What's happening in the Teddington Property Market post the General Election?

Even with the General Election just gone, property values in Teddington are still 1.31% higher than they were 3 months ago, the uncertainty and ambiguity of an election typically makes house sellers who need to sell, price their property more realistically (although this only lasts a couple of months). Looking specifically at it from a Teddington landlord’s point of view, the Teddington properties favoured by investors are in short supply in many parts of the town because of a number of factors. One of the major factors has been that we have seen the number of first time buyers coming to buy their first home increase over the last 12 months in Teddington. 

As I mentioned a few weeks back, the pension rules are changing which means buy to let landlords can use some, or all, of their pension pot to buy a property.  It shouldn't be forgotten there are tax implications when taking more than a quarter of your pension pot out (see the article from a few weeks ago). So, whilst many pension pots may not be able to fund a suitably big enough tax free lump sum to buy the property outright, for most it will provide enough for the 25% deposit (required by most BTL mortgage providers). It shouldn't be forgotten, landlords, that the interest paid on the mortgage is tax deductible against the rent, thus lowering your income tax paid. Woohoo! 

In the last 12 months, I have noticed a particular uplift in interest from ‘50 something’ Teddington people wanting to become landlords for the first time. In Teddington, the highest returns for the lowest investment are at the lower end of the market e.g the one and two bed flats . Unfortunately, flats with one or two bedrooms are coming to the market in smaller numbers than the larger four beds in the top end sectors of the Teddington property market. When looking at the actual numbers, in the later part of the Summer of 2014 in Teddington, in one month alone 121 two bed properties were on the market in Teddington. However, in January this year, a notoriously excellent bumper month for properties coming on to the market, there were only 101 two bed properties on the market in Teddington to choose from. Today, that figure stands at only 107..whilst the number of four and five beds has increased significantly ...  interesting don’t you think? 

At the lower end of the property market in Teddington, (i.e where first time buyers and landlord investors compete with each other to buy those smaller properties), I believe throughout 2015, there will be a slow and steady tipping of the scales between supply and demand. In fact, from what i am seeing and hearing, early anecdotal evidence has suggested over the last few months (although we will need to look at figures later in the Spring once we have the data from The Land Registry), that we are beginning to see a polarised Teddington property market. This is where we have high demand but low supply at the bottom end of the property market, yet high supply but lower demand at the top end of the market .. and that can only mean one thing ... prices will go up quicker on the smaller properties than the larger ones in Teddington, thus narrowing the gap for people looking to move up market!

If you are looking for advice on the Teddington property market, particularly with regards to buy to let, or would just like to use a local independent letting agent to manage your portfolio who is really passionate about the local property market then please do get in touch. I'd love to hear from you! :o)

Rebecca Smith

http://www.rebeccasmithpropertyservices.co.uk/