How long is an average Southampton property on the market for?

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If you are either selling or buying a property in Southampton, there are a few reasons why it may be taking some time to sell your Southampton home or find that perfect place to call your new home. It may be taking longer than you thought to find a buyer for your home because of the current state of the property market or finding that perfect Southampton home may be taking too long because of a lack of properties to buy.

So, taking everything into consideration, all of these factors invite an obvious question; how long is too long to persist in the Southampton property market?

If you are looking to sell your Southampton property, it may have become infuriating when your home has been on the market for longer than you anticipated. Perhaps the property market is purely in a position where it's challenging to get a property sold quickly, or sold at the price you want to achieve for it. If you do live in a Southampton home that is towards the upper reaches of the price band, you have to be open to the idea that because it's worth so much more than the average property in Southampton and so more than most individuals can afford, you will have to wait longer to get it sold.

Your Southampton home might be taking longer to sell because your asking price is simply too high. Even if you are prepared to take a realistic offer, if you have an unrealistic asking price your overpriced Southampton property will undoubtedly turn off potential buyers from even being inclined to book a viewing.

Looking at the market in Southampton compared to a year ago makes very interesting reading…

When it comes to the average length of time on the market, all the property types in Southampton appear to be taking longer to sell.

The overall average length of time a Southampton property remains on the market has risen by 20.5%, from 61 days a year to 74 days today

The question that remains is, if you are having no luck selling, should you leave your Southampton property on the market or not? This is basically down to your personal circumstances - a big decider has to be if you are moving up market or downsizing.

Buyers will compare your Southampton property to all the other homes on the market using the portals such as Rightmove, On the Market and Zoopla and even if your asking price is realistic, if your marketing (brochures, pictures, even video walk through) isn’t top dollar, they will dismiss your property.

Remember, the average buyer only views 4.5 properties before they buy and on average, each buyer will only spend just over 25 minutes viewing each home  …

The more properties that are on the market, the greater the choice for buyers (yet more competition for house sellers), so we wanted to look at how many homes were for sale in Southampton now, compared to 12 months ago.

As you can see, there are some differences between the property types in Southampton.

As for buying a Southampton property, searching for that dream house can take time as you have to consider the needs of your spouse, children, schooling, etc., what you can realistically afford and whether your current location can accommodate you until you find that perfect Southampton home.

Don’t forget that upwards of 10% of homes do not make it to the portals (the portals are Rightmove, Zoopla and On the Market), so don’t just rely on the portals to let you know what is coming on the market. The number of times I speak to disappointed buyers who missed out because other buyers registered directly with the agent for property, whilst they relied on the portals.

When it comes to buying a Southampton home, and so you do not make any decisions you will regret later on, taking your time is always the more practical option. The amount of money that is involved in buying a home and all the costs connected with it means that you should not rush into buying or selling without due consideration.

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT HOW MUCH YOUR SOUTHAMPTON PROPERTY IS WORTH

If you would like to pick my brains on the Southampton Property Market – pop in for a coffee or drop me a line on social media or email. 

If you are looking for an agent that is well established, professional and communicative, then contact us to find out how we can get the best out of your investment property.

Email me on brian.linehan@belvoir.co.uk or call on 023 8001 8222.

Don't forget to visit the links below to view back dated deals and Southampton Property News.

Blog, http://southamptonproperty.blogspot.co.uk/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/belvoirsouthampton/

Twitter, https://twitter.com/sotonbelvoir
LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianlinehan

Website, https://www.belvoir.co.uk/letting-agents-southampton 

As a Landlord have you done enough to reduce the likelihood of a fire in your rental property?

Landlords must ensure that their property is safe from various hazards, so their tenants are safe in the property. Here are a quick 8 points you should consider when assessing the risk of fire in your rental property:

1.       Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.

Ensure there is a smoke alarm on each floor, and they are tested at the start of each tenancy and encourage the tenants to check the smoke alarms on a monthly basis. Although carbon monoxide alarms are only legally required where a solid fuel burner is installed, we would strongly recommend that they are installed in all properties with a gas boiler as well. They cost about £10 and you can sleep easy knowing your tenants are safe.

