UK property: Sales
As we are nearing the end of the final phase of the Stamp Duty (SDLT) holiday at the end of September (on the first £250k of property purchases) it seemed apt to reflect on how it may have helped or distorted the market.
The volume of UK House sales declined in July after the 1st main SDLT holiday ended. Tax data showed that residential purchases were 63% lower than in June. So the number of housing transactions fell, but what effect did it have on house prices?
A recent article in the Financial Times quotes a study by the Think Tank Resolution Foundation which reveals that the biggest house price rises were in areas that least benefited from the SDLT tax cuts. So the SDLT holiday may not have distorted pricing as much as many people think.
UK property: Rental market
On the rental side, more Institutional Investors are coming into the rental market, attracted by the demand, returns and stability offered. Today’s rental market has changed dramatically. Demand has continued to increase, with 1.7 million more rental households in 2017 compared to 2007, according to the ONS.
Build to Rent
Institutional investors are entering the market at scale with Build-to-Rent. Purpose-built Build to Rent is a new concept in the UK, which started around 2016, but a model common in other countries like Germany and elsewhere in the European Continent. It means tenants rent off a Corporate landlord. In theory tenants are offered a more consistent service level, in return for higher rents when compared with some of the private rentals on the market.
Landlords like: John Lewis, Legal and General and now Lloyds Bank is the latest to enter the housing market with the intention to buy and rent out 50,000 homes in the next decade. They may offer longer tenures that many tenants crave, but are likely to push rental prices up.
Future for UK First time buyers?
In the end the market may be shaped in a different way. Still difficult for First Time Buyers, as prices are so buoyant and inaccessible. Yet with more rental stock potentially becoming available, the UK housing market could start to look a bit more like Continental Europe in nature in the future.
This presents opportunities for investors in the buy-to-let sector. As prices are still inaccessible for many and the rental sector becomes more homogenised and potentially expensive, renters will still want character, individual properties in the right locations. The bigger block build of Build-to-Rent won’t necessarily be in the optimum locations that many individual, resale properties might be
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Tags: Buy to let, Expats, investment property, rental