Hertford Landlords and the Buy To Let Market..............

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I was having an interesting chat the other day with a Hertford landlord when we were looking at another property he was thinking of buying. The property wasn't on the market with our agents but as I am always happy to take a look at any potential buy-to-let purchase's he was asking my opinion. We got talking about the Hertford Property Market and this landlord brought up the subject of a report he had read that stated almost 1.8m new rental homes are needed by 2025 to keep up with current demand from tenants. He wanted to know what this meant for Hertford.

Some commentators said last Winter that buy-to-let was about to die, what with the new stamp duty changes and how mortgage tax relief will be calculated. Others even said 500,000 rental properties would flood the market nationally in the 12 months after the new Stamp Duty rules came into force on the 1st April 2016 as landlords left the rental market. 

The fact is, as a country, we are facing a precarious rental shortage and need to get Hertford and the surrounding areas building in a way that benefits a cross-section of the local society. 

Of the 21,540 households in Hertford, currently a large proportion live in the private sector. Thankfully the new housing minister Gavin Barwell detached Teresa May’s new administration from the Cameron/Osborne laser-like focus of just home ownership to solve our housing issues, saying “We need to build more homes for every single type of person needing a home and not focus on one single tenure”.

The private rented sector became a stooge under David Cameron’s watch and still, with increasingly unaffordable Hertford house prices, the majority of new Hertford households will be relying on the rental sector in the future to house them. I can only say Westminster must put in place the measures that will allow the rental sector to flourish. Any restrictions on the supply of rental property will push up rents (bad news for tenants), thus side-lining those members of Hertford society who are already struggling.

"Your local property experts, our advice is free but our knowledge is priceless" 

  

           

I have been in and around the Hertfordshire property market for over 25 years, starting as an estate agent in the county town of Hertford and now running a successful lettings and property management company based in Stanstead Abbotts. I have let and managed property all over Hertfordshire from the area that I currently work to Wheathampstead where I owned and managed a lettings & estate agents to Watford and surrounding areas where my company acted as a marketing agent for one of the largest property management companies in the country”

Buntingford Buy To Let, £900 PCM and over 4% Yield

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Here we have a two bedroom ground floor maisonette in a central location in the small town of Buntingford. The property comprises large entrance hall and living room, two double bedrooms, recently re-fitted kitchen and bathroom. Recently re-fitted master bedroom. Gas central heating via radiators, double glazing. Communal garden and allocated parking space. Offered chain free.


This property is ready to rent and should achieve around £900 pcm providing a Yield of over 4%. 

Click Here For Details

Your local property experts, our advice is free but our knowledge is priceless" 

  

           

I have been in and around the Hertfordshire property market for over 25 years, starting as an estate agent in the county town of Hertford and now running a successful lettings and property management company based in Stanstead Abbotts. I have let and managed property all over Hertfordshire from the area that I currently work to Wheathampstead where I owned and managed a lettings & estate agents to Watford and surrounding areas where my company acted as a marketing agent for one of the largest property management companies in the country”

Brexit and Ware property values..............

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Even the Brexit vote has not hindered the Ware regions steady rise in property value, as Ware and the surrounding Villages property values went up 3.5% last 3 months alone, leaving Ware region values 10.9% higher than a year ago. An increase in demand from buyers and an uninspiring level of supply (i.e. the number of properties on the market) has driven up the value of the Ware regions housing.

…And that is where the issue is. With Brexit, the coalition of the 2010-15, a double-dip recession and post credit crunch fallout but the Ware region property market (and values) have remained strong, still 45% higher than 60 months ago. That is until you start to look into the real reasons why we find ourselves in such a great place.

The Ware region housing market is built on the foundations of basic economic rules that any GCSE Economics student should understand. However, at a time when, as a country, we seem eager to uncouple ourselves from all manner of proven facts, anything is up for grabs.

Even RICS said throughout the UK, most of its Chartered Surveyors anticipated house prices to increase in the next six months, which seems contradictory given economic cautions from Mr Hammond and HM Treasury. Even though inflation will rise to around 2% to 3% in 2017 and perhaps a little more in 2018 because of Sterling’s devaluation, together with a high probability of a decelerating GDP and a slight rise in unemployment, how can the RICS and most of my landlords be so confident about the value of our homes?

Well, look from where we are starting. Nationally, a base of low unemployment, low inflation and preposterously low interest rates, while in the Ware region, the local economy is doing quite well for itself. Confidence also plays a part. Confidence can supersede basic economic facts for a short time at least, which is why actual property market changes tend to be more exaggerated, as confidence can turn both positive and negative very quickly. The fact is, there is a long-term relationship between property values, wages and unemployment. For example, looking at the graph below, you can quite clearly see the ratio of property values to earnings is nowhere near as high as it reached in 2008 and currently is in the middle of the range for the last 30 years. As a country, we are in a good place.

 p/e ratio: 3.58

By April 2017, Article 50 will be invoked. This will bring additional political tomfooleries and economic ups and downs. With both purchasers and vendors predisposed by the 24-hour news cycle, which let’s face it, gets more haphazard by the day, it is likely to prove a challenging couple of years … and yes, Ware region property values might drop slightly in 2017, but based on what we know of the UK plc now, the UK and Ware property values are not projected to move that much over 2017 or 2018.  Going into the next two years, we are in much better financial shape as a country compared to the last two crashes of 1987 and 2008.

But, on the other side of the coin, what we also know is that we don’t know much about the form of our economic future or indeed many other facets of our lives. Confidence will continue to be the key player in the Ware region housing market for a while longer – yet this may spur some much needed second-hand market activity.

Your local property experts, our advice is free but our knowledge is priceless" 

  

           

I have been in and around the Hertfordshire property market for over 25 years, starting as an estate agent in the county town of Hertford and now running a successful lettings and property management company based in Stanstead Abbotts. I have let and managed property all over Hertfordshire from the area that I currently work to Wheathampstead where I owned and managed a lettings & estate agents to Watford and surrounding areas where my company acted as a marketing agent for one of the largest property management companies in the country”