The London Buy To Let Market Update from Property Options – January 2017
Many readers of our market overviews are primarily interested in the Bristol buy to let (BTL) market and we report on this at the end of each month in the Property Options website.
However some readers also have property in London or have an interest in the London market and that is the subject of this month’s review.
For some time people have been moving to the outer London boroughs to buy or rent a house, as inner London becomes unaffordable. There has also been a trend to move out of London altogether to one of the commuter towns such as Luton, Basildon and Reading.
This has been driven by high property prices and rents especially in Central London where property prices have increased because of demand for premium property from wealthy residents and investors.
However most commentators are taking the view that the increase in house prices in London is levelling off or even falling slightly – and that rents are reaching the limit of affordability for many people.
This view has been reflected in a range of comments on the current state of play in the London market:
- Estate agents Savills recently commented that “We expect central London residential to experience flat price growth in 2017.”
- The forecast from estate agents Knight Frank is that the slowdown in property prices that has been evident in central London will spread to the wider region including greater London in 2017.
- Property Market Analysts Hometrack reported a 2% annual increase in rents in London in the year to December 2016 compared with a rise of 6.8% in the year to June 2016.
- Countrywide Estate Agents reported an annual fall of 0.7% in average rents in London by the end of 2016.
While there are large variations in house prices and rents within London the above trends suggest that higher yields will be available for BTL investors outside the capital. For investors in Bristol, the good news is that BTL landlords can still be confident of a good return in their home city, as it continues to outperform most other towns and cities in the UK.
And as previously reported, Bristol will become more attractive to London commuters when the electrification of the main line to London and other improvements to rail infrastructure along the route are completed.
Our next market update will benchmark Bristol against competitive locations for BTL investors.
We will all be discussing the latest position on the property market in London, Bristol and across the UK at our next PIM which will be on 23 February 2017 at Holiday Inn, Bristol City Centre, 6-9 pm.
We hope you will join us then.
For more info and to reserve your place Click Below
Property Options Bristol
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