Current property news headlines tend to paint a picture of falling house prices. But a story in Which? magazine on the 1st of December indicated that average prices – based on official Land Registry figures – have fallen by only 0.1% in the past 12 months. The average price of a home in the UK remains close to the all-time high of £293,000 recorded in November last year.
Against that background, let’s take a peek at some of the other property news.
House Price Index: November 2023
When it compiled its house price index for November, the online listings website Zoopla recorded a somewhat steeper annual dip in average house prices – down 1.2% to £264,600 compared with the average price just one year ago.
Although rising mortgage interest rates have dampened demand, says Zoopla, the volume of transactions holds reasonably steady as the number of homes on the market reached a six-year high.
This has created something of a buyers’ market, with sellers granting discounts of an average of 5.5% or £18,000 on the advertised price.
Zoopla forecasts a continued decline in average prices during the course of 2024, but the fall could be arrested if mortgage interest rates are reduced.
Flat conversions may no longer need planning permission
During his Autumn Statement to Parliament on the 25th of November, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt revealed government plans to abolish the need for planning permission when owners choose to convert a single house into two flats.
In its coverage of the proposals, the Mail Online recognized that the move is proving controversial because it could deny local communities the right of input to changes that could alter the character of the area.
Nevertheless, the government – and supporters of the plans – argues that the proposed “permitted development right” would encourage an increase in the supply of homes both for rent and for sale while also helping to lower the average cost of more affordable dwellings.
Slashing the need for red tape could help to increase the number of affordable homes, say commentators, although a higher number of residents will exacerbate parking problems and probably invite opposition from those already living in the neighbourhood.
Up to 50% of southern England landlords looking to sell up
The exodus of landlords from the buy to let market continues apace – though with notable differences in the south of England compared with the north, argued an article in Landlord Zone on the 30th of November.
Landlords in parts of southern England, for example, are selling up and leaving the market altogether at the alarming rate of 52%. While half of the existing number of landlords are leaving in this part of the country, the rate is “only” 26% and 22% in the northern conurbations of Leeds and Manchester respectively. Across the country as a whole, the proportion of landlords giving up their buy to let businesses is around 17%.
The reasons for the north-south divide are many and varied. At least one reason advanced for the difference in attitudes among landlords is that the north has seen a higher rate of growth in the price of residential property in the past year – creating the impression of it being a safer place for investment than the south of the country.
Older renters moving to cheaper areas and smaller homes
Against the background of rising rents and a dearth of available properties, older tenants are looking to cheaper parts of the country and generally smaller homes in which to move, according to a story in Landlord Today on the 30th of November.
The trend is supported by figures on the types of tenancy agreed by older renters with incomes of between £30,000 and £70,000 a year. In this sample, a recent survey indicated that during the first six months of this year fewer than half of new tenancies were for homes with three or more bedrooms (the remainder were for one and two-bedroom rental properties.
During the same period in 2020, however, 57% of new tenancies were for homes offering three or more bedrooms.
