“How far do Southampton
people go to move to a new house?” This was an intriguing question asked by one
of my clients the other week. Readers of my property blog will know I love a
challenge, especially when it comes to talking about the Southampton Property
Market!
For the majority, the response
is - not very far. It is much more common for homeowners and tenants in Great
Britain to move across town than to the next town or county. Until
now, it’s been hard to say how many homeowners and tenants moved from (and to)
relatively far away to buy or rent their new home. However, I carried out some
research and requested some statistics from the Royal Mail. What came back was fascinating!
Using statistics
for the 12 months up to the middle of Autumn 2016, 665 households moved out of Southampton
(SO16), moving an average distance of 34.63 miles - the equivalent of moving
from Southampton to Bognor Regis (as the crow flies). The greatest distance travelled was 565 miles
– that’s more than 21.5 marathons (when someone moved to the Orkney Islands).
Considering there
were 648 property sales in SO16 in the year and countless tenant moves, the numbers seems consistent – once
you find a city you like, you tend to want to settle down and if you do move,
you might only move to a different neighbour-hood, or for better transport
links or, to be closer to the school you want to get your children into, but the
likelihood is you won’t travel far.
I then turned my attention to
people moving into Southampton. Using the same statistics for the
12 months up to the middle of Autumn 2016, 512 households moved into Southampton
(SO16), moving an average distance of 36.86 miles - the equivalent of moving
from Farnborough to Southampton (again as the crow flies). The greatest
distance travelled was 458 miles – that’s more than 17.5 marathons (when
someone moved from Peterhead in Scotland to Southampton).
I have looked at the
data of every person moving into Southampton and these have been plotted on a
map of the UK. Looking at the map below, it shows exactly where most people
come from, when moving into Southampton. As you can see, there are a high
proportion of people moving from London and also from the South West.
So, what does all this mean for the landlords and
homeowners of Southampton?
When an agent markets a property for rent or sale,
it is vital to know the tenant or property buyer
well, that the properties they are letting/selling fit those tenants/buyers, so
they almost sell themselves. These days that means not only knowing how many
bedrooms, reception rooms etc., a property offers but the budget buyers and tenants
want to spend on a property in that area as well as where they come from.
The estate and lettings industry loves the mantra
“location, location, location”. I say it might be helpful to factor in where
(and how) far people are moving from, so the property can be sold or let more
easily. Many say knowledge is power and whilst I do enjoy writing my blog on
the Southampton property market, I also use the information to help my clients
buy, let and sell well. So for example, the information gained for this
article, will enable my team and I to be more efficient in where to direct our
marketing resources to ensure we maximise our clients’ properties sale-ability
or rent-ability.
If you are looking for an agent that is well established, professional andcommunicative, then contact us to find out how we can get the best out of your investment property.
Email me on brian.linehan@belvoirlettings.com or call on 023 8001 8222.
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Twitter, https://twitter.com/sotonbelvoir
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