You find me in a reflective mood today as I want to talk
about the future of investing in property in Falkirk. The truth is that we have
got fat and lethargic, with many people having mistaken the ever rising Falkirk
(and in fact the whole of the UK) property market since the 1960’s as the
eternal gift that kept giving as property prices constantly rose and doubled
every five to seven years.
The
days of making money from property as easy as falling off a log, like taking
candy from a baby are sadly over my Falkirk Property Blog reading friends
With George Osborne and John Swinney having decided now
is the time to milk the ‘Golden Cow’ of UK’s private landlords, with changes in
taxation for buy to let property, and the UK having voted to leave the EU, many
pundits are predicting the end of buy to let as we know it. However, it is
still possible to make a reasonable, profitable and safe return on property
with these changes. You see, I have always seen investing in the Falkirk buy to
let market (as I would anywhere in the UK), as I might see Mother Nature,
creating some truly wonderful stunning warm weather but at the same time, she
will bite, creating catastrophic situations such as snowstorms and hurricanes.
You need to study the market, take advice and opinions from many people
and then decide what the proverbial property weather will be … remember,
tenants will always want a roof over their head and I don’t see the Scottish Government
building the millions of houses required to house them?
Nobody knows the future, and yes people can predict but I
wouldn’t be afraid of this change ..... because as a famous French proverb says
(I told you I was a reflective mood today), ‘the more things change, the more
they stay the same’. I mean, no one could have predicted how the property
market has changed in Falkirk over the past few years? Fifteen years ago, 31,692
households (meaning 60.5% of property) were owned, 15,513 (or 29.6%) were
rented from the Council and only 1,412 households were privately rented
(meaning 2.7% of property was rented out by private landlords). Roll the clocks
on and the change has been seismic ….. 36,640 of properties in Falkirk are now home-owners
(64.7% of a higher number of properties in total), only 12,716 or 22.5% are
rented from the Council (a huge fall of 29.6%) and the jump in private renting
has been out of this world, as 4,124 properties are now privately rented, proportionally
7.3%).
Also, if you had asked someone in 1996 to predict what
would happen to property values over the proceeding 20 years (ie between 1996
and 2016), they might have predicted similar growth to the growth experienced
over the previous 20 years (ie between 1976 and 1996), which was a very
impressive 351.55%. Yes, property values in Falkirk have increased over the
last 20 years (between 1996 and 2016), but by a more modest 265.94% (and most of
that can be attributed to house price growth between 2000 and 2006).
The property market is constantly changing and buy to let
for too long has been heavily dependent solely on house price growth, where
yield has been almost forgotten. I see the changes in tax and landlord &
tenant law and the uncertaitly caused by the EU vote in a different perspective
to the doom-mongers and see it as bringing many opportunities. You might need
to change your buy to let benchmarks, your approach to financing or even
consider places other than Falkirk in which to invest your money, but this will
shine a light on investing in properties with healthier yields and create more
realistic long term buy to let opportunities, instead of short term growth bets
and wagers ..... this is what The Bank of England wants.
The advice I give to my landlords, and you my blog
reading friends is this: these changes will make some landlords panic, meaning
competition for decent Falkirk buy to let bargains will reduce as fear of
change kicks in and amateur investors flee the market. These opportunities will
provide a more stable platform for knowledgeable and wise Falkirk buy to let
landlords to thrive in.
If you would like to pick our brains about buying for
investment purposes, please call me on 01324 469840, pop into my office at 6 Vicar
Street, Falkirk or email me on news@thekeyplace.co.uk.
A few more interesting articles about the
Falkirk property market:
- To buy or sell in the Falkirk property market? That is the question http://bit.ly/2abCFX5
- Falkirk property market – evidence that there is life after Brexit vote http://bit.ly/2a4vpii
- Falkirk Buy to Let sees returns of 8.9% in the last year http://bit.ly/2abkMst
- Falkirk Property Market – Reflections Two Weeks After The Referendum http://bit.ly/29vQFOK
- Post EU referendum – wi
- ll history repeat itself in the Falkirk property market? http://bit.ly/2922wPP
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