2.       Fire Blankets / Fire Extinguishers.

Fire blankets are a must in every kitchen, do make sure they are placed in an accessible location so they can be reached quickly and are not too close to the cooker.

Fire extinguishers can be really valuable in case of fire, but it is worth checking with your council on this as some fire departments aren’t keen on them as it encourages tenants to re-enter the property and fight the fire which can lead to fatalities. If they are in the property make sure they are serviced, and the tenants are trained in there use. The best policy is Get out, stay out and call 999.

3.       Fire Risk Assessments.

These can often be overlooked when letting out a property. The assessment will identify the causes of fires and assess the likelihood that a fire could break out in a property. They will show the potential hazards and the precautions you could take to mitigate these risks. Don’t forget that the risk varies depending upon the tenants you have in the property i.e. elderly, young with babies, disabilities etc.

4.       Access to Escape Routes.

Should a fire break out, tenants must have a safe and reliable way to escape, especially in HMO properties which can get cluttered with bikes, furniture etc

5.       Fire safe furnishings

When a property is rented furnished a landlord must ensure that it meets fire safety standards and is made from fire resistant materials. This information can usually be found by checking that the manufactures label carries a fire safety symbol.

6.       Electrical safety

Landlords must ensure that electrical wiring, sockets and fuse boxes are safe throughout the tenancy, however there is currently no legal requirement to have this checked professionally! (unlike gas where you must have an annual gas safety inspection). Hopefully a new government will make this test mandatory as it is for HMO properties, this is where standards need to be driven in the private rented sector.

7.       Portable appliance testing.

Landlords need to ensure that any electrical appliances provided are in a safe working order. The check should be visible (signs of damage or wear) and operational. Although not compulsory it is highly recommended to ensure your tenants are safe in your property.

8.       Ban smoking inside.

Most people are now accustomed to smoking outside in bars and restaurants, so banning them from smoking inside a residential property is no big stretch. A study a few years back found that cigarettes were responsible for one-in-three deaths related to accidental house fires. It will also have a beneficial affect on your decoration, carpets etc

66.7% of Southampton OAP’s own their own home … and they are worth £4,387.9m

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Yes, that number is staggering isn’t it ….

Of the 23,195 households in Southampton where the head of the household is 65 years or older, an astounding 15,461 (or 66.7%) of those are owned, which is below the national average of 74.1%, which sounds great – yet nothing could be further from the truth.

I chat with many Southampton pensioners who would like to move but cannot, as there is a scarcity of such properties for Southampton mature people to downsize into.  Due to their scarcity and high demand, Southampton bungalows on average get a 12% to 22% premium per square metre premium over two storey properties.  To add insult to injury, a recent NHBC reported that only 1% of new builds in the Country were single storey bungalows (compared to 7% in the mid 1990’s).

Southampton OAP’s are sitting on £4,387.9m of equity in these Southampton homes

In a survey conducted a couple of years ago by YouGov, they established that just over one third of homeowning people aged 65 and over in the Country were looking to downsize into a smaller home. Yet, the Tory’s over the last nine years have appeared to target all their attention on first-time buyers with stratagems such as Starter Homes to safeguard the youngsters of the UK not becoming perpetual members of ‘Generation Rent’.   Equally though, this doesn’t address the long-lasting under-supply of suitable retirement housing essential to the needs of the Southampton’s hastily ageing population.  Lamentably, the Southampton’s housing stock is tragically unprepared for this demographic shift to the 'overextended middle age’, and this has created a new 'Generation Confined’ quandary where older people cannot move.

Also, those older Southampton retirees’ who do live in the limited number of Southampton bungalows are finding it difficult to live on their own, as they are unable to leave their bungalow because of a lack of sheltered housing and ‘affordable’ care home places.

Meaning those older Southampton retirees can't leave their Southampton bungalows, younger Southampton retirees in their larger 2 storey family houses can't buy those Southampton bungalows (occupied by the older retirees) and those Southampton people in the 30’s and 40’s can't buy those larger 2 storey family houses (occupied by the younger retirees) they need to for their growing families ... it’s like everyone is waiting for everyone because of the bottleneck at the top.

