There I was, walking down
to the post office the other day, when a smart gentleman approached me.
‘Hello’, he said, ‘You are the person writes that Property Blog aren’t you? We
have met before at that Network XPRESS business expo in Burgess Hill last month’.
I did then recognise him and, whilst I won’t mention his name, he runs a small well
known independent retailer in the town.
He wanted to know my
thoughts on the future of the Burgess Hill property market, and I would now
like to share with you that conversation, my Burgess Hill property Blog reading
friends. People are always going to need a roof over their heads and somewhere
to live will never go out of fashion – it’s a necessity for every single
person. The 22 to 30 year olds of the town have a choice to what type of roof
they have, they rent from the Council, they can rent from a private landlord or
finally they can get a mortgage and buy one. In the 1970’s/80’s and 90’s, the
expected thing was to save like mad for two years for the deposit (going
without luxuries) whilst living at home or renting a cheap two up two down, then
buy your first house. However, more recently fewer Burgess Hill youngsters have
been buying, choosing to rent instead – mainly from private landlords (as
Councils have been selling off council housing on the Right to Buy Schemes). The
numbers are truly staggering and I want to share them with you.
Roll the clock back 20
years and Burgess Hill was a different place. There were 10,255 households in Burgess
Hill and 8,367 of those were owner occupied. Move to the present, and with all
the building in the town, the total number of households has increased by 20.16%
to 12,322 and quite surprising (to me at least), the number of owner-occupiers
has increased to 9,582 (although as a proportion, it is only 77.7% compared to 81.5%
twenty years ago).
However, it is the rented
sector that is truly fascinating; twenty years ago only 404 properties were
privately rented in Burgess Hill, now its 1272, a rise of 868.
The twenty-somethings of Burgess
Hill housing difficulties haven’t been helped by the local authority selling
off council housing, with the number of council houses dropping from 425 to 67
over the same twenty-year period. Demand for decent rented property remains
high, as Cameron’s much vaunted house building program is years away and has
decades of under investment to catch up on before it starts to affect demand.
Even with the Buy to Let tax rule changes over the coming few years (which will
see the maximum tax relief available to landlords drop from 45% to 20%), private
landlords still have an important role to play in housing the people of Burgess
Hill and those who educate themselves and treat it as a business will survive
and prosper.
The best way Burgess Hill
landlords can protect their income from property (and mitigate the affects of
the tax rises) is to keep the homes they let out in Grade A condition. I have
found, especially over the last three or four years, Burgess Hill tenants have
ever growing demands from their rental property, but many are prepared to pay
‘top dollar‘ for houses and apartments that meet their high expectations. You
must not forget, letting property in Burgess Hill (in fact anywhere) is a
business, so all private landlords should also seek the advice, opinion and
commentary of property professionals.
He also asked, ‘What of the
news of Stamp Duty changes for Landlords coming in April?’ My thoughts are with
such low supply (i.e. numbers of property for sale), and high demand it is hard
to imagine Burgess Hill property values will see much impact – but I predict,
ever so slightly, the proportion of owner occupiers should increase slightly compared
to buy to let landlords in the coming decade as the housing market should
return to balance. For more in-depth thoughts on the Burgess Hill Property
Market, please visit my blog – www.midsussexproperty.blogspot.co.uk
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