You find me in a
reflective mood today as I want to talk about the future of investing in
property in Clacton. The truth is that we have got fat and lethargic, with many
people having mistaken the ever rising Clacton (and in fact the whole of the
UK) property market since the 1960’s as the eternal gift that kept giving as
property prices constantly rose and doubled every five to seven years.
The days of making money from property
as easy
as falling off a log, like taking candy
from a baby are sadly
over my Clacton Property Blog reading
friends
Whilst George Osborne has
decided now is the time to milk the ‘Golden Cow’ of UK’s private landlords,
with changes in taxation for buy to let property, many pundits are predicting
the end of buy to let as we know it. However, it is still possible to make a
reasonable, profitable and safe return on property with these changes. You see,
I have always seen investing in the Clacton buy to let market (as I would
anywhere in the UK), as I might see mother nature, creating some truly
wonderful stunning warm weather but at the same time, she will bite, creating
catastrophic situations such as snowstorms and hurricanes. You need to study the market, take advice and
opinions from many people and then decide what the proverbial property weather
will be … remember, tenants will always want a roof over their head and I don’t
see the HM Government building the millions of houses required to house them?
Nobody knows the future,
and yes people can predict but I wouldn’t be afraid of this change .. because
as a famous French proverb says, (I told you I was a reflective mood today), ‘the
more things change, the more they stay the same’. I mean, no one could have predicted how the
property market has changed in Clacton over the last couple of decades? Twenty
years ago, 18,072 households (meaning 83.31% of property) was owned and only
1,428 households were privately rented (meaning 6.63% of property was rented
out by private landlords). Roll the clocks on twenty years and the change has
been seismic …. Now only 16,099 of properties in the town are home-owners (a
huge drop to only 70.5% being owner occupied) and the jump in private renting
has been out of this world, as 4,249 properties are now privately rented
proportionally 18.6%). (NB Neighbouring towns show similar changes as well)
Who would have predicted in 1995 the
private rental sector in
Clacton would have grown by 180.54% in
the proceeding 20 years?
Also, if you had asked
someone in 1995 to predict what would happen to property values over the
proceeding 20 years (ie between 1995 and 2015), they might have
predicted similar growth to the growth experienced over the previous 20 years (ie
between 1975 and 1995), which was a very impressive 351.55%. Yes, property
values in Clacton have increased over the last 20 years (between 1995 and
2015), but by a more modest 246.45% (and most of that can be attributed to
house price growth between 2000 and 2006.)
The property market is
constantly changing and buy to let for too long has been heavily dependent
solely on house price growth, where yield has been almost forgotten. I see the changes in tax and landlord and
tenant law in a different perspective to the doom-mongers and see it as
bringing many opportunities. You might need to change your buy to let
benchmarks, your approach to financing or even consider places other than
Clacton in which to invest your money, but this will shine a light on investing
in properties with healthier yields and create more realistic long term buy to
let opportunities, instead of short term growth bets and wagers.
The advice I give to my
landlords, and you my blog reading friends is this; these changes will make
some landlords panic, meaning competition for decent Clacton buy to let
bargains will reduce as fear of change kicks in and amateur investors flee the
market. These opportunities will provide a more stable platform for
knowledgeable and wise Clacton buy to let landlords to thrive in. If you want
to learn more about the Clacton Property Market, feel free to pop in for a
coffee at our office for a chat with me, or failing that, visit the Clacton
Property Blog, where you will find many more articles like this ..solely on the
one topic of the Property Market in Clacton www.clactonproperty.blogspot.co.uk
