In Burton, building properties is not like making Mars bars!

My friends often call me an estate agent, but then I remind them that whilst a lot of estate agents do both sales of property and letting of property, we are a letting agent only and  always plan to be!

By specialising in lettings, it enables me and the team to get the job done right. In a recent article, when we spoke about the difference between Burton and Nottingham property markets and their prices, one landlord who popped his head round our door on the High Street to chat about the Burton property market got talking about how he thought there were less for sale boards in Burton than there were ten, even fifteen years ago.

All the newspapers talk about is a crisis of a lack of properties. Building new property is not like the Mars bar factory that can keep the machines going an extra couple of hours to make more Mars bars. The Government says 200,000 properties need to be built each year for the next ten years. For Burton to take its share of that would mean we would have to build 610 properties each year for the next ten years.. yet in the last ten years, in Burton, we have only built on average 315 properties per year.

People in popular areas say they want more properties for their children and are usually in favour of more homes being built, as long as they are not in their local area. Increasing  supply of houses leads to more congestion, crowded amenities and loss of greenbelt. Then, and here is the big reason, those homeowners have a vested interest to keep the building low because an increased supply  reduces the value of their existing home. Therefore, existing homeowners have a vested interest in keeping the supply as low as possible in their area.

Finally, a lack of council houses since Mrs T. encouraged the sale of council housing after she was elected in 1979, the number of new social housing to replace them, has been very low.

However, getting back to the point, it’s a simple fact that since the 2007 crash, the number of properties that are selling in Burton has dramatically reduced. Look at the graph and you will see in the late 1990’s (what most say was a normal market), around 100 properties a month were selling each month in Burton. In the first half of the 2000’s decade, when we had a rising market, around 120 properties were changing hands each month in Burton. In 2008, the year of the property crash that dropped to 60 per month and hasn’t grown that much since, although we started to see a rise in 2014. Hence those poor old estate agents aren’t selling as many properties.. it must be tough for the little dears!

If you would like to discuss my thoughts on the rental market, feel free to pop through the door of our offices on the High Street, call me on 07973 666229 or send me an email to: davidm@professionalproperties.co.uk

      

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In Burton, find out which properties are top of the league for sales!

Burton attracts property hunters seeking a home in our town that strikes a wonderful balance between old and new. Luckily, just about every accommodation preference can be catered for here, from highly desirable detached houses in Stapenhill, which are perfect for families, popular 1930’s bay front semi's houses in the Rolleston Road area plus imposing late Victorian terraced houses and modern town houses dotted around the town.

But with newspapers giving mixed messages on what is exactly happening in the town, let us have a look at what has happened over the last 12 months, in particular, what type of property is actually selling.

Between August 2013 and August 2014, 936 of the 31,802 properties were sold in Burton and immediate villages. The best performing type of property was, surprisingly, the terraced house. With an average sale price of £100,462; over 352 of them sold, representing 37.7% of the property sold in Burton (which when you consider only 33.7% of Burton property is terraced (that includes those modern town hosues), this means terraced houses have done well). 

In very close second are apartments. They represented 5.7% of the sales but flats make up 5.5% of the property .. again good news for all flat owners (compared to Derby where the flat market is on its knees).

Of the 9,645 semi detached houses in Burton, 283 changed hands in the year, showing that whilst 30.3% of property in Burton is semi, they respectably represented 30.2% of the sales. However, it is the detached property market, that seem to have performed not as well. Whilst there are 9,618 detached properties in Burton and the immediate villages (representing 30.2% of the housing stock), only 246 changed hands in the year, representing only, but still a very respectful 26.2% of the sales.

What does this mean for the property owners of Burton? 

Most homeowners start with an apartment, then a terraced, aspire to move to semi detached houses, then as finances allow, they move to a detached property. The majority of terraced houses, especially near the Town Centre, were purchased by landlords to rent out to tenants, so they have no need/want to trade up on the property ladder. There are a small number of homeowners who are still in negative equity, which in some cases, property values of some Burton apartments sold at the height of the boom are still 6.5% lower than what was paid for them in that 2007 boom, but whilst bad news for those homeowners, I would estimate this only affects between 2% and 3% of homeowners in Burton. 

We are seeing some good sales and if you look hard enough, you may chance upon a "hidden property gem" in the most unlikely of places of Burton.

If you would like to discuss my thoughts on the rental market, feel free to pop through the door of our offices on the High Street, call me on 07973 666229 or send me an email to: davidm@professionalproperties.co.uk

Click HERE to arrange you FREE RENTAL VALUATION.

Do your homework and bag a Burton bargain!

It finally happened! I was asked to speak to a group of landlords and property investors at a networking event in Hilton so I thought I would briefly share my topic with you.

In Burton, property prices are still 6.5% below the level that was achieved in the Spring 2007 property boom (before it went pop in early 2008 with the credit crunch).

The cost of living has increased by 18% over the last seven years so if Burton people sold their properties today, the money they would get from the property would actually be 24.5% lower ( 18% inflation/cost of living  +  6.5% below the 2007 boom)  than if they’d sold in Spring 2008!

Average Burton house prices are in a constant state of microflux. Over the last seventeen months, the trend has been in an upward  direction. The price of a typical Burton home remained stagnant  in July (yet increased 0.5% in June and even increased in May by 0.4%). Looking at monthly figures in isolation can be dangerous, so I also looked at the Land Registry figures which showed that the annual rate of Burton house price growth moderated in July to 4.3%from 5.4% in June.

The slowdown was not entirely unexpected, given mounting evidence of a moderation in activity in recent months.  Mortgage approvals declined by almost a fifth between January and May, and there has also been some softening in forward looking indicators, such as new buyer enquiries. But on the other side, with the labour market strengthening, landlords are looking for a home for their savings, mortgage rates are expected to remain low and with consumer confidence rising activity is likely to recover in the months ahead.

Rightmove have recently released some data on Burton and the immediate area, and they make fascinating reading. The peak of the property market last decade in Burton is recognised as Spring 2008. Whilst property values are still 6.5% lower than that boom, homeowner’s asking prices are 0.2% higher than the 2007 boom. Therefore, there is an argument to say, some (not all) Burton asking prices are a little high but the price the properties are actually selling for, is a decent and reasonable figure.

It all comes down to doing your homework, asking questions of the agent and the owners. Find out their motivation for selling and see if you can ‘bag that bargain’!

Trust me they are still out there. As we don’t sell property, I can look at the whole of the market and give you an honest opinion on its investment potential. In fact very soon, I will be starting to put on what I consider the best buy to let deals there are on to the ‘Burton Property Blog’.

If you would like to discuss my thoughts on the rental market, feel free to pop through the door of our offices on the High Street, call me on 07973 666229 or send me an email to: davidm@professionalproperties.co.uk

Click HERE to arrange you FREE RENTAL VALUATION.

Top dog in Burton!

Time to blow ones own trumpet..

Professional Properties are, again, leading the way as the go to letting agent in the area!
In the four weeks to 27th September, 43 landlords decided that it was in their best interests to let their property with the letting experts.

Look at the stats from Rightmove..

I am very pleased that my business is leading the way in the Burton area. It is a great boost for our lettings team to know that we are the number one choice for landlords when they want a quality letting and management service!


That's why we do what we do!

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