of time tenants stay in a private rented property over the last 5 years, shows tenants are happy to stay longer and start families.

So, as landlords are already meeting tenants’ wants and needs when it comes to the length of tenancy, I find it strange some politicians are calling for fixed term 3 and 5 year tenancies. Such heavy handed regulation could stop landlords renting their property out in the first place, cutting off the supply of much needed rental property, meaning tenants would suffer as rents went up. Also, if such legislation was brought in, tenants would lose their ‘Get Out of Jail card’, as under current rules, they can leave at anytime with one months notice not the three or six month tenant notice suggested by some commenters.  

Finally, there is an extra piece of good news for Maidenhead tenants. The English Housing Survey notes that those living in private rented housing for a long periods of time generally paid less rent than those who chopped and changed.

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