The honeymoon’s over. A new Labour Party has been in office for several months now and the hard work of practical government has begun in earnest. What is this likely to mean for the UK property market and related issues?
Let’s take a look behind some of the more recent news headlines and find out.
Shelter demands changes to make Renters Rights Bill tougher
The successor to the previous government’s Renters’ Reform Bill is the only slightly renamed Renters’ Rights Bill – but the latter appears to go somewhat further, as far as the protections for tenants are concerned.
Even so, said Housing Today on the 2nd of October, the housing charity Shelter is pressing the government to make the current bill still more favourable for tenants. In particular, it wants:
- a two-year “buffer” period at the start of every tenancy during which any “no fault” eviction is barred – similar to the rules already in place in France and Germany where there is greater security and stability for longer tenancies;
- referring again to the example of Germany, Shelter also wants to see annual rent increases limited either to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate of inflation or growth in wages (whichever is the lowest);
- landlords should be limited to requesting a maximum of one month’s rent in advance; and
- situations in which landlords request a “guarantor” should be limited to those where there is significant doubt about the prospective tenant’s ability to afford the rent.
What’s the average UK energy bill?
The website Rightmove has updated its regular analysis of average energy bills in the UK according to the size of the property and its current energy performance certificate (EPC).
Not only does the research show how much the average household is paying for the energy consumed but underscores yet again the savings that can be made by upgrading the energy efficiency of a home.
Taking the example of a humble one-bedroom flat, for example, the energy bill for one that is so poorly insulated that it rates a meagre EPC of G is a whopping £3,788 a year. If only the owners could boost the energy efficiency all the way up to an A rating, the annual bill would drop to just £605.
At the top of the range, of course, the savings are even more marked. A 5-bedroomed detached house that has a G-rated EPC will cost an average of £10,097 a year to heat. If it were to be upgraded to an A rating that annual bill would be a measly £831.
The overall average is somewhere in between. Rightmove cites the example of a 3-bedroom semi-detached house with an EPC of D. Here the average expenditure on energy is £2,311 a year (if only it had an A rating the bill could be slashed to just £540 annually).
Nationwide House Price Index: September
September saw the biggest rise in average house prices in two years, according to the House Price Index compiled by Nationwide.
The 0.7% increase in average house prices during September translates into an annual increase to date of 3.2% – the highest it has been since November 2022. The increases are likely to have resulted from salaries growing at a faster pace than house prices and a general downward trend in mortgage interest rates.
Regionally, average house prices rose fastest in Northern Ireland – up 8.6% in this the third quarter of the year. East Anglia bucked the national trend by recording a 0.8% fall in average prices.
21 people bid for every rental property, and supply remains a major problem, so rents are pushed higher
The online listings website Zoopla in a posting on the 13th of September painted a dismal picture for tenants looking to rent a home.
It noted that although the demand for rented accommodation has fallen off somewhat, there are still an average of 21 applicants for every rental vacancy – more than twice the number of prospective tenants pre-pandemic.
Indeed, there are 24% fewer homes for rent than before the pandemic and investment by landlords in the private sector is sluggish, to say the least. The Autumn Budget could prompt still more landlords to quit the market altogether, suggests Zoopla.
With demand continuing to outstrip supply, rent levels continue to rise – in some metropolitan areas by double digits.
