Can you remember 10.05pm on Thursday, 7th May
2015 ... with the shock news that BBC Exit Polls suggested the Conservatives
would be returned with majority? The middle classes in Solihull exhaled a huge
sigh of relief, as Solihull landlords, faced with rent controls from Red Ed and
the Labour Party, now had something to cheer about. The Tory’s were always
considered to be a political party that accepted the importance of the rental
market, fully supported its development while properly targeting the lawbreaker
landlords renting out below standard rental accommodation.
Since May George Osborne has announced future rises in stamp
duty for buy to let landlords and a change in the interest relief on buy to let
mortgages, causing some people have to question that loyalty. However, things
could have been a lot worse for Solihull landlords as previous ideas included making
landlord’s pay more tax by increasing capital gains tax rates to the landlord’s
own income tax levels. If Landlords would had to pay capital gains tax of 40%
to 45% on any uplift in value, I can tell you here and now, that would have made
investing in property a non starter for almost everyone.
However, I will admit that the loss of the higher rate tax
relief of mortgages will mean that investing in a number of properties may not
stack up financially. The new rules are likely to slow demand in the Solihull housing
market, which is isn't necessarily bad news for landlords, as this could mean less
competition from 'amateur' landlords. Just a thought, making Solihull landlords
think twice and run their numbers more cautiously is not such a bad thing.
So looking at some of the numbers, the November figures have
just been released and they show a growth of property values in Solihull of 0.8%
over the month of November. That figure doesn’t surprise me due to the time of
year. It’s quite dangerous to look at one month in isolation, so looking at a
more medium term view, over the last 12 months, property values in Solihull
have risen by 4.3%, not bad when you consider inflation is running at -0.1%.
However, regular readers of the Solihull Property Blog know
my passion for looking deeper into the stats. The really interesting information
is the value growth, but what types of property are actually selling in Solihull?
Looking at
|
Sept 2007
|
Sept 2015
|
Difference
|
Detached in Solihull
|
29
|
33
|
+14%
|
Semis in Solihull
|
33
|
29
|
-12%
|
Terraced Houses in Solihull
|
18
|
12
|
-33%
|
Apartments / Flats in Solihull
|
31
|
27
|
-13%
|
Now I have mentioned in previous articles that the numbers
of properties selling in the town has certainly dropped post 2008, but what
amazed me were the drop in the number of semis, terraces and apartments selling
in Solihull compared to the sales of detached properties, which rose slightly.
Less properties are selling than last decade in Solihull and
the types of properties selling have changed interesting times ahead for the Solihull
Property market!
Therefore, all I can say to the landlords of Solihull is do
your homework, make sure the numbers do stack up, take advice and opinion from
professionals and above all, for those of you planning to add to your
portfolio, buy the right property at the right price.
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