What Will Happen to Southampton House Prices in 2022?

Traditionally, if you had not sold your Southampton home by the first week in November, you would normally have to wait for the house sellers to return in the famous Boxing Day rush on the portals (Rightmove, Zoopla etc) to get potential buyers interested.

Yet matters have been different this year as the various lockdowns have caused a surge in house buying right up until when the Christmas edition of the Radio Times goes on sale.

So, the question is, how will 2022 look regarding the Southampton property market?

The last couple of years in the Southampton property market have been different in many ways. So much so, many Southampton homeowners are presently deliberating whether they should put their Southampton home on the market in January or wait until later in the summer.

Speaking to many Southampton buyers and sellers, (and in fact Southampton buy-to-let landlords as well) in the last couple of weeks in the run-up to Christmas, many were asking the very same question.

 

What is going to happen to Southampton house prices in 2022?

 

Some people asking this question are Southampton buyers troubling themselves that they are about to buy their Southampton home just before a potential property crash, yet others are Southampton homeowners wanting to know where the top of the market is before they sell. Even a handful of Southampton landlords are unsure to either start buying or start selling some of their rental portfolio.

Therefore, let’s see what has happened in 2021 to make a better judgement of what should happen in 2022.

Nobody has a crystal ball that can tell what 2022 holds, however most property experts are not forecasting doom and gloom for the British property market.

Whilst the final numbers won’t be known until Easter 2022, it is estimated that in 2021 one in fifteen privately owned homes in the UK are expected to have changed hands, being the busiest year in the last 14 years. Locally,

 

3,833 properties have changed hands in the last year in Southampton

 

Although that is only up to October 2021, so numbers will be much higher once all the final counts are in by March/April.

The pandemic made many Southampton families re-evaluate what they wanted from their Southampton home, with many wanting bigger rooms (and more of them). Many in the press dubbed this ‘the race for space’, meaning the property market was flooded with home buyers, most bringing forward the home move they had planned between now and 2025.

The issue was, there weren’t enough Southampton properties on the market to satisfy every Southampton buyer, meaning Southampton house prices have unsurprisingly been driven up.

 

The average price of a home today in Southampton is £329,900

 

Although it is still premature to say what will happen in 2022, most property commentators seem assured that we are not heading towards a house price crash, mainly due to one reason.

There aren’t enough properties on the market in Southampton. Simply supply and demand economics!

The property crash in 2008 was caused by everyone dumping their property on the market.

 

In January 2007, there were 2,619 properties for sale in Southampton, one year later in January 2008, that had risen to 4,434 properties, whilst today, that stands at 930

 

And I can’t see that changing for 2022.

In 2007, mortgage interest rates were 6.5% to 7.5%, so when the economy started to falter, everyone looked to sell their homes to reduce their outgoings as unemployment rose by over 60% in just a couple of years. This time round most people have mortgage rates of around 2% to 2.5% and unemployment is dropping, meaning they don’t need to sell their Southampton home.

Now of course the stamp duty tax holiday came to an end months ago, and Bank of England base interest rates are expected to rise moderately in the coming year, yet not to the level they were in 2007 (5.75%).

Nonetheless, demand for Southampton homes will still be there. I have even read some reports suggesting that more than 20% of British households are seriously thinking of moving between now and the summer of 2023, and this will support Southampton house prices whilst demand continues to exceed supply.

 

Southampton house prices will be 1.9% higher by the end of 2022

 

Another reason why I believe that will be the case is the return to home working. If, as a country, we will need to work from home each winter for the foreseeable future because of new variants, then this will cement the need for people wanting to move home for remote working. 

It might be that Southampton buyers are looking for a dedicated office at home or that they feel they now no longer need to be in large built-up areas that are near to their work. 

This increase in Southampton house prices is expected to entice even more Southampton house sellers onto the market, which will steady Southampton house prices slightly (as supply increases), yet I still believe there won’t be enough properties coming onto the market to satisfy the colossal demand.

 

What about the Southampton rental market?

 

Rents tend to grow in line with tenants’ wages. So, with many people getting decent pay rises and not enough properties being built, many economists are suggesting rents will be 14% to 19% higher by 2027. Even with the house price growth, the numbers for rental investments still look rosy.

 

Is it the right time to buy your first property in Southampton?

 

This rise in Southampton house prices has had many people asking whether 2022 is the right time to buy their first home? Should they buy now before Southampton prices rocket even further or delay in the hope that house prices come back down? 

