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
