Wellingborough
Property Market in 2017 and Beyond
As
the trees turn from green to hues of red and brown, the Wellingborough property
market has a confident feel to it. With the underlying fundamentals of a
continued lack of
properties being built, a shortage of properties (both in terms of quantity and
quality) coming to the market and the continued low mortgage rate environment, buyer enquiries from
first time buyers and buy to landlords is strong and motivation is even stronger,
given those inexpensive lending rates and general demand caused by under
supply.
Now
of course, there are a few potential hurdles coming towards us in the coming months
that could affect the Wellingborough (and UK) property market. Mrs. May has yet
to get her teeth into Brexit negotiations and we don’t know what the US Presidential
elections might do to the money markets around the world, meaning that on the
run up to Christmas, some savvy buyers may take advantage of the lack of
certainty by making cheeky offers, but I don’t believe these will have a huge
impact on property values (like the 2008 Credit Crunch).
You see, property ownership, whether it’s for yourself as a
homeowner or buy to let landlord, is a long term investment. In fact, focusing
on buy to let, a number of landlords who own property in Wellingborough have
made contact with me recently asking for my thoughts on the future of the buy
to let market in Wellingborough. Well,
as the Politician Edmund Burke said in the 18th
century, "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." ..
in other words, to see the future you must look into the past.
Since the
Millennium, the housing market has had everything thrown at it. The recent Brexit,
last year’s General Election, the near melt down of the World Economy with the
Credit Crunch, The Dot Com boom and bust, the housing market crisis in 2008,
the housing boom of 2001 to 2004 .. the list goes on. In fact here is a graph (courtesy of the Land Registry)
of average Property values since the Millennium in the Wellingborough Borough
Council area.
Even though we had the Dot Com bubble burst in 2000, two years later in
January 2002, property values in the Wellingborough Borough Council
area have
risen from £59,300 (in Jan 2000) to £79,800 .. and kept rising to September
2007, when they peaked at £163,700. Then we had the Credit Crunch and property
prices continued to fall until June 2009, where they averaged £124,200 .. but
look where they are now… £184,400.
The point I am trying to get across is long term future property values
are more helpful to landlord investors than the month by month headline
grabbing micro movements in the property market. Look at the graph and you will see
the growth in property values is an upward trend BUT, the average darts about
as each month goes by. So don’t
watch the property indexes and panic if values drop next month or the month
afterwards, because even in the glory days of 2001 to 2004 and 2012 to 2014,
without fail, values always dropped slightly around Christmas, but people will
always need a roof over their heads, and if they can’t buy and the council
aren’t building anymore .. only buy to
let landlords can meet that demand.
Wellingborough landlords are being hit in the
pocket with the new up and coming taxation rules and yes we might have a bumpy
ride on the run up to Christmas (because of the points raised earlier), Brexit
or no Brexit, but the trend will be a slow and steady upward momentum of
property values, demand for rental properties and yields in the Wellingborough
property market into 2017 and beyond.
