Welling Property Market Update - July 2017

It's been two months since the last Rightmove update on this blog, and what a difference those two months can make. 

The first quarter of the year our portfolio of property for sale and under offer consisted mainly of houses, with a few two beds but pre-dominantly three bedrooms, being the most common purchases. Almost all went on the market and created immediate interest, with viewing numbers high, Saturday Open Day's and offers within a very short period of time. 

The last few months have been different. The portfolio remains largely three bedroom houses, but the prices, viewing numbers and offers are all in lesser supply than before. 

And the message is the same across the whole of Welling, DA16 based on my conversations with other local agents, surveyors, and the volume of reduced properties on a daily basis on Rightmove. 

So to the Rightmove stats ...

Average Property Prices in Welling, DA16 in July 2017

Referring back to the comparable figures from May 2017 from the same Source (Rightmove) prices for 2/3/4 bedrooms houses are all lower. Not massively so, but all the same there has been a small reduction. Five bedroom house prices are, ironically, up by over 15k, but given there were only half a dozen transactions of five beds in that time its a small sample to judge on. 

The same applies with flats, with 1/2 beds down in price, and three beds up slightly. 

If you are looking to move now, especially over school holiday season, you still will, but pricing is clearly more crucial than ever. Get it wrong, and you will have to lower the price, and the initial impact of hitting the market will be lost. 

As always, if you need advice on anything relating to residential property please do not hesitate to getting touch directly on kevin@dansonpropertyservices.com

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

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How will Tenant Fees being banned affect the Welling Property Market?

Another week has ticked by and the fallout from the banning of Tenant Fees has calmed down a little. 

Many property owners and landlords in Welling have been asking my opinion on how I think the news from the Chancellor in his Autumn Statement will influence rents in the local area, and you can read my personal opinion in my last piece here.

As you'll have read, I am against it, and so are 99% of the estate agency industry, with most preferring a cap rather than an outright ban. But everyone has a different opinion, so what are others saying? I collect some of their thoughts below.

The online agent

Upad are a large online only agent, mainly dealing with rental stock. So what do they, and specifically their owner, have to say? Bizarrely they are in favour of the ban? And the CEO's comments make it sound like good news for tenants. I guess only time will serve to prove that that is likely to be incorrect based on the thoughts of the 99% mentioned above. Their doesn't appear a comment relating to how it will affect their client the landlord though, just something from the tenants side of the fence. Their initial piece can be found here and then their follow up can be found here ... generalising what I and my industry colleagues do considerably I might add ... here.

The Welling Landlord

Nathan Hewish, one of our bigger landlords at Danson, and a local resident, gives you his thoughts here.

and if its all getting a bit much for you?

YourBuy2Let.com give a very brief and simple overview of what might happen here.

So there we have it. You know my views, but what are yours? Feel free to comment below.

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 kevin@dansonpropertyservices.com or call on 020 3397 4499. If you are in the area, feel free to pop into the office – we are based on 116 High Street, Welling, Kent, DA16 1TJ. There is plenty of parking and the kettle is always on.

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

Follow The Buy-To-Let Property Investment Market in Welling

Welling Property Market LinkedIn Page

Danson Property Services Welling Facebook Page

Danson Property Services Welling Twitter Page

Welling Investment Property Specialist Danson Property Services Website

Find out how much is your Welling home worth. Click here for your FREE Instant Online Valuation

A Welling Landlords view on the banning of Tenant Fees

Welling resident and local landlord Nathan Hewish, and customer of ours at Danson Property Services, gives his opinion on the banning of fees to tenants.

"Unless you are a Letting Agent, you're probably wondering what all the fuss is about. Less Letting Agent fees means less money needed to rent a property, it's obvious, isn't it?

Here's my take on the situation. From a private Landlord's perspective the BTL (Buy To Let) sector of the residential housing market has taken an unprecedented battering over the past two years. Lending criteria are stricter than they have ever been in the form of the Mortgage Market Review and this will worsen in 2017. Also, the amount of legislation has increased ten fold with things like Deposit Protection Schemes for tenants, legionella safety checks, carbon monoxide checks, right to rent checks, just to name a few. But the most memorable for myself is a strange, almost illegal, tax system that was introduced by the now defunct Chancellor George Osborne. 

So, what do the changes I've mentioned mean to the average private landlord? More money and more time will be needed to service their existing rental properties. If you're not a private landlord and you or someone you know is affected by housing issues such as high prices or lack of housing stock, you probably think that hammering landlords and letting agents is a good thing. However, all it will do is reduce housing stock in the PRS (private rented sector) pushing up demand for housing, and prices will rise further. How do I know this? I've either sold or am in the process of selling half of my BTL portfolio to date. Good riddance I hear you say? Well not really because the reality is 80% of the properties have gone to first time buyers and the other 20% to BTL landlords, therefore leaving only a fraction of the property sold available for the PRS. Tenants locally now have less potential property to rent because of my exit from the industry, and if other landlords do as I do, tenants will have even less choice. 

Who ultimately suffers now? The prospective tenants looking for somewhere to rent will suffer the most. So, in hindsight George Osborne et al's reforms will end up affecting the people they were trying to protect.

So, in conclusion the introduction of banning tenant fees will indirectly fall back onto the tenants over time, as landlords are forced to increase rents to pay the potential increased fees of some Letting Agents, because I doubt Letting Agents will work six days a week for less money. So there you go, less Letting Agent fees to the tenant will not necessarily result in less money needed to rent a property."

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 kevin@dansonpropertyservices.com or call on 020 3397 4499. If you are in the area, feel free to pop into the office – we are based on 116 High Street, Welling, Kent, DA16 1TJ. There is plenty of parking and the kettle is always on.