As with any important decision in life, this will mainly depend on your own personal life and your motives for wanting to move. 

If the Southampton home that you want to buy is on the market, available and you can afford the mortgage, then delaying could be detrimental. It’s like holding off for the ‘next generation TV’, it then coming out; then just as you are about to buy the TV, the next ‘next generation TV’ gets announced for six months’ time ... and the cycle is constantly in motion – so you end up never buying a TV … just like you will never buy your own home!

 

Buying property is a long-term game

 

Sometimes you just have to make your decision, get something bought and start the journey of the next 25 to 35 years of living in your family home whilst paying off your mortgage.

The present low interest rates for first-time buyers means that there are some very low mortgage deals available for those with a decent deposit, making it a good time to buy a Southampton property, especially if you fix the interest rate.

If your deposit is humbler, the Government’s 5% deposit mortgage guarantee scheme will still enable you to buy a property, albeit at a slightly higher interest rate.

Looking at the bigger picture, these are only my opinions. If inflation doesn’t get too out of hand and interest rates don’t go above 2% to 3%, it looks like Southampton house prices will, for 2022 and a few years beyond, continue upwards albeit with a slower trajectory than 2020/21 and probably with a few short, sharp up and down spikes on the way.

The bottom line is, ensure that any Southampton house move that you intend to make is something that you can afford, allow for future rises in interest rates and make plans for as many eventualities as possible. Do that, and you should be just fine.

These are my opinions – what are yours?

 

 

 

Southampton People’s Addiction to Their Spare Bedrooms?

 

The Housing Minister, Chris Pincher, has suggested older homeowners are “rattling around” in their homes as they are too big for them. He implied they are selfish and should sell up and move to a retirement home when he spoke to a committee in the House of Lords. He stated that many British homes are “under-occupied” and could be better used by younger families with children.

He went on to say that the Government will aim to persuade UK housebuilders to build more developments suitable for OAPs, freeing up space in their existing homes, which in turn would open up more homes for first and second-time buyers.

So why is this an issue?

The fundamental problem of the Southampton housing ‘crisis’, is the point that the supply of Southampton homes has not historically met demand, thus increasing property values (and in turn rents), consequently ensuring home ownership becomes an unattainable ambition for the twenty something’s of Southampton.

Call me a pragmatist, but it’s understandable that either demand needs to drop or supply needs to rise to stop this trend getting worse for the generations to come.

Don’t get me wrong, I admire Westminster’s plans to help first-time buyers with their ‘First Homes’ initiative to increase the supply of new homes being built just for first-time buyers. Yet it’s targeted to deliver only 1,500 homes in around 100 locations in the next two years.

To give you an idea of how this is a drop in the ocean, the Government sponsored the independent Barker Review of Housing Supply Report in 2004, which was tasked at looking at what could be done to level the playing field regarding the housing needs for the UK. The report found that the UK needed 240,000 homes to be built each year just to meet the demand of a growing and aging population. Since 2000, the average number of properties built in the UK each year has only been 177,975 per year. This means we have been around 62,000 homes short per year. Therefore, after 20 years of this annual shortfall we, as a country, have 1,240,500 too few homes – hence the massive uplift in house prices over the last two decades.

Therefore, one option that could resolve the housing crisis is if the Government literally looked closer to home, concentrating on matching households with the appropriately sized home … and this is what the government have shone a light on … people with too many spare bedrooms.

Is having a spare bedroom something that in this day and age is particularly wasteful? Well, let’s look at the numbers for Southampton.

 

33,300 Southampton homes have one spare bedroom.

Well, everyone in my opinion needs a spare bedroom, especially in the light of lockdown where many of us needed to work from home.

Ok, let’s see who has two or more spare bedrooms.

 

Of the 105,350 households in Southampton 27,287

have two or more spare bedrooms!

Of all the homes in Southampton, be they owned, privately rented or council house, 25.9% of Southampton homes have two or more spare bedrooms, compared to the national average 45.2%.

Breaking it down by ownership/tenure -

Of the 55,622 owned houses in Southampton, 22,116 have two or more spare bedrooms or as expressed as a percentage,

 

39.8% of Southampton owned homes have 2 or more spare bedrooms (compared to the national average of 53.9%).

Of the 23,373 council houses in Southampton, 2,017 have two or more spare bedrooms, or as expressed as a percentage,

 

8.6% of Southampton council homes have 2 or more spare bedrooms (compared to the national average of 11.6%).

