Welcome to the Basingstoke Property Blog

As the father of 27 and 25 year olds, I often worry about their ability to purchase a property, and am pretty sure a contribution will be required from the bank of Mum and Dad. I was also prompted by a response to one of our recent articles about new properties available in Basingstoke, that the prices simply were unaffordable for first-time buyers in Basingstoke. There can be no doubt that buy to let landlords have played their part in driving up property values in Basingstoke (and the UK) and from that, made housing a lot less affordable for the 20 and 30 somethings of Basingstoke. The BoE has a target for the annual inflation rate of the Consumer Prices Index of 2%, whilst it is also required to support the Government’s economic policy, including its objectives for growth and employment .   So, should BoE be charged with containing buy to let housing market, by possibly changing the rules on the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio’s? If we want to look at how affordable p...

Starting with the bigger picture, over the last 12 months in the UK, 1,061,557 properties were sold with a total value of £223.74 bn. To give that some context, ten years ago 1,581,727 properties sold with a total value of £405.56bn, so it can be seen the number of people moving house has dropped by over a third over the last decade. Whether you are a landlord, homeowner or tenant, it’s always important to keep an eye on the Basingstoke property market, not just from your point of view, but also from every player’s point of view. Over the last 12 months, 1,702 properties have sold (and completed) in Basingstoke, worth £504.2m. Interestingly the number of properties changing hands in Basingstoke has also dropped when compared to a decade ago. It might surprise you to know that the number of first-time buyers in 2017 are expected to far outnumber the number of buy-to-let investors in Basingstoke. Those first-time buyers looking to purchase a home in the spring and summ...

There have been a number of stories recently about fraudsters posing as legitimate property owners and then selling or renting the property without the owners’ knowledge, until it’s too late of course.   Whilst it may seem like a rare and unlikely event to most of us, if your property is empty or if you rent a property, there is a much higher likelihood that this may happen. As many estate agents’ will tell you, it is surprisingly easy in today’s online world, to find out a lot of information about a property and its owner(s) through easily accessible public information.   How can it happen? Firstly, the fraudster identifies a property that may either be empty, or available to rent. This is simple to do using websites such as Gumtree or property websites such as Rightmove and Zoopla.   They can then either pose as the landlord, the owner of the property or even rent the property as a legitimate tenant. The lengths that people are willing to go to var...

I was recently talking to a landlord who was considering renting a very nice bungalow in Old Basing, and we were discussing the potential tenants that would be attracted to such a property. It got me thinking, and I decided to do a little research into the likelihood that an older couple might rent such a property.   Recent statistics published by the Office of National Statistics show that there are 267,704 private rented households in the Country that are occupied by people aged 65 and older, meaning 4.39% of OAP’s are living in private rented property. It got me thinking two things. How many of these OAP’s have always rented and how many have sold up and become a tenant?   In retirement, selling up could make financial sense to the mature generation in Basingstoke, potentially allowing them to liquidate the equity of their main home to enhance their retirement income.   I wanted to know why these older people rent and whether there was opportunity for the b...

I saw this on the market and thought it would make an ideal buy to let, with a rental of around £950 per month (we already rent one here). The property has an updated lease of 160 years and comes with a garage. I would recommend this property for long term renting. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-66008456.html

 photo kindly given permission from www.soderberg.photography There are two interesting trends in the market that have come together at the same time, which make me wonder if now is not the right time to start investing in more property again. Low Mortgage Rates Firstly, the steady decline in mortgage rates over the last nine years has seen the average new lending rate fall from a peak of more than six per cent in 2008, to today’s 2.2 per cent, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). As a result, and in spite of steadily rising house prices, mortgage interest costs as a percentage of income have been falling for the majority of homebuyers. In recent weeks, we have seen many mortgage products coming to the market at rates between 1.14% and 4.4% depending on the size of deposit that the purchaser can put down, and the size of “arrangement” fee imposed by the mortgage company. The arrangement fees can range anywhere from as low as £0, to as much as £1,750 ...