Speaking
to a Bank Manager the other day in Canterbury, we got talking about the state
of the Canterbury property market and whether we, as a Country, are turning
more and more to the European style of property ownership, where it is the norm
to rent as a opposed to automatically buying once you have a good job etc.
Even
though a recent report by the Halifax stated homeownership remains a goal for 85% of
twenty to forty five year olds, there is information emerging that
attitudes in the UK towards renting your own home as opposed to owning it
have softened, showing more and more, that renting is being seen as a life
style choice. In fact it is recognised
in learned circles that the cycle of renting is also repeated by the fact
that people who grow up primarily in rented accommodation are
themselves more likely to rent than buy.
The biggest barrier often
mentioned to buying a house is the claim that they are not buying property
at the moment because of a lack of sufficient wages and by the high
level of deposits, but like we said a few weeks ago, in Canterbury, if a couple,
one on say three quarters of the average Canterbury salary of £33,130 pa (so that would be around £25,000 pa) and the other on the Minimum Wage,
assuming they had a reasonable credit history they would be showered with lenders
offering them a
95% mortgage (a reasonable credit history means they haven’t defaulted on loans,
paid all their bills on time nor got any County Court Judgements. Just because
you missed just one credit card payment won’t mean you have messed up your
credit score and your ability to get a mortgage) and they would only
need to find £7,500 as a deposit to buy a decent apartment in an up market area
of Canterbury or a good honest 2 bed terraced house in average part of the City
(e.g. East Canterbury). ..it comes down to the perceived
capability
of the youngsters in Canterbury to buy nowadays.
Interestingly, when I looked
at the Canterbury figures, the average Canterbury tenant has a younger profile (especially
the sub 24 year olds) than the English and Welsh average, as can be seen from
the graph below. However, some of this can be explained by the high Student
population. What interested me as well was the relatively large number of
people renting over the age of 50! I know we have a large number of mature tenants at our
agency, but I always thought that was the exception to the rule. Obviously
not! (And that is good news for
landlords as they make excellent tenants.)
So what does all this mean
for Canterbury landlords and future Canterbury landlords? I honestly believe
there is a difference between the hope and perceived capability of the
younger generation to buy a home. Although homeownership is seen as advantageous
by a majority, many tenants admitted in the Halifax report they are not taking
the steps they need to purchase their own home.
As the local authority aren’t
building any properties in Canterbury, people still need a roof over the head,
and that is why, as I mentioned a few weeks ago in the Canterbury Property
Blog, the demand for rental properties will only continue to steadily rise in
the coming decade. If want to know where the Canterbury Property market is
heading and where you should (and shouldn’t buy), maybe the one place you
should visit is the Canterbury Property Blog www.canterburypropertyblog.com
or send me an email to canterbury@martinco.com
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