I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. As I watched the Queen step out on to the balcony of the most expensive residential home in the world (Buckingham Palace, which is worth over £1bn), I thought it might be interesting to see how property prices have changed since her accession to the throne on the 6th February 1952.
Back then, the average price of a property in the U.K was just £1,891. Seventy years later and the average property now costs £260,771; an amount which would have bought you 138 homes in 1952!
Back then the UK was mostly an island of renters though, with only around four million owning their own home, compared to 15 million homeowners today. Buyers in 1952 were typically paying four times the average salary for a home, compared to eight times today’s average salary now.
It’s not just property that has increased in price though; with a pint of milk costing 4p and a pint of beer costing 9p when the Princess became the Queen, times certainly have changed across the land!
Of course, that meteoric house price growth has not been linear, as the below chart shows:
Summary:
4 bed house in Tangmere
Listed for sale on 01/06/22 @ £399,950
Rent = £1,600pcm
Yield = 4.8%
The property is on the market with White & Brooks and full details can be found on Rightmove via the following link: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/85424457
I have often erred on the side of caution (and compassion) when it comes to increasing the rent of good tenants who are paying on time and looking after the property.
It is, however, becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the fact that rents are increasing quite significantly across the board (up around 10% in the past year) and that this kind treatment to tenants doesn't always translate into the added loyalty you might expect anyway.
It may be a harsh outlook, but if the tenants don't like the rent increase and thus decide to move on, there are plenty of people chomping at the bit to find a new home (seemingly at any price).
I haven't quite tipped over in to this extreme capitalist way of thinking yet; I still think a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, whilst karma has a surprising way of taking care of situations.
But, dear readers, what do you think? Inflation is a hot topic of course; are you adding to tenants woes (and easing your own) by increasing rents, or favouring the status quo as a reward to good tenants and see how things pan out?
See you in a fortnight!
CLIVE JANES
Owner
t:
01243 624599
Voted 'Best Letting Agent in Chichester 2020'
with a 5/5 average rating from 189 customer reviews
Please tell others about this newsletter so
they too can receive it free each week.