  

For those wanting to see the complete stats for Southampton as whole …

Southampton’s (and the rest of the UK’s) property prices have soared over the last 50 years because the number of properties built has not kept up with demand.  With restrictive planning regulations, migration, people living longer and excessive divorce rates (meaning one family becomes two) we need, as a Country, 240,000 properties to be built a year since the Millennium to just stand still.

At the turn of the Millennium, the Country was constructing on average 180,000 to 190,000 households a year, that figure dropped in the five years after the Credit Crunch to 135,000 and 145,000 households a year.  Although we built 217,000 last year, we still have all those 19 years to make up for.

The answer …. allow more land for starter homes, bungalows and sheltered accommodation because land prices are stifling the property market as the large building firms are more likely to focus on traditional houses and apartments than bungalows (because they make more money from them).

My thoughts for the savvy Southampton property investors  – until the Government change the planning rules and allow more land to be built on – Bungalows, especially ones that need some TLC after someone has passed away bungalows are a great bet for flipping and even potential rental returns for future property investment as more and more OAP’s will be renting in the decades to come?

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT HOW MUCH YOUR SOUTHAMPTON PROPERTY IS WORTH

If you would like to pick my brains on the Southampton Property Market – pop in for a coffee or drop me a line on social media or email. 

If you are looking for an agent that is well established, professional and communicative, then contact us to find out how we can get the best out of your investment property.

Email me on brian.linehan@belvoir.co.uk or call on 023 8001 8222.

Don't forget to visit the links below to view back dated deals and Southampton Property News.

Blog, http://southamptonproperty.blogspot.co.uk/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/belvoirsouthampton/

Twitter, https://twitter.com/sotonbelvoir
LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianlinehan

Website, https://www.belvoir.co.uk/letting-agents-southampton 

The leasehold and ground rents scandal of Southampton

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Freehold or Leasehold .. which is best? Well, when buying a property in the UK there are two main types of ownership – freehold and leasehold and, when boiled down, they mean the following...

Freehold: The person who owns the freehold of a property owns the property and the land it stands on.

Leasehold: As a leaseholder you do not own the land the property is built on. A leaseholder essentially rents the property from the freeholder for a number of years, decades or in some Victorian terraced houses, for centuries. 

All apartments have to be sold as leasehold properties because of the very nature that you have a neighbour above or below you (so both of you can’t own the land) with the length of the lease being over 100 years (even more sometimes).

However, with some apartments – particularly Victorian and Edwardian houses converted into numerous apartments – which are sold on the basis that the leasehold apartment owner also owns part of the freehold (with other leaseholders in the same building), having what is known as 'share of freehold'.  Similarly, the Government also brought in legislation a number of years ago for more modern apartment blocks built in the 20th century where it allowed leaseholders to club together and have the right to purchase the freehold together.

Now we must stress, there is nothing wrong with leasehold – it’s been a useful type of homeownership since Norman times, it’s just that with a leasehold comes a potential extra responsibility. If there are four apartments in a block, who pays for the leaking roof when all benefit from a watertight roof? Who pays for the bad foundations, when all benefit from good foundations? Who pays for building insurances? .. the list goes on – so clauses are added to the leasehold agreement to ensure everyone is protected and pays their fair share of the joint costs of the building with service charges and a nominal ground rent (ground rent is a nominal rent, commonly quite low, often in the region of £50 per year to the freeholder of the property).

Whilst houses tend to be sold as freehold as it's a more unambiguous set-up, given there is only one property on the land. Contentiously however, in the last 20 to 25 years this has not always been the case with new-builds as some new homes’ builders have sold the leasehold to the buyer and retained the freehold. There is nothing wrong with that, it’s just in some cases (not all) they also added some oppressive clauses to the lease of the property they were selling, which could be the next PPI scandal - albeit for property.

