An excellent Southside of Aylesbury one bedroom maