Roll the clock back 35 years to 1981, and Mrs. T was in
power, we had a Royal Wedding, Britain won the Ashes and Bucks Fizz won
Eurovision with ‘Making your Mind up’. Haven’t
things changed. The number of homeowners
and property investors who said they wish they had hindsight and bought up
every house in Maidenhead all those years ago, especially when you consider
what has happened to Maidenhead property values, as…
Maidenhead Property Values since 1981 have risen by 846%.
Not bad when you consider inflation over the same time
period has been 271.9%, meaning in real terms (i.e. after inflation), property
values in Maidenhead are 574.1% higher.
It’s no wonder people can’t afford to buy property anymore and landlords
are attracted by bricks and mortar. Yet the changes to the Maidenhead Property
market run much deeper than property value changes as no one could have
predicted how the property market has changed in Maidenhead over the last 30
years.
Looking at the Local Authority data for Royal Borough
Council of Maidenhead and Windsor in 1981, 19.7% of Maidenhead people lived in a
Council House, whilst today its 13.3% ... a drop which can mostly be attributed
to Margaret Thatcher allowing Council tenants the right to buy their Council
House. The private rental sector since
1981 has, as one would have expected, also changed.
Nationally they’ve almost doubled, however, the proportion
of properties privately rented in the Maidenhead area (i.e. through a private
landlord or a letting agency) may not have doubled but they have increased,
rising from 13.2% to 16.2% of property.
So, let us consider those people who own their own home,
surely that has had a massive drop? In
1981, the proportion of people who lived in the Royal Borough Council of
Maidenhead and Windsor area who owned their own home was 67.1% and today its
70.5%. Not the seismic change most of you were expecting (including myself!).
Homeownership in the 1980’s and 1990’s in Maidenhead did in
fact rise, but as I have discussed in previous articles in the ‘Maidenhead
Property Market Blog’, that was because nearly every Council tenant was buying
their council house. Now there are hardly any Council houses for the younger
generation to move into (because of the right to buy scheme) so they have no
choice but to privately rent.
.. and this is why the buy to let market in Maidenhead is an
investment sector that will continue to grow as councils aren’t building
council houses in their thousands each year (like they were in the 1950’s/60’s
and 70’s). The Maidenhead property
market is constantly changing and buy to let for too long has been heavily
dependent 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 sooth-sayers and see it as
bringing many opportunities where yield will become more important. You might need to change your buy to let targets,
your methodology 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.
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