Of the 26,355 private rented houses in Southampton, 3,154 have two or more spare bedrooms or as expressed as a percentage,

 

12% of Southampton private rented homes have 2 or more spare bedrooms (compared to the national average of 19.4%).

You can see there is the spare capacity in the Southampton housing market.

The Government hit the social housing sector with their ‘Bedroom tax’ in 2012, (also known as under occupancy charge or spare room subsidy) which meant that in council homes you would receive less in Housing Benefit or Housing Costs Element in a Universal Credit claim if you lived in a housing association or council property and were deemed to have one or more spare bedrooms.

Now it seems the Government have concentrated on the group that makes up the bulk of homeowners with spare bedrooms, the older owner occupiers of large properties, in their 60’s and 70’s, where the kids have flown the nest.

However, there are many explanations why these mature homeowners do not downsize. These people have lived in the same house for 30, 40 even 50 years, and as one matures in life, many people do not want to depart from what they see as the family home. Much time has been invested in making friends in their neighbourhood and it’s nice to have all those rooms in case every grandchild decided to visit, at the same time, and they brought their friends!

But is that a selfish point of view? Are we addicted to our spare bedrooms?

 

Or should the Government keep its nose out of where people live?

I would ask if the ‘Minister of Superfluously Sizeable Houses’ should be kicking you out of the Southampton home you worked for and have spent much of your life in? And why is it assumed that retired homeowners want to downsize to small little bungalows and apartments? Many love their spacious living rooms and kitchens (which are typically found in bigger houses).

 

This Government is in a muddle about housing policy.

On one side of the coin, the Government announced an increase in the tax burden on the British public with a rise to its highest level since the early 1950’s to pay for care and the NHS, yet on the other side of the coin, recently cancelling vote losing policies, so that mature people going into care do not need to sell their homes (which, if you think about it, they won’t live in anyway because they are going to long-term care). Whilst at the same time, to muddy the waters, they are suggesting to mature homeowners they have to move out of those same large homes to free it up for younger families?  If the Government don’t know what the answer is, who does?

 

The subject of downsizing is a delicate one to unravel.

We all know mature homeowners and know that if they moved to a smaller Southampton home they would lose all the space they take for granted and would be unable to have the grandchildren over. Remaining in your large Southampton home is not greedy, it’s just the accepted human longing to enjoy a life after 50 plus years of working and paying your dues and taxes. You could say move to a managed retirement home? Yet many are very small and quite expensive.

I have spoken in previous articles in my blog on the Southampton property market that there aren’t enough bungalows being built either. And anyway, why should you have to relocate and wave goodbye to all your neighbours who have become friends and provide a support network?

There is a case made by some that mature downsizers could be given stamp duty tax breaks to get them to downsize, yet I am not sure how this could be policed, and it doesn’t solve the problem of increasing the overall supply of property in the UK.

 

The real issue isn’t spare bedrooms, it’s the need to change the planning rules to increase the number and type of new homes being built that will satisfy these mature homeowners with excess spare bedrooms to move into.

Big national builders have exploited ham-fisted planning rules since the 1980s, but no political party seems to have the answer. Housing Minister Chris Pincher might say he wants to persuade builders to build more suitable homes for mature people, yet his Government’s actions don’t seem to match his words.

In the Queen’s Speech this spring, the Government announced a proposed new planning system, which would create “simpler, faster procedures for producing local development plans, approving major schemes, assessing environmental impacts and negotiating affordable housing and infrastructure contributions”, or in layman’s terms, allowing more building to take place.

However, word coming out of Government is those plans could be cancelled following the Conservatives’ surprise defeat in the Chesham & Amersham by-election to the Liberal Democrats in the summer, which was blamed by some Conservative MPs on the new proposed planning laws.

So, whilst the Government decide what to do, what can mature Southampton homeowners do if they feel they do want to downsize?

 

The biggest fear many mature Southampton homeowners have is they will sell their large Southampton home but be unable to find anything to buy – thus making themselves homeless.

In this current Southampton housing market, the issue isn’t selling your Southampton home, but ensuring you find the right home to move into. Feel free to drop me a line to discuss how we can potentially sell your own Southampton property, tell the buyer to wait, then we will go and find a home for you to move into in your chosen area of Southampton.

Of course, all this takes time and patience, yet this is what old school estate agents did before the internet and the property portals. There is no extra charge for this and even if we find you a buyer, and for whatever reason the move doesn’t go ahead, there will be no charge.

