The year has begun with the sort of explosiveness that may make all but the most bullish property investors run in search of a comfortable fence to sit upon until the world calms down. Whether it\u2019s Trump\u2019s bombastic proclamations to end wars and redraw the map, the unstoppable march of AI, climate change or Elon Musk\u2026 it\u2019s all a little unsettling, to say the least.<\/p>\n
Closer to home, it will depend where you sit on the wealth spectrum as to whether changes to non dom status and VAT on private school fees<\/a>, or impending stamp duty hikes and the rising cost of living, are hitting home hardest.<\/p>\n But when do you last remember a year of blissful uneventfulness? It\u2019s nearly nine years since the Brexit vote \u2013 and life in the UK has never looked remotely like a millpond since. Despite it all, however, there are plenty of compelling reasons to invest in UK property in 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n Average house price growth<\/a> nationwide is likely to be around 4% this year, and 5.5% next, according to Savills\u2019 most recent forecast. Factors such as the 5% surcharge on second home purchases mean the mainstream market is likely to see far greater recovery than the prime market.<\/p>\n With housing supply and demand still hugely out of kilter \u2013 and some p<\/a>roperty investors who have known a far more favourable fiscal and regulatory environment over the last three decades now deciding to sell up, further reducing rental stock – rental values are set to rise by a similar amount this year. Savills<\/a> predict 4% growth in 2025, and continued growth over the next five years, resulting in a total compound rent rises of 17.6% by 2029. The North<\/a>, according to Savills, will see the greatest rental growth.<\/p>\n We all latched on to \u2013 then started to hate \u2013 the concept of the \u2018new normal\u2019 when it ruled our lives in post-lockdown 2021. But property investors and homebuyers alike need to accept that mortgage rates of around 4% will be the new normal, according to Lloyds Banking Group. The number of buyers seeking mortgages will rise too, with cash buyers likely to account for around 35% of all transactions, down from 40% last year.<\/p>\n When it comes to determining where opportunity lies, nearly five years on from Lockdown 2020, we are starting to see the unravelling of Covid trends \u2013 which provides some pointers as to where and how we\u2019ll be wanting to live in years to come.<\/p>\n The need to return to the office for many is reversing the \u201crace for space\u201d move to the countryside and driving demand for homes nearer work, either in cities or easily commutable towns where it\u2019s possible to strike a work\/lifestyle\/cost of housing balance.<\/p>\n Even those still able to remote or flexi-work have learnt that full-time WFH can be a lonely business \u2013 and that\u2019s fuelling the growth of new business hubs in cities, especially among younger workers, who want to live near cool co-working places that are part office, part private members\u2019 club with a gym and caf\u00e9 on tap.<\/p>\n Look at where flexible workspace companies such as x+why\u00a0are launching to see where demand lies. In Birmingham<\/a> – which UK Sotheby\u2019s International Realty pinpoint as a major business and cultural hub ripe for residential property investment \u2013 x+why\u2019s Foundry in the city centre offers the kind of co-working community that Gen Zs covet, with wellbeing amenities at its core.<\/p>\n The same company\u2019s 100 Embankment in Manchester\u2019s<\/a> city centre delivers a similarly health-orientated, sociable co-working space. It\u2019s close to Salford, too, whose new Mayoral Development Zone has just been given the green light for major investment around the Western Gateway to create new homes, employment space, leisure and retail.<\/p>\n The picture is echoed in Liverpool<\/a>, were a co-working space called basecamp typifies the new collaborative, creative scene in a city whose current urban regeneration projects are estimated to be valued at \u00a314bn, including the Knowledge Quarter and Liverpool Waters.<\/p>\n In Bristol, meanwhile, waterfront Finzels Reach in the city centre is home to the trendiest new offices – even the BBC have moved there from old-money Clifton \u2013 and new developments such as McArthur\u2019s Yard cater to those wanting nearby waterfront living too.<\/p>\n New neighbourhoods are being master-planned to cater to demand \u2013 not just from high-earning Gen Z renters, but downsizers and families too \u2013 for apartment blocks set among independent cafes, pop-up leisure attractions and trendy retail. In London, think Nine Elms or King\u2019s Cross.<\/p>\n So where is the next King\u2019s Cross? One contender is Brent Cross Town, by the same developers, Related Argent, but three times bigger (180 acres), with 50 acres of green space, 6,700 new homes and workspace for 25,000 people. It is also set to be carbon net zero by 2030 \u2013 which matters to the next generation of residents. Being the UK\u2019s first fossil-free major mixed use development is a big selling point for Bankside Yards on the South Bank too.<\/p>\n Otherwise, property investors could look east \u2013 Thamesmead, Barking Riverside and Canada Water are among the areas seeing huge regeneration that will make waterfront living possible for more Londoners than ever before. Then at least when the world all starts to seem too much, there\u2019s a cathartic view to help restore some sanity.<\/p>\n BuyAssociation specialises in connecting property investors with reputable developers across the UK, providing property investors with opportunities ahead of the market. Get in touch to find out more<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A month into 2025, Zoe Dare Hall looks at some of the major factors that could affect property investors in the year ahead. The year has begun with the sort of explosiveness that may make all but the most bullish property investors run in search of a comfortable fence to sit upon until the world… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4216,"featured_media":6100783,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,676,4,6],"tags":[103],"class_list":["post-6101077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buy-to-let-landlords","category-guestposts","category-investment","category-uk-housing-market","tag-property-investors"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6101077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4216"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6101077"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6101077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6101079,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6101077\/revisions\/6101079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6100783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6101077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6101077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6101077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Values and rent are rising<\/h3>\n
Trends for property investors to watch<\/h3>\n
Co-working considerations<\/h3>\n