West Midlands property asking prices jumped by more than £1,300 to
£190,700 in February according to Rightmove, an increase of 0.7% from January
and 4.1% higher than a year ago. After the traditionally quiet months of
January and February, the property market has started to warm up, but talking
to some Solihull Estate Agents, they are reporting their lowest ever stocks of
quality property for sale. However, as asking prices have no relation to what
property sells for (ie their REAL value), is the issue a lack of supply?
Putting aside Solihull’s continual housing supply shortage, (we only
built 5,126 properties in the last decade but the population of Solihull grew
by 7,157), this is now, according to some people, being exaggerated by an increase
in homes being owned by buy to let investors, who tend to be buying a property
as part of a long term pension plan and are more likely to keep it for longer
than an owner occupier would. I have also seen unwillingness among homeowners
looking to move, to put their own
property on the market as they can find few suitable properties to make it worth
their while going through the whole moving process.
When one looks at the historic data, in April 2008 there were 1,242properties
on the market in Solihull compared to today’s 366. Should we be worried? Well in December 2009 there were only 478 properties
for sale in Solihull but ten months later in October 2010, this had jumped to 826
properties, for it to drop to 363 properties in February 2014. The number of
properties on the market is a cyclical thing in Solihull, it always has been
and always will be. As we go into the Spring of 2015, the number of new
properties coming onto the market will increase ... just as the daffodils will
flower.
So are landlords to blame? Well, on one side of the coin, yes they
are. If they buy a property to rent out, that means someone can’t buy it to
live in. However, it doesn’t matter if someone wants to live in a property if
they can’t afford the deposit and upkeep .. and the youngsters of Solihull
still need a roof over their head. So on the other side of the coin, if the
Council aren’t building any properties and people can’t afford the large deposit
for the mortgage, then Solihull landlords have stepped in and bought property
to rent out to them (spending approximately £1.5bn in the process), meaning
there were at the last count, 7,795 Solihull properties being privately rented
out to tenants. Solihull tenants are in fact getting a good deal as well, as
average rents in Solihull are 5.8% above where they were seven years ago. That
sounds like a win-win situation for everyone to me. Stop blaming landlords and
start building more properties in Solihull .. that is the only answer.
In the meantime, the demand from Solihull tenants for Solihull
property is only set to rise over the coming years. If you want some advice and
opinion on where (or not) to buy, please contact me on jane.morcom@centrickproperty.co.uk
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