If you are a Southampton homeowner or Southampton landlord and think this may affect you - feel free to drop me a line.

In the meantime, what are your thoughts about excess ‘spare bedrooms’? Let me know in the comments.

Should Southampton Landlords be worried about these new rental regulations?

 

Everyone should be doing their bit to help reduce the UK’s carbon footprint on the globe – yet the question is, is that burden being put too much on the shoulders of Southampton landlords with potential bills of £7,600+ in the next four years?

The background - the UK has obligated itself to a legally binding target to be carbon neutral by 2050. One of the biggest producers of greenhouse gasses is residential homes.

To hit that carbon-neutral target (as one-fifth of the UK's carbon output comes from residential property), every UK home will need to achieve a minimum grade of ‘C’ on their Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) by 2035. Each EPC has a rating between ‘A’ and ‘G’ - 'A' being the best energy rating and 'G' the worst – like an energy rating on a fridge or washing machine.

All UK rental properties are required to have an EPC. Yet, from April 2020, the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) regulations have required all private rental properties (including rental renewals) to have a minimum EPC rating of ‘E’ or above.

Yet new legislation being discussed by the Government’s Climate Change Committee has suggested that landlords should play their part and increase the energy efficiency of their private rented homes. Sounds fair until you dive into the details.

The Government is muting the idea that all new tenancies (i.e. when a new tenant moves in) in private rented properties should be at an EPC rating of 'C' or above by 2025 (and all existing tenancies by 2028). The issue is …

57.33% of all private rented properties in Southampton have an EPC rating of ‘D’ or below.

 

The problem is some Southampton landlords will find it very expensive, neigh impossible, to improve the energy efficiency of their Southampton rented properties, especially those Southampton landlords who hold older housing stock such as terraced properties built in the 1800s. These Victorian terraced houses never perform well on EPC ratings as they have solid walls. 

Now, of course, you can improve the EPC rating of a terraced house by improving roof insulation, boiler replacement, solar heating, and high-grade uPVC windows. Yet, with some terraced houses, there will come the point where you will be unable to get to the haloed 'C' rating without installing external or internal wall insulation, sometimes even floor insulation.

With wall insulation costing between £5k and £15k and floor insulation around £5k …

the bill to improve all Southampton’s private rented properties will be a minimum of £108,044,880.

 

But before I talk about what the options are for Southampton landlords, here’s the weird part of EPC’s. An EPC rating is calculated on the cost of running a property and not the carbon output or energy efficiency, despite its name.

My advice to Southampton landlords - although it’s correct to create a future strategy, all I can say at this point is 'more haste less speed'. These rule changes are only a discussion paper, and it remains open for consultation by any member of the British public until 30^th December 2021. That means the Government's strategies and tactics may change.

Given that 57% of private rented properties are below a ‘C’ EPC grade, it is hard to believe the Government could achieve this without making big cash grants available.

 For example, there is presently a cap of £3,500 for energy improvements that Southampton landlords have to spend to get it to the existing EPC ‘E’ target grade on private rented homes (i.e. if you have a privately rented home at an 'F' or 'G' EPC rating, you only need to spend a maximum of £3,500 as a landlord on improving your EPC rating and still being legal even if those £3,500 don't get you to the current 'E' rating minimum). So, if the current rules allow an exemption to the EPC renting rules, if a Southampton landlord can’t improve their Southampton property enough, conceivably, could this be extended?

So, what are Southampton landlord’s options?

One thing you could do is put your head in the sand and hope it all goes away!

Another thing some savvy Southampton landlords do (be they my client, clients of other letting agents in Southampton or even self-managing landlords) is to sit down and plan a strategy for their Southampton rental portfolio. I print off all the EPC’s of their rental portfolio, look at the recommendations, then discuss a plan to ensure they are covered whatever the Government decides to make the new EPC rules. Like all things in life, plan for the worse and hope for the best.

If your agent isn't offering that service, please drop me a line because I would hate for you to miss out on the advice and opinion that so many Southampton landlords have already had from me. The choice is yours.

 

 

 

Southampton House Prices - The Effect of Rising Inflation

 

House prices tend to rise with inflation, so with the UK annual inflation hitting 4.2% last week, that’s good news, isn’t it? Yes and no – let me explain what it means for Southampton homeowners.

The year-on-year cost of living rose by 4.2% in October, its highest rate in almost a decade. The jump in prices (inflation), pushed mainly by increasing fuel and energy costs, places further pressure on Southampton household budgets.

