Month: July 2017

The Unfairness of the Letchworth Baby Boomer’s £2,232,080,000 Windfall? (Part 1)

Recently I was having a chat with one of my second cousins at a big family get-together. The last time I had seen them their children were in their early teens. Now their children are all grown up, have partners, dogs and children. Wow – how time flies! So, I got talking, about the times of 15% interest rates and how the more mature members of our family had to endure the 3 day week, 20% inflation and the threat of nuclear annihilation in 4 minutes.  Foolishly I said what with all the opportunities youngsters had today, they had never had it so good! Trust one of my cousin’s children to have gained some financial/economics qualifications before going to Law School, as they debated with me the genuine economic predicament of Millennials and how a combination of student debt, unemployment, global proliferation, EU migration and rising house values is reducing the salaries and outlook of masses of the UK’s younger

read more The Unfairness of the Letchworth Baby Boomer’s £2,232,080,000 Windfall? (Part 1)

The Letchworth Property Market, The Beatles, Sweden and 50 year mortgages

Fifty years ago, in 1967, the first human heart transplant was performed by Dr Christian Barnard in South Africa. In the same year Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side to the right-hand side of the road. The average value of a Letchworth property was £4,935, interest rates were at 5.5% and The Beatles released one of my favourite albums – their Sgt Peppers album.  What the hell has that to do with the Letchworth property market today??  Quite a lot actually … so with my CD player turned up loud – let me explain my friends! I have been doing some research on the current attitude of Letchworth first-time buyers.  First-time buyers are so important for both landlords and homeowners. If first-time buyers are not buying, they still need a roof over their heads, so they rent (good news for landlords). If they buy, demand for Letchworth property goes up for starter homes and that enables other Letchworth

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Letchworth Buy-To-Let Predictions up to 2037

On several occasions over the last few months, in my Letchworth Property Blog, I predicted that the rate of rental inflation (i.e. how much rents are rising by) had eased over the last year. At the same time I felt that in some parts of the UK rents had actually dropped for the first time in over eight years. Recent research backs up this prediction. Rents in Letchworth for new tenancies only grew by 0.7% in the last 12 months (i.e. not existing tenants experiencing rental increases from their existing landlord). When we compare that current rate with the historical rental inflation in Letchworth, an interesting pattern emerges .. 2016 – Rental Inflation in Letchworth was 4.3% 2015 – Rental Inflation in Letchworth was 6.4% 2014 – Rental Inflation in Letchworth was 0.7% The reason behind this change depends on which side of the demand/supply equation you are looking from. On the demand side (from the tenants point of view)

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