What a year 2020 was! Yet, the property market has not only survived but also continued to prosper.
As we saw things through to the end of the year, here are some of the news headlines that caught our attention.
Gas boilers could become an issue for landlords
Do you maintain a gas boiler in your let property? Gas-fired boilers for hot water or central heating are especially popular among landlords but have also become the focus of mounting concern, according to a story published by Landlord Today in December.
The article recounted advice given to government by the independent Committee on Climate Change which urged a ban on the sale of gas boilers after the year 2033 – in just 12 years’ time. Furthermore, said the Committee, the generation of all electricity needs to be carbon-zero by 2035 if the government is to achieve its target of net zero emissions by 2050.
Any ban on the sale of gas boilers, of course, would be part of the overall strategy of moving towards cleaner energy.
It is only 18 months ago that the government promised to make it illegal to install gas boilers in any newly-built home after 2025. This would be achieved by introducing a new “future homes standard” stipulating that all new residential buildings have to be heated through low-carbon devices – such as electric heat pumps.
What will happen in 2021 to house prices?
Anyone who can accurately predict future markets is likely to make themselves rich indeed. Our closest estimates are instead usually based on current trends and the forecasts of informed market analysts.
In its story on the 23rd of December, the Express newspaper turned to just such trends in an attempt to forecast the movement of house prices in 2021.
The overall picture seems to be one of uncertainty. Currently, for example, the property market continues to ride the wave of the revival that followed the lifting of the first national lockdown. With the release of the previously pent-up demand, prices began to rise, and that buoyancy was further encouraged by the Chancellor’s introduction of a Stamp Duty holiday.
As the New Year wears on, however, the tax holiday will expire at the end of March, furlough schemes will come to their natural conclusion, and unemployment may begin to rise. These are all factors likely to herald a fall in house prices.
Building society, the Halifax, for instance, forecasts a fall of between 2% and 5% – with the extreme end of that scale seeing the average house price drop by some £12,660.
The CEO of a property group cited by the Express newspaper, nevertheless predicted that house prices would bounce back again towards the latter part of 2021.
Taking the year as a whole, therefore, the fortunes seem to be mixed – falling from a current high, dropping by anywhere between 2% and 5%, before picking up once again in the second half of the year.
Help demanded for landlords to meet energy targets
Although it broadly supports the government’s aims of improving the energy efficiency of the whole housing stock, the National Residential Landlords’ Association (NRLA) has called for publicly-funded support for landlords to help realise those aims.
In a press release on the 22nd of December, the NRLA argued that landlords – especially those owning older properties in so-called post-industrial regions of the country – could face the biggest challenges and the heaviest financial burdens.
The government has already announced a target of increasing the minimum energy efficiency rating in let property to band C by the year 2025. Yet reducing carbon emissions and improving the energy efficiency of older property is invariably more expensive.
Although the government has mooted increasing the cap on the maximum expenditure covered by the Green Homes Grants scheme from the present ÂŁ3,500 to ÂŁ10,000. The NRLA has asked for an explanation about how the new figure was determined and for an indication of further financial support for landlords.
