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It’s hard to believe we are already at the end of February 2017! The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) are predicting that housing prices will increase by 20% over the next 5 years (4% per year), and that Rental Prices will track slightly higher than this at 5% annually. This is of course an average across the country and across all property types, so it doesn’t follow that all properties will increase in value. Some areas will see a decline. The forecast is based on RICS expectation that there will continue to be less properties on the market for sale or rent than there is demand. This is consistent with previous articles we have written, and in the short term, we do not anticipate any change in this trend. It also highlights the ongoing problem the government faces in building enough properties to meet the demand in the market (see our article on the Housing White Paper). This is further supported by the January UK Cities House Price Index from Hometrack ...

  I spotted an article on the BBC website this week entitled “£1m raided from tenants' deposits by letting agents”, which I thought was worth commenting on.   Most landlords and tenants are aware that Landlords and Agents have been required to protect deposits in an approved scheme since 6 th April 2007. What most are not aware of is that there are two types of deposit schemes which can be used.   Custodial Scheme In a custodial scheme, your landlord/agent pays the deposit into the scheme and the scheme looks after it. In this scheme, the landlord or agent does not hold the money, it is held in an account belonging to the scheme, and the deposit can only be released with agreement from both the landlord and tenant.   There is also a dispute resolution service which helps to settle any disagreement between the landlord and tenant, and ensure that any money due is returned to the parties involved within a reasonable time frame.   An...

On 7 th February 2017, the Government released its housing white paper “Fixing our broken housing market”. The paper has received mixed reviews, but most feel it simply doesn’t address the fundamental issues facing the market, and offers little in terms of solutions. In this initial article, I will simply focus on what the paper outlines, and we will address their suitability in future articles.   I have added additional commentary in blue.   Why is the Housing Market Broken?   The according to the government paper, the market is broken for the following reasons: ·          We don’t build enough homes – Since 1970,we have built on average 160,000 per year when we need to be building 275,000. ·          Housing is increasingly unaffordable. Today’s average house costs 8 times average earnings. ·          Planning permiss...

Since the time when Margaret Thatcher first announced that everyone should own their own home in 1971, the percentage of people who owned their own home grew from 50% in 1971 to 69% in 2001. Since then, there has been a steady decline, with the figure at just 64.8% in 2015. This has been partly driven by rising house prices, partly by the increase needed in the deposit first time buyers need to find, and party because Basingstoke first time buyers were in competition with Basingstoke landlords to buy these smaller starter homes, pushing house prices up in the 2000’s beyond the reach of first time buyers. Many other factors have also impacted this of course, such as  economics, the banks and government policy. Despite the rhetoric from the government and certain charities, I believe that the landlords of the 5,499 Basingstoke rental properties are making many positive contributions to Basingstoke and the people of Basingstoke. Basingstoke (and the rest of the UK) is not...

Win a Fitness Tracker (5 to win) As part of our Sponsorship of the 2017 Hook Fun Run & Road Race on the 21st May we are running a competition. We have got 5 Fitness Trackers to win to get you ready for the 2017 Hook Fun Run & Road Race on the 21st May. To enter simply put your location in the comment section (e.g. Chineham or Hook) like and share our page at   https://www.facebook.com/macbasingstoke/ Hope you all get to enter one of our Races at Martin & Co 2.5 Mile Hook Fun Run https://www.facebook.com/events/1862152027403269/ or 2017 Martin & Co 10 Mile Race https://www.facebook.com/events/201451893654123/ Competition ends 28th February at midnight. Good luck and get sharing at https://www.facebook.com/macbasingstoke/

In May last year, George Osborne published an official HM Treasury analysis stating UK house prices would be lower by at least 10% (and up to 18%) by the middle of 2018 compared with what would have been expected if the UK remained in the European Union. So, eight months on from the Referendum, are we beginning to show signs of that prophecy? The simple answer is yes and no.   Good barometers of the housing market are the share prices of the big UK builders. Much was made of Barratt’s share price dropping by 42.5% in the two weeks after Brexit, along with Taylor Wimpey’s equally eye watering drop in the same two weeks by 37.9%. Looking at the most recent set of data from the Land Registry, property values in Basingstoke are 1.55% down month on month (and the month before that, they weren’t much better with a decrease of 0.04%) – so is this the time to panic and run for the hills?   Well, it’s certainly not the Doom and Gloom it may appear. As we have men...

As we start the new year, there have been a number of reports published regarding the property market in 2017, with some conflicting news about the market.   Rightmove Rental Trends Tracker Rightmove, the largest property sales and lettings portal in the UK, released their latest figures for the rental market in 2017. Rightmove are forecasting that rents will rise by 4% nationally outside London, although the market in London is expected to see a decline of 4.4%. This rise is largely being driven by a lack of available stock for prospective tenants.   This needs to be taken in context however. Certain properties are more in demand than others (1 and 2 bed properties being most in demand), as are the location of properties and their proximity to town centres, railway stations, major travel routes, popular schools and so on. So, don't expect rents to increase by 4% for every property in every location. This is consistent with previous articles...