So, what will this rise in inflation mean to Southampton house prices?

Let me look at the downsides first. The first is the effect inflation has on the true spending power or value of your hard-earned money.

The mid-1970s to mid-1980s was a time of high inflation in the UK, so I think that is an excellent place to start.

 

The average house in Southampton in 1974 was worth £14,306,

and by 1984 it had risen to £44,664

 

So, Southampton property prices had risen by 212.2% in the decade 1974 to 1984. Good news for everyone, then?  Well, as always, the devil is in the detail.

 

Inflation over the same decade rose by 224.2%, meaning your Southampton house was worthless in real terms (i.e. spending power terms).

 

If that same Southampton home had gone up by the inflation rate seen between 1974 and 1984, the house would have been worth £46,387 in 1984

 

That doesn't sound a lot (the difference between £44,664 and £46,387), until you apply that difference to today’s prices; that's a loss of £12,322 in today’s money.

The second is the effect of interest rates.

When inflation rises, the usual weapon of choice to reduce inflation is to increase interest rates. Homebuyers tend not to borrow as much on their mortgage when borrowing money becomes more expensive due to higher interest rates.

When interest rates get high (they were over 15% in 1992) Southampton homebuyers may not even want to borrow any money at all (staying put in their existing home). This would mean fewer Southampton home buyers wanting to buy (decreased demand). However, at the same time, more Southampton houses would be coming onto the market (because existing Southampton homeowners would want to sell and downsize because they have high mortgage payments), meaning higher supply … low demand and high supply does drive house prices in a downward direction.

 

So, does that mean you should hold off buying a Southampton home?

 

Although Southampton house prices did not keep up fully with inflation in the late 1970s and early 1980s, they did a pretty good job (and much better than keeping money in a savings account). You must remember your house is not a pure investment, it's a place you and your family live in. It's a place you call home. So don't worry if it doesn't keep up with inflation in the medium term as your four walls offer a lot more than just a simple investment.

Ok, so let’s look at what does happen when inflation effects property.

When your Southampton house price rises because of inflation, it increases the value of your house, not by the cost/value of your deposit. So, if inflation increases the value of your Southampton home by, say half (50%), it may triple, quadruple, or even quintuple the value of your deposit/equity.

For example, if you buy a Southampton property for £500,000 with a £50,000 deposit and inflation increases the price/value by 50% to £750,000, that means your equity in the property quintuples from £50,000 to £300,000. It also means you go from (in this scenario) owning 10% equity (£50k of £500k) in your home to 40% after inflation (£300k of £750k).

Even better if you take out a fixed-rate mortgage because you would be making a fixed monthly mortgage payment that dropped in real spending power ‘inflation adjusted’ pounds over the time of the fixed rate. You might ask why? Well, you are paying less for the mortgage than you did when you took it out (i.e. inflation erodes the actual value of money, meaning your mortgage debt diminishes in real value terms in line with inflation).

So, holding off moving home could cost you a lot of money.

 

What does this all mean for existing Southampton homeowners?

 

It’s challenging to forecast with any certainty what will happen with UK inflation and interest rates. I believe we will see inflation hover between 3% and 5% in 2022, with it returning to more normal levels of around 2% in 2023 (although I am no economist!).

We know the Bank of England base rate is just 0.1%, meaning it’s unlikely to get any lower.  I have spoken about this in previous articles on the Southampton property market and said the money markets have already priced in an interest rate rise to 0.75% to 1% by the summer of 2022.

So, if you haven’t already, you need to seriously consider taking advantage of these low mortgage rates (can you believe 21% of Southampton homeowners aren’t on a fixed-rate mortgage). The bottom line is, irrespective of what is happening to inflation and Southampton house prices, being able to afford the monthly payments on your Southampton home is what counts for everyone.

Next, if you are worried about the spending power of the equity tied up in your Southampton home, you will have built up a decent buffer if you have been in your house, for example…

 

The average value of a Southampton house has risen by 17.5% in the last five years, yet inflation has only been 11.3%

This means the equity in ‘real spending power terms’ has increased by 6.2% in the last five years.

One final thought for any Southampton homeowners thinking of selling and not buying another home, inflation could eat into the real spending power terms of your equity in your Southampton home – so now might be the best time to sell your home to get maximum bang for your bucks. Then invest the money in other pure investments that consistently tend to beat inflation, such as gold, commodities, or Real Estate Investment Trusts? Again, I am giving you my opinion here, not financial advice. You must take independent advice from someone qualified in these matters and make your own decisions.

