Britain’s property market has had some major headlines in recent times, good as well as bad. Whilst some are saying the market is about to pick up, other see it heading down a dark rabbit hole. Let’s have a look at the latest indications.
London’s property market is spiraling down
Since the Brexit vote last year, London’s market has had a rather rough time. And whilst a lot of experts gave up on it early on, the market overall appears a little more resilient than originally expected.
With the pound dropping quite dramatically in value, a lot of investors saw their chance to secure a bargain, and did so in London. And although other places, like Manchester and Birmingham, are slowly picking up more and more investment interest, some investors still prefer London as an almost traditional safe haven.
So whether London has actually seen the last of its glorious days or the capital is now just sharing the investor pie with some other competitors, like the Northern stars, still remains to be seen.
House sales take up to 10 months
There is no doubt that some properties will take some time to find a buyer. Whether that’s to do with the demand or property or more with the location of the property and its asking price is the right question to ask.
Since the UK’s decision to leave the EU, the places which have performed better when it comes to property sales have all been supporters of the decision to leave. Whilst the Brexit decision has certainly led some investors to hold out for a bit longer, many of those properties that are on the market for a prolonged period of time happen to be in that situation due to unfortunate locations or higher than average asking prices.
Meet your property hotspots for 2017: Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh
Renting can help fix the market
Some might still be thinking in first-time buyers, last-time buyers and upsizing and downsizing. Others, though, may find it more useful to think in build-to-rent and buy-to-let.
Taking the UK property market for what it is: a currently faulty system that doesn’t take into account a massive slice of its members, those renting, will get you closer to fixing the issue. Getting people out of overpriced and unfit buy-to-let homes and into fairly priced and adequate build-to-rent accommodation will be the bigger help for all of the market.
