Morley – still a great place to invest in property!

Don’t Believe Everything You Read in the Papers

At an event in Leeds this week I was chatting to a couple of landlords and we were discussing the future of buy to let and the rental market in general.  One of our group was pretty doom and gloom about the future given recent changes in stamp duty and planned changes to tax allowances and considering selling his portfolio and heading for the hills, when asked why he felt this way it turned out it was because it was what he had read in the media.  We had to remind him that with all his experience and the network of experts he had built around him, he had far more authority on his local market and how it would perform in the future than a journalist in fleet street who only knows that bad news sell papers and so does his best to dig the dirt!

In actual fact the growth of the private rental market and the ever increasing number of investor class buy to let landlords within it is here to stay, and that’s not just my opinion, it’s fact!

Private Sector Renting will increase to 35%

Buy to let landlords will continue fuelling the growth of the private rented sector in the coming decades according to Sheffield University. They are considered a Centre of Excellence on the topic and estimate that the rate of home ownership nationally will fall to 50% (today it is 67.5% in Morley) by 2032, while the rate of private sector renting will increase to 35% (interestingly, in Morley it stands at 18.1% today).

In Morley an increase to 35% in the demand for private rented accommodation would mean an additional 2,720 households in the next 5 years!

  

Generation Rent

Nationally the number of council houses in the UK has dropped by 31.1% from 3.16m to 2.18m households.  At the same time property prices in Morley over the past few years have risen far more than wages and salaries, pushing home ownership further out of reach for many struggling to save for the deposits required these days or not meeting new affordability criteria for mortgage lending.

"Generation rent" will find it increasingly difficult to buy and are likely to be older than previous generations before they can afford their own home, almost 60% of 20 to 39 year olds in England will rent their homes by 2025, while just 26% will have got on the housing ladder, research shows.

Changes in stamp duty and tax allowances for landlords don’t mean that investing in property is no longer viable, it just means you have to invest wisely in the right properties that will still enable a good yield and return on investment as it is no longer a certainty that any investment in property will be a good one.

If you are considering investing in a property in the Morley area and would like to discuss the merits of your investment further, give me a call on 0113 436 4360.