Government reports have emerged recently that suggest 12,000 leaseholders in the UK are facing ground rents – which they pay to the freeholder – that double in cost, usually every 10 years, but occasionally more frequently.

Builders started to add clauses into leasehold property sales with ground rent being set at £300 and £400 a year, yet it doubled every ten years. Though unwary first-time buyers were habitually told that their 500 and 999-year leases were practically freehold, the clauses inescapably meant that the ground rent would spiral to ridiculous levels meaning the average ground rent would be £23,750 a year by 2070 and £379,900 a year by 2130, making the properties practically unsellable today, with owners often left unable to re-mortgage too.

So, how many people are affected by this in our local area?

Well, using Government data, our research suggests that in Southampton 98 householders have bought a detached house, semi-detached house or town house (which would normally be freehold) as leasehold. Not all these have onerous lease clauses, yet some do. I know it doesn’t sound a lot, yet that is potentially 98 lives ruined with houses they can’t sell - making them prisoners in their own property.

 

The good news is the Government is on the case and serious about sorting this issue out as they have proposed a ban on the future sale of houses as leasehold, as well as cutting ground rents to zero. Yet stern questions remain about the future of homeowners in existing leaseholds. Westminster wants the builders to set up compensation plans, and we will say many (not all) have stepped up to the mark and started to sort this, although some campaigners have said the schemes are not fit for purpose, let’s hope they are wrong.

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT HOW MUCH YOUR SOUTHAMPTON PROPERTY IS WORTH

If you would like to pick my brains on the Southampton Property Market – pop in for a coffee or drop me a line on social media or email. 

If you are looking for an agent that is well established, professional and communicative, then contact us to find out how we can get the best out of your investment property.

Email me on brian.linehan@belvoir.co.uk or call on 023 8001 8222.

Don't forget to visit the links below to view back dated deals and Southampton Property News.

Blog, http://southamptonproperty.blogspot.co.uk/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/belvoirsouthampton/

Twitter, https://twitter.com/sotonbelvoir
LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianlinehan

Website, https://www.belvoir.co.uk/offices/southampton

Are Southampton Builder’s Constructing the Wrong Type of Property?

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The British housing market has never been so newsworthy. Every other day, there is an article in the newspaper or online about impending house price drops, house price rises, building on green belt, mortgage rates up/down, first time buyer affordability and the woes of being a buy to let landlord, to mention but a few. As a nation, we have a strong national desire to be homeowners.

The English Housing Survey stated the proportion of owner occupied households increased steadily from 52% in the early 1980s to 2003 when it reached its peak of 71%. Since then, owner occupation gradually declined to 63% in 2014, yet in fact increased to 64% in 2017 and has stayed there since.

One of the main motives of home ownership is the prospective tax-free capital appreciation that can be obtained. It’s no wonder the phrase ‘as safe as houses’ is popular in the English language, as many homeowners use homeownership as a nest egg or even a pension pot, as savings rates are at extraordinarily low levels.

Yet even with the news that homeownership is on the rise, the biggest seismic shift to the Southampton property market is the growth of the rental market, which has more than doubled in the last 15/20 years. So how can the social housing sector (Council Housing) remain roughly at the same level since the millennium, homeownership slightly grow, yet the private rental sector be so huge? Well it comes down to the fact that many more homes have been built in Southampton in the last 15/20 years, and a lot of them have been bought for buy to let, or Southampton homeowners with second hand starter homes have also sold them to buy to let landlords and they have bought larger brand new homes.

Yet the question we wanted to ask is ... are we building the right sort of homes, especially when it comes to the number of bedrooms? Whilst the data doesn’t exist for Southampton, the country’s stats are available and it makes fascinating reading...

Looking at the graph in 2008, 59% of new homes built were one and two beds, yet last year that had dropped to 35%.

The Housing Minster said recently he was concerned that new homebuilders were building the wrong types of homes in the wrong places at the wrong prices. Many (not all) tenants are tenants because they can’t afford the deposit and as there is a direct coloration between the rent’s landlords charge and tenant’s earnings (i.e. as earnings go up, rents go up and vice versa), and earnings for the last seven years have been subdued, the property tenants have been able to afford in Southampton are the smaller one and two bed properties. Yet a lot of these tenants are now having families (with the need for larger property with three, even four bedrooms).

