Fewer people are moving house in Solihull

I have recently been looking at the Solihull property market for annual comparisons on property purchases and how the property market has changed from the same period a year ago. Looking at the figures, I haven’t seen any change in recent months and the Solihull market as a whole seems pretty stable. 

In the early part of the year, the top end of the market did have a bit of a spasm in places such as Mayfair and Chelsea with the prospect of a Labour/SNP pact and a possible Mansion Tax for properties over £2 million, but in Solihull, we’ve not really been affected, particularly since only three properties have sold above the £2,000,000 mark in the last 5 years.   

Looking at the numbers for Buy to Let properties in the area, current figures suggest that of the 836 properties that have come on to the market in Solihull  since the 2^nd of April, 295 of them have been brought and are sold subject to contract, which is just over one in three (35.29%).

Things are starting to change in the way people in Solihull buy and sell property.  Back in the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s, the tradition was to buy a terraced house as soon as you left home and refurb it.  Meanwhile, property prices had gone up, so you could trade up to a 2 bed semi after a while, and repeated the process, until you found yourself in a large 4 bedroom detached house with a large mortgage. 

Looking into this a little deeper and as mentioned in my previous articles, the public’s attitude to homeownership itself has changed over the last ten years.  The pressure for youngsters to buy has disappeared as renting, not buying, is considered the norm for the younger generation. This isn't just a trend in Solihull, but, a national occurrence, as I have noticed that people buy property by upsizing or downsizing because they need to, not because ‘it’s what people do’.  This does means there are a lot less properties on the market compared to the last decade.

A by-product of less people moving, is less people selling their property. My research shows there are a lot fewer properties each month selling in Solihull compared to the last 10 years.  For example, in February 2015, only 78 properties were sold in Solihull. Compare this to February 2002, were 108 properties sold and February 2003, were 91 properties sold.  I repeated this comparison to more recent years and the results were identical if not greater.  So what does this all mean?  Demand for Solihull property isn’t flying away, but with fewer properties for sale, it means property prices are proving reasonably stable too. Consistent and steady growth of property values in Solihull, year on year, without the large peaks and troughs we saw in the late 1980’s and mid/late 2000’s might just be the thing that the Solihull property market needs in the long term.

For further information and opinions like this on the Solihull Property market, please email me on jane.morcom@centrickproperty.co.uk .