 

If you would like a chat about anything in this article, do drop me a line.

How saleable is your home? Try our saleability scorecard and see

Selling a home might not be an exact science, but there are a number of factors that will make a huge difference to how successful your sale will be.

Our experience has shown us that homes that sell quickly and for a good price tend to have certain key things in common, so we’ve developed a checklist that we can use to analyse the saleability of any home. We rate various elements of your marketing approach across five categories, awarding up to a maximum of five points for each element to give your home an overall ‘Saleability Score’.

Using our scorecard, you’ll be able to see for yourself where there may be room for improvement in your marketing. Once you’ve identified which areas aren’t as strong as they could be, you can discuss those points with your agent and work together to turn things around so that your home makes the right impact on buyers.

 

So, if your home has been on the market for a while and perhaps you haven’t had quite as many viewings as you’d hoped, run through our Saleability Scorecard and see how your marketing stacks up. Set aside a couple of hours, and make sure you have your printed brochure and online listing to hand. Think about every question carefully, and try to look objectively at your marketing materials and how your home is presented. Then give your answers in the form of points, awarding from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 5 for each bullet point listed under each element below:

1. Your estate agent

Communication and feedback are key to helping you understand how the marketing is going and reassuring you that your agent really is doing their best to sell your home. So:

• Do they call you regularly – at least once a week?
• Do they accompany every viewing?
• Do they give you detailed feedback after each viewing?
• Have they made any suggestions around how you might be able to generate more viewings – other than dropping the price?

 

2. Your brochure

Your brochure needs to convey the quality of your home, setting a standard and value before the prospective buyer sees it in person. And the photographs have got to showcase a desirable lifestyle, grabbing buyers’ attention and enticing them to view.

• Does the brochure fully represent your home – we usually recommend 16–20 glossy pages – and does it have a luxurious feel?
• Are your photographs professional, and do they sell a lifestyle? The features of each room should be shown in crisp detail, and the images should convey an aspirational feel. In a sitting room, for instance, fires and candles should be lit, fresh flowers put out, and lights switched on to ensure the room looks spacious and bright, but cosy and inviting at the same time. A gently bubbling bath with flickering candles is selling a relaxing and luxurious lifestyle, not just a bathroom. And for kitchen photographs, some fresh baking will bring the image of the room to life and stimulate more than just the buyer’s visual senses.
• Is the written description enthusiastic in tone and full of emotive adjectives? The copywriter should be conveying a narrative that really captures the buyer’s imagination and makes them want to experience your home for themselves.
• Does the floorplan include dimensions and the overall floor area and show the orientation of your home?

 

3. Your online advert

This is your virtual shop window, and with the possibility of hundreds of other homes appearing in search results, your listing needs to stand out.

• Does your main photograph grab a buyer’s attention and encourage them to click for more information? We find that a twilight shot with all the interior and exterior lights on can be a particularly striking image and is often the best one to use online.
• Does the listing have a punchy, eye-catching headline?
• Is the description concise, while still selling the best features of your home in a flattering way?
• Is there a good-quality image of the floorplan, and brochure download button available?

 

4. The price

If a home is marketed at too optimistic a price, it tends to sit on the market for longer. So you must make sure your home is advertised at a price that both reflects its true value and attracts buyers.

• Is your asking price a round figure, e.g. £950,000, not £949,999?
• Does your home appear at the top of a search in your price range?
• Do you know how your price per square foot compares to that of other similar homes in the area?
• Have you stuck to your asking price, even if your agent thinks you should drop it?

 

5. Preparing your home for viewings

You must do all you can to make buyers fall in love with your home – from the moment they first see it on the market to the end of their viewing.

• Do you style and tidy the outside – both the garden and your home itself?
• Do you have fresh flowers inside?
• Do you dress all the beds?
• Do you switch on lamps, light candles and have fresh coffee or baking to create a homely and welcoming atmosphere? For more inspiration, take a look at our blog, ‘6 simple steps to prepare your home for viewings’. https://bit.ly/3EoAqww 

Now, add up the points.

If you have a Saleability Score of more than 80, well done – that suggests both you and your agent are on top of your home sale! Just take note of the areas where you might want to make a few tweaks, and if you still find you’re not getting enough viewings, then get in touch with us.

If you’ve scored between 50 and 80, there are probably quite a number of areas that you and your agent could work on. The good news is, this means there’s every likelihood that if you can just make the right improvements to your marketing, you should be able to attract much more interest and start to get some offers coming in.

