Whats happened in the property market in the last year...
Updated: Apr 7, 2021
How the property market has changed in the last 12 months…
Well, the last 12 months have been… testing to put it politely. When the first lockdown happened in March 2020 a lot of us thought it would be for a few weeks then everything would go back to normal. How wrong were we. 12 months on and a lot has changed, many predictions for the property market have come and gone, so I thought it would be good to have a look at the changes and what this means for your investment opportunities.
The sales market…
Well, what can I say we are most defiantly in a boom! What do I mean by ‘a boom’? property prices are going up and demand is very high. To put some numbers on this the property prices in the midlands have gone up by 10-15% in the last year. Bear in mind the market was put on hold for a few months. This is something that most property experts did not see coming. In fact, they were predicting the complete opposite and preparing for a crash (property prices to drop). This sort of market like any other comes with its pros and cons. The pros = it’s a great market to do flips as you increase the value of the property with your works plus the market is going up anyway, if you have a property already and want to refinance you may be able to pull more money out than you had planned for meaning more money to invest or enjoy. The biggest downside for this market though is finding a good deal. This is due to the demand being so high. For example, we rang an estate agent to book a viewing on a property but there were 30 viewings booked in and they already had 2 offers above asking price… the property had been on the market for 3 days. I’m not saying there are no deals out there are, but they are just very hard to find at the moment. I would also like to point out that I am talking about the East Midlands area as this is where we are based. I’m pointing this out as some areas like London are not seeing this high demand and we think this is down the people rethinking their lifestyle due to covid and the lockdowns we have faced.
The rental market…
The rental market is much the same as the sales market. In fact, due to the demand rents have seen a big increase around us for example a 2-bedroom flat was renting for £650 per calendar month and is now being advertised for £795 per calendar month. Again, this is due to the high demand and low stock. This is great for our investors, changing tenants or finishing a refurb project as the properties are being rented out very quickly and we can pick the best tenant for the property.
There’s lots of speculation about how long this ‘boom’ will last due to the rest of the situation with the economy, the government borrowing so much money and people are still on furlough so we may see unemployment grow and more business’s go under. What we can guarantee is there is opportunity in every market, so we are going with the flow of the ‘boom’ and finding the diamonds in the rough for our investors.
Until next time...
