Welcome to the Basingstoke Property Blog

As we approach the end of the year, it’s a good time to catch up on some of the headline numbers for the Basingstoke property market.   In the last month, Basingstoke property values rose by 0.18%, leaving them, year on year 12.2% higher, whilst interestingly, Basingstoke asking prices are down 2.0% month on month. All three statistics go to show the Basingstoke property market has recovered well after the summer lull, which was worsened by the uncertainty surrounding the EU vote back in June. Irrespective of all the issues, the average value of a Basingstoke home now stands at £342,600.   Generally, Basingstoke asking prices continue to hold up well, as asking prices are 4.7% higher year on year. At this time of year, asking prices tend to drop on the run up to Christmas and locally, they have dropped by 2.0% this month (November 2016), although this compares well with last year’s drop in Basingstoke asking prices, as we saw asking prices drop by 1.1% in No...

The semi-detached house with its bay windows and net curtains has long been ridiculed as an emblem of safe, lacklustre and desperately uncool suburban life; the homes of the likes of Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping up Appearances and more latterly Alan Partridge – but they could have the last laugh - having enjoyed the highest price growths of any property type in Basingstoke, up by an average 313% increase in the last twenty years.   The semi can now laugh in the face of its posher detached counterpart, which saw a rise of only 251% in the same 20-year period. Looking at smaller properties, flats/apartments rose 287%, whilst terraced houses did slightly better at 308% (although they were starting from a lower base and demand from buy to let landlords has had a big part in driving the values on that type of house ( i.e. the price a buy to let landlord is prepared to pay is driven by the rent the landlord can achieve ). In 1996 the average value of a Basingstoke semi stood ...

Figures just released by the Bank of England, show that for the first half of 2016, £128.73bn was lent by UK banks to buy UK property - impressive when you consider only £106.7bn was lent in the first half of 2015. Even more interesting, was that most of the difference was in Q2, as £68.12bn was lent by UK banks in new mortgages for house purchase, which is the highest it has been for two years. Looking locally, in Basingstoke last quarter, £758.6m was loaned on RG22 properties alone! Even though the Bank won’t be releasing the Q3 figures until December 2016, HMRC have published their own preliminary data to suggest Q3 will be even better, with a massive growth of buy-to-let landlords to the housing market in that time frame. Fascinating, as it seems to fly in the face of the popular narrative – that the uncertainty surrounding Brexit would negatively impact buyer sentiment. And it’s not just buy-to-let landlords that seem to be flourishing. I am finding that first-time buyers a...

I was on Rightmove this morning and saw two low guides, which are ideal for buy to lets. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-45608319.html http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-45608322.html Both are for being auctioned and will sell on the day, they will be rented for around £650 per month, so depending on the price around £115,000 would be 6.8% however they might go for less then this even if you are lucky on the day. The lowest guide is £75,000 which is over 10%.

Apart from some minor exemptions, Stamp Duty is paid by anyone buying a property over £125,000 in the UK. It presently raises £10.68bn a year for the HM Treasury (interesting when compared with £27.6bn in fuel duty, £10.69bn in alcohol duty and £9.48bn in tobacco duty). In the latest set of data from HMRC, in the Parliamentary Constituency that covers Basingstoke, property buyers paid £8m stamp duty in one year alone – a lot of money in anyone’s eyes (although not as much as the £279m in income tax that all of us in the same area paid last year). However, as you may know, the government introduced an additional tax for landlords, and from 1st April 2016 they had to pay an additional 3% stamp duty surcharge on top of the normal stamp duty rate when purchasing a buy to let or second property. There were tales of woe and Armageddon with a report by Deutsche Bank suggesting that the new surcharge could see house prices fall by as much as 20%. HMRC data released in the Summer fo...

Basingstoke property values have been increasing steadily, and went up 0.66% last month alone, leaving Basingstoke property values 13.1% 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 Basingstoke’s housing. Values are 18.5% higher than 20 months ago. The usually wary RICS said throughout the UK, most of its Chartered Surveyors anticipated house prices to increase in the next six months which seems contradictory, given some of the economic cautions from the government 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?   We have to look at the market conditions we are starting fr...

Legislation Update - changes over the past 12 months that may impact your property I have had a number of conversations with landlords recently about legislation changes and how this may affect their properties or tenancies. As there have been a number of these over the past 12 months, I have produced a brief summary below. This is not exhaustive, as others were also introduced in Scotland and Wales as well as legislation relating to Retaliatory Evictions in England, however it does cover the most likely ones you will encounter. In each case there are links to provide additional information should you need it. Smoke Detectors From October 1st 2015, a smoke alarm must be fitted on each storey of a premises where there is a room used wholly or partly as living accommodation. These must be checked to be working at the start of each tenancy. This would include a ground floor entrance hall to an upstairs living space for example. Please click here for a government gu...

Back in the Spring, there was a surge in Basingstoke landlords buying Buy to Let property in Basingstoke as they tried to beat George Osborne’s new stamp duty changes which kicked in on the 1 st April 2016. To give you an idea of the sort of numbers we are talking about, below are the property statistics for sales either side of the deadline in RG21.     Jan 2016 33 properties sold     Feb 2016 41 properties sold     March 2016 71 properties sold     April 2016 20 properties sold     May 2016 21 properties sold     Normally, the number of sales in the Spring months is very similar, irrespective of the month. However, as one can see, this year was a completely different picture as landlords moved their purchases forward to beat the stamp d...