However, if you have under 50 points, it’s probably time to consider a full marketing makeover. And if your current agent hasn’t already addressed the various challenges, it could be time to switch to one that’s more proactive and professional in their approach. We would be more than happy to discuss how we can help you with this, so please feel free to get in touch with us at any time.

 

And if you’re feeling a little disheartened by your result, be encouraged by the fact that there are plenty of things you can do to make your home much more saleable – with the right agent on board. The important thing is that you take action right away. If you don’t, your home will simply sit on the market, leaving it at risk of possibly going ‘stale’, which is likely to reduce your chance of getting a good sale price. When buyers see the same home being advertised in the same way, week after week, it gives the impression that something isn’t quite right. So it’s time to grab the bull by the horns!

The first port of call is to speak to your agent, show them our Saleability Scorecard and find out whether they agree with your ratings. It may be that they have their own ideas about the kinds of changes that could be made and are keen to work with you to turn things around.

However, if you don’t get the response you were hoping for, give us a call – we can review your marketing ourselves and give you our expert opinion on what needs to be done to secure a successful sale. Then, once we’ve visited your home to appraise it fully, we’ll come up with a bespoke marketing strategy that focuses on promoting all the best features of your home and relaunch it onto the market in style!

If you’d like to discuss your current situation and find out how we can help you and your home get the sale you deserve, just give us a call on 02380018222 – or email brian.linehan@belvoir.co.uk – and we’ll get right back to you.

Southampton Homeowners to Face Post-Lockdown Mortgage Rate Rise of £853 a Year

With grocery, energy and other household prices/costs rising and hitting everyone’s back pocket, inflation (rising prices) may feel like an unimportant issue when it comes to the cost of keeping a roof over your head.

Yet nothing could be further from the truth for many Southampton homeowners and Southampton landlords.

Because inflation over the long-term is bad for the economy, the normal weapon of choice to reduce inflation is to increase interest rates. The Bank of England (BoE) is in charge of interest rates.

Should inflation continue to rise, there will come a point later in the year when the BoE will need to raise it’s Base Rate from its 300-year record low of 0.1%, and probably continue to do so with a series of further increases in 2022.

When interest rates go up, the cost of mortgages go up. When the cost of mortgages go up, that hits the affordability of what people can borrow to buy their homes (and landlords to finance their buy-to -let properties). In essence ...

 

could it be the end of the Southampton house price boom?

 

The danger of a base rate rise by the BoE on the back of a rise in inflation over the last few months has alarmed banks and building societies into increasing the mortgage rates for both home buyers and landlords.

 

In the last week alone, lenders have increased the rates (i.e. prices) of their mortgages, some mortgages by more than one whole percentage point. That doesn’t sound a lot, until you punch the numbers into a calculator (more of that later).

Southampton property buyers (be they landlords or homebuyers) have relished months of cut-price cheap mortgages rates.

 

Mortgage lenders have played the big game in the last 12/16 months to capture the mortgage business of 1 million+ Brits that have moved home since the end of Lockdown-1 plus the many millions of re-mortgages, with the cheapest mortgage rates falling below 1%.

 

Yet, the money markets have already priced into their calculations that the BoE will increase the base to 0.25% by December, up from the existing 0.1%. They also anticipate a further two quarter point (i.e. 0.25%) rise in the spring of 2022, meaning they believe the base rate will be 0.75% by the end of summer 2022.

So why is this an issue for the homeowners of Southampton? Looking at the combined totals of the SO14-SO20 postcode districts …

30,465 Southampton property owners have mortgages totaling £3.99bn (up from £3.26bn in 2013).

Yet, 6,398 of those Southampton homeowners with mortgages are on variable rate mortgages, with their mortgage payments rising and falling based on how the BoE interest rate shifts. That will cause instant pain if mortgage providers pass on increased mortgage repayment costs. So how much will that be?

The average size of mortgage for a Southampton homeowner is £131,155.59.

If the base rate were to rise to 0.75%, the average Southampton homeowner (with a variable rate mortgage) would be £71 per month worse off (£853 per year).

The mortgage price war the banks and building societies have been fighting recently has resulted in falls in the month-on-month average mortgage rates available to borrowers. The economy is awash with cash looking for a home (mainly down to the Government’s and BoE’s intervention to keep the UK economy going during lockdown). For those with large deposits, this has meant mortgages have been available at less than 1%.