Looking at the stats for Southampton, it can be seen the vast majority of homeowners live in the larger properties with more bedrooms, whilst private rental tenants are in the smaller properties (with less bedrooms).

Our concern is - will young families and professionals be able to afford to live and work in Southampton, especially as the local authorities are unable to build council housing (aka Social Housing)?

One symptom of all these issues mentioned above is the massive growth in multi-family households (i.e. households containing two or more families), which have increased by 42% in under a decade. Now of course many will be because of older couples moving in with their adult children yet many are unrelated families sharing a house, something that simply shouldn’t be happening in 2019.

If we don’t increase the supply of the ‘right’ sort of homes, what will their living conditions be like?

Whilst we are still a country of homeowners and even though there has been a slight growth in numbers, the long term trend is downwards if we don’t build enough of the ‘right’ new homes, in the ‘right’ location and the ‘right’ price, Southampton people will continue to increasingly rent ... which is only good news for Southampton buy to let landlords.

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT HOW MUCH YOUR SOUTHAMPTON PROPERTY IS WORTH

If you would like to pick my brains on the Southampton Property Market – pop in for a coffee or drop me a line on social media or email. 

If you are looking for an agent that is well established, professional and communicative, then contact us to find out how we can get the best out of your investment property.

Email me on brian.linehan@belvoir.co.uk or call on 023 8001 8222.

Don't forget to visit the links below to view back dated deals and Southampton Property News.

Blog, http://southamptonproperty.blogspot.co.uk/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/belvoirsouthampton/

Twitter, https://twitter.com/sotonbelvoir
LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianlinehan

Website, https://www.belvoir.co.uk/letting-agents-southampton  

What’s the biggest street in Southampton (SO14)?

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Well my recent articles about Southampton’s most moved street in the last 3 years and the Monopoly board article (the one where I listed the most valuable streets) caused quite a lot of interest locally, so I decided to see what else I could find out about the SO14 postcode area, and I have been able find out the biggest streets in the SO14 postcode area.

Don’t worry, I will get back to some hard-hitting articles about the lack of new homes being built in Southampton, the trials and tribulations of being a Southampton buy-to-let landlord and the future of the Southampton property market .. yet in this article because of the previous positive comments, I wanted to give you what you, the Southampton homeowners and Southampton landlords asked about and wanted!

The biggest street in SO14, when it comes to the number of houses on it is St Marys Road, with 422 homes. In second place is Golden Grove with 421 homes and in third is Ocean Way with 419 homes.

  

Yet, size isn’t everything and the most valuable street of the top 20 biggest streets is Channel Way at £133.3m with an average value of £354,000 per property.

The street with the greatest number of movers in the last 3 years is also Channel Way, yet its saleability rate was only 18.8%, with Royal Crescent Road having the highest saleability rate of 25.9%.

The full breakdown can be found in this chart below.

 Yet, did you really think I wouldn’t get at all serious ..

The basic rudiments of the Southampton property market remain principally healthy in many parts of Southampton, yet the existing political environment means that the vital element of confidence has been diminished slightly in certain parts, and that is triggering a minority of potential property purchasers and house-sellers to vacillate, yet with unemployment at an all-time low, a record number of people with a job, ultra-low interest rates and decent mortgage availability (with the Banks and Building Societies tending to drop mortgage rates instead of increasing them), those Southampton first time buyers (and especially Southampton buy-to-let landlords) who have adjourned their next house purchase because of perceived political uncertainty should be reminded that talking to many of my fellow Southampton agents they have more homes on their books than at any time for the last three or four years, so there is a greater choice of Southampton properties to call your next home/BTL investment with a potential of securing a great property deal in the next month or so.

Irrespective of what happens with Brexit, Southampton people will still need a roof over their heads and as I have mentioned on a number of occasions, I have proved beyond doubt we aren’t building enough homes both locally in Southampton and nationally. If supply is limited and demand increases (as the population grows and we get older), prices in the medium to long term can only go in one direction. Upwards!

