Aylesbury Landlords invest £1.28 bn in the Aylesbury Property market

South East property asking prices jumped by more than £6,400 to £363,992 in February according to Rightmove, an increase of 1.8% from January and 8.1% higher than a year ago. The property market has really warmed up, but talking to some Aylesbury Estate Agents, they are reporting their lowest ever stocks of quality property for sale. However, asking prices have no relation to what property sells for (i.e. their REAL value), is the issue a lack of supply?

Putting aside Aylesbury’s continual housing supply shortage, (we only built 4,880 properties in the last decade but the population of Aylesbury grew by 8,389), this is now, according to some people, being exaggerated by an increase in homes being owned by buy to let investors, who tend to be buying a property as part of a long term pension plan and are more likely to keep it for longer than an owner occupier would. I have also seen unwillingness among homeowners looking to move, to put their own property on the market as they can find few suitable properties to make it worth their while going through the whole moving process.

Talking to some Aylesbury landlords only last week, I said that I believe this is the new norm in the Aylesbury property market, and is the consequence of over 35 years of not enough homes being built to meet the escalating growth in household numbers, resulting in a lack of quality homes for sale in many popular areas of Aylesbury.

When one looks at the historic data, in February 2008, there were 1,653 properties on the market in Aylesbury compared to today’s 396. Should we be worried?  Well in March 2010, there were only 582 properties for sale in Aylesbury but eight months later in November 2010, this had jumped to 916 properties, for it to drop to 343 properties in December 2013. The number of properties on the market is a cyclical thing in Aylesbury, it always has been. As we go into the Spring of 2015, the number of new properties coming onto the market will increase ... just as the daffodils will flower.

So are landlords to blame? Well, on one side of the coin, yes they are. If they buy a property to rent out, that means someone can’t buy it to live in. However, it doesn’t matter if someone wants to live in a property if they can’t afford the deposit and upkeep ... the youngsters of Aylesbury still need a roof over their head. So on the other side of the coin, if the Council aren’t building any properties and people can’t afford the large deposit for the mortgage, then Aylesbury landlords have stepped in and bought property to rent out to them. Aylesbury landlords have bought 3,971 properties over the last decade (investing approximately £1.281bn buying those Aylesbury rental properties), meaning there were at the last count, 8,096 Aylesbury properties being privately rented out to tenants. Aylesbury tenants are in fact getting a good deal as well, as average rents in Aylesbury are 5.9% above they were seven years ago. That sounds like a win-win situation for everyone to me. Don’t blame landlords and start building more properties in Aylesbury ... that is the only answer.

In the meantime, the demand from Aylesbury tenants for Aylesbury property is only set to rise over the coming years. If you want some advice and opinion on where (or not) to buy, please visit the Aylesbury Property Blog  http://theaylesburypropertyblog.blogspot.co.uk/