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

Follow The Buy-To-Let Property Investment Market in Welling

Welling Property Market LinkedIn Page

Danson Property Services Welling Facebook Page

Danson Property Services Welling Twitter Page

Welling Investment Property Specialist Danson Property Services Website

Find out how much is your Welling home worth. Click here for your FREE Instant Online Valuation

Tenant Fees Banned - The Fallout for Welling Landlords

Earlier this week the Chancellor Philip Hammond announced in his Autumn Statement that fees charged to tenants by Letting Agents were to be banned (although when this will take effect from was not disclosed). This had been actioned in Scotland in 2012 and was considered to have been a success (questionable at best, do read on). 

The fallout on this issue within the industry, and amongst the campaigners looking for the ban in the first place, has been considerable, but why is it so important? and why will it have wider implications than just to the tenant who will now "save money"?

Let us bear in mind that the main parties wanting this ban were tenants and charity/housing organisations, and their voices were shouting louder than the lettings agents and landlords. 

Almost everyone I have spoken to within the industry, be it agent, journalist, trainer or service provider, has been against it. Now you might expect that, given that agents can no longer make what is often wrongly perceived as a nice little earner with so many believing it is little more than an extra "tax" to tenants, but the issue is so much bigger than that. 

I'm not happy about it, and this is why.

Most agents try to do things properly, and charge reasonably for their work. Not all admittedly, even in my private rental arrangements in recent years I have had to pay out what I consider excessive amounts. My view, and therefore that of the company I run, is not to charge to excess first time around, given that if you alienate a customer first time around by overcharging, you aren't likely to see that customer again in the future. As a smaller independent business, and someone who lives locally, and buying, selling or renting property is a basic human requirement never likely to disappear, repeat custom is encouraged for us to help us grow. Our approach is therefore to be reasonable, and to look medium/long term rather than grab every penny now.

Our tenant admin fees, or however you care to word them, are the lowest in town. 

But sadly, estate agents in general don't have a good image, some agents give us a bad name and the minority ruin it for the majority. The issue of tenant fees is no different. That's why the ban is here basically, because a minority of people have been taking the mickey, and now we must all suffer. And by all I mean YOU, not just myself and my colleagues. 

And that is because whether you are a tenant or a landlord you will suffer financially as a result of this pending legislation. 

If you are a tenant, you might save a small amount in up front fees now admittedly, but if that impacts on higher rents on a monthly basis then over the term of your tenancy you are likely to be worse off in the long run. How so? Well the loss of income from an agent in tenant fees is more than likely to be passed to landlords by the majority of businesses, and therefore the landlord, already being hit by tax law changes in the last 12-18 months hitting their profit margins, are probably going to be of the opinion that rents must go up. 

Alternatively, your landlord might decide that with all these changes in the rules, that being a landlord isn't so profitable any more, and will sell up. The reduction in supply to the market will mean more competition for the remaining properties, and as with any supply and demand situation, that is only going to drive prices one way.

If you are a landlord this will absolutely effect you within the next 12 months when you are next looking for a tenant. Why? because when we ask a tenant for a holding fee on a property, we are securing their commitment that they will not change their mind. We are safeguarding against the time wasters, the mind changers and the referencing failures. That inability now to take a holding fee from a tenant which they risk losing, means the tyre-kickers messing agents and landlords around will have free rein, and that isn't good for landlord, agent, or serious tenant. 

More wasted time by me and my staff, and you the landlord, and less security by way of a financial commitment from the tenant, will increase risk that you have a void period, or there are delays, or additional work from referencing numerous tenants to safeguard against a potential failure. And this all costs time and money, and if the tenant isn't paying, who is?

Agents still have a business to run, and costs to pay, so if the cost isn't being partly covered by the tenant, where will it be made up? Would that be in the agent raising their fees chargeable to landlords - not likely, that won't go down well. Or will the agent suffer the loss, but then will that effect service levels, or lead to corner cutting, and neither of those are sensible either. It's a problem waiting to happen. 

Rents WILL GO UP

The harsh reality is that landlords WILL increase rents, not instantly, but inevitably. Combined with the other changes in legislation in recent years landlords are not making the money they used to, and whilst you might not like to hear it, 99% of landlords do so to make money. They don't rent you their property out of kindness! and another issue working against them might mean that £50pcm goes on the bottom line, and that over the term of a tenancy is a lot more than the agency fees up front would have been to the tenant. 

Why not regulation rather than a ban?

This all stems from what I consider poor regulation. The laws for estate and lettings agencies are infinitely better than they were when I started 11 years ago, but there are still huge gaps and/or loopholes that sadly some types of people will look to exploit.

Hearing stories of people being charged £25 for a photocopy of a tenancy agreement, £90 for the privilege of moving in on a weekend, or £100's for referencing, guarantors, check-ins etc etc, especially in London, it isn't difficult to see why there is a problem.

But for me the solution is a capping of charges, and not a removal of them. For, as mentioned above, without a fair and reasonable charge, I will undoubtedly have my time wasted, and ultimately that will cost a landlord and a vendor somewhere down the line - and most probably a lot of tenants too.

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 kevin@dansonpropertyservices.com or call on 020 3397 4499. If you are in the area, feel free to pop into the office – we are based on 116 High Street, Welling, Kent, DA16 1TJ. There is plenty of parking and the kettle is always on.

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

Follow The Buy-To-Let Property Investment Market in Welling

Welling Property Market LinkedIn Page

Danson Property Services Welling Facebook Page

Danson Property Services Welling Twitter Page

Welling Investment Property Specialist Danson Property Services Website

Find out how much is your Welling home worth. Click here for your FREE Instant Online Valuation