However, with reports of a potential BoE interest rate rise happening soon, those Southampton homeowners who are on a variable rate mortgage are probably going to be the first who would feel the influence of any Base Rate increase.

If the BoE Base Rate rose to 3%, the average annual mortgage payment of those Southampton homeowners on variable rate mortgages would rise by £3,935 per year.

This could mean homeowners with variable rate mortgages would be spending half their salary on their mortgage should interest rates get up to these levels.

Now the BoE won’t increase rates by that amount over night, as that would spook the market. They will probably increase every few months by a quarter of one percent each time.

Thankfully, over the last 4 or 5 years, over 90% of new mortgages have been fixed rate, yet they are only fixed for a certain length of time. If you have less than one/two years left on your mortgage, you seriously need to take advice now from a qualified mortgage broker, as any penalty to change might now be considerably smaller compared to the mortgage rates you might be paying when your deal finishes in the next 12/24 months. Again, I am not giving you advice in this article – just making a suggestion.

A further message to the 1 in 5 (ish) of Southampton homeowners on a variable rate – please take some advice from a qualified mortgage advisor as well. Mortgage rates can’t get any lower and all the signs are showing they will be going up. The mortgage market is still extremely competitive, there is opportunity for borrowers to lock in ultra-low mortgage rates before any likely Base Rate increases filter through.

Will an interest rate hike crash the Southampton housing market like the early 1990s?

The early 1990s saw repossessions go through the roof as homeowners defaulted on their mortgage payments because of the increased mortgage rates. Also, in the run up to the Credit Crunch in 2008, Northern Rock were lending 125% of the value of the property (we all know what happened to them!). Other banks were recklessly lending 8 or 9 times a person’s income, without the person having to prove that income. Both scenarios were significant contributory factors in the housing market crash.

Thankfully in 2014, the BoE implemented the recommendations of its own Mortgage Market Review (MMR). The MMR forced banks and building societies to stress test mortgage borrowers against potential increases of the base rate of up to 3%. Thankfully, even the most hardened monetary doom-mongers aren’t contemplating base rates of those levels (although I won’t apologise for highlighting what it could cost earlier in the article).

Fundamentally, as we go into 2022, the housing market is built on decent foundations, unlike 2007 with the poor lending practices by the lenders. Yet the increase in base rates will have another influence.

The psychological factor of a perceived increase in mortgage costs, might be enough to cool the enthusiasm and excitement of many buyers to pay top dollar for their next Southampton home, and that might not be a bad thing. If I am being frank, we could do with something that takes a bit of fizz out of the Southampton housing market.

Many Southampton homeowners have been wary of putting their house on the market because they are scared they won’t be able to find another home. A slight increase in Base Rates will take the frothiness out of the Southampton property market and return it to some form of normality. I would even go as far as to say house prices might ease back ever so slightly in the coming 12 to 18 months.

 

So don’t be alarmed if house prices in Southampton do drift slightly over the coming years like they did in the mid 1990s.

 

It’s just the property market settling down and coming back into some form of equilibrium, which is good for everyone.

My final thoughts ...

The mortgage lenders have already priced in the potential BoE rate rises, so even if rates do rise, let’s not panic. And even if they did rise to 3%, that would still leave them at levels that look exceedingly cheap at any other time in history. Many homeowners in their 50’s and 60’s can remember mortgage rates of 15% in 1992, so take advice from your family. (Interestingly, the 50-year BoE Base Rate average is 7.2%).

Buying your Southampton home is a long-term venture. It is a huge financial decision that can give you peace of mind and a superb place to live.

But it is not an investment. I am not saying you should avoid homeownership, however, if you are considering buying because you think you are making a clever investment choice, think again.

The idea that your Southampton family home can be an investment too comes from the fact that, historically Southampton property prices have risen. We all have stories of someone in the family, somewhere in the UK, who bought a house for £500 many years ago, for it to be worth 300%/500%/1000% more today!

If you read some of my past articles on the Southampton property market, I have proven many times over that there are much better ways to invest your money e.g. buying buy-to-let properties or stocks and shares.

But if you want to bring your family up in a home that is yours, the bottom line is this. Even if interest rates rise to 3% (if not a little more), you will still be able to get on the property ladder with a small deposit (using the Governments 5% deposit mortgages) and you will still find it’s cheaper to buy than rent.

If you would like to chat to me about anything in this article, do drop me a line. In the meantime, please do give me your thoughts on the matters raised in the article. I would love to know.

 

Thanks in advance.