So, whatever happens with BoJo and Brexit – why wait, because once we get over that hurdle, there will just be another hurdle and another hurdle and by which time – we will be in 2029 and you would have missed the boat. We survived the Global Financial Crash, 3-day week in 1970s’, hyperinflation etc etc …  yet the choice is yours.

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT HOW MUCH YOUR SOUTHAMPTON PROPERTY IS WORTH

If you would like to pick my brains on the Southampton Property Market – pop in for a coffee or drop me a line on social media or email. 

If you are looking for an agent that is well established, professional and communicative, then contact us to find out how we can get the best out of your investment property.

Email me on brian.linehan@belvoir.co.uk or call on 023 8001 8222.

Don't forget to visit the links below to view back dated deals and Southampton Property News.

Blog, http://southamptonproperty.blogspot.co.uk/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/belvoirsouthampton/

Twitter, https://twitter.com/sotonbelvoir
LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianlinehan

Website, https://www.belvoir.co.uk/letting-agents-southampton  

How Many Southampton Homeowners Have Paid Their Mortgage Off?

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The Government’s Annual Housing Survey is 50 years old this year.  It has taken a snap shot of the UK’s property market every year since 1969 and in the recently published report for 2018, it wasn’t a surprise that owner occupation is still the most predominant tenure, yet now more people own their home without a mortgage rather than having a mortgage as the number of people buying their first home (obviously with a mortgage) has declined since the Millennium.  The report also shows homeowners (mortgaged and owned outright) are, on average, older than renters and between the homeowners themselves, those who are mortgage free are older than those with a mortgage.

Looking at the most recent data for Southampton, I wanted to see how we compared to the national picture. Therefore, focusing on the main 4 tenures of owned outright, owned with a mortgage, social housing (i.e. Council Housing and Housing Association) and private rented, this is what I found out...

Looking at the stats, you can see that homeownership in Southampton as a whole (both owned and owned with a mortgage combined) is lower in the 25yo to 34yo age range compared to 35yo to 49yo, yet roll the clock back to the 1980s and opposite was the case.

So how many local homeowners have paid off their mortgage?

42.7% of Southampton homeowners are mortgage free, yet of the 13,962 households that are owned by 50yo to 64yo in Southampton, 54.5% of those people still have a mortgage.

As most people bought their first house in their early to mid 20’s back in the 1980’s, this shows that a lot of Southampton people must have re-mortgaged in the past and extended their borrowings (otherwise they should have paid their mortgage off now).

The other thing that concerns me is the 4.8% of the Southampton over 75yo homeowners that have a mortgage.

If you amalgamate the national historic ranges going back to 1977 (see the graph below “UK Households with a Mortgage by Age – 1977 to 2018” and note the age bands are slightly different to the recent local stats because they were carried out under different government departments), you will see the number of people who own a property with a mortgage has been dropping since the Millennium, yet nationally the number of people who own a property has remained roughly the same, even with the growth of the private rented sector.

Reports in the industry suggest that in the next ten years that will increase, as nearly 1 in 5 homeowners will be still paying off their mortgage after retirement. One of the reasons behind that will be the legacy of interest-only loans and delayed first-time buying as we become more and more like Germany in our house ownership models, where people naturally rent their homes until their 50’s and then buy when they inherit money from their parents.

In the meantime, demand for Southampton rental properties will only increase … so good news for Southampton Buy to Let landlords and indirectly Southampton homeowners as well.

If you are looking for an agent that is well established, professional and communicative, then contact us to find out how we can get the best out of your investment property.

Email me on brian.linehan@belvoir.co.uk or call on 023 8001 8222.

Don't forget to visit the links below to view back dated deals and Southampton Property News.

Blog, http://southamptonproperty.blogspot.co.uk/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/belvoirsouthampton/

Twitter, https://twitter.com/sotonbelvoir
LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianlinehan

Website, https://www.belvoir.co.uk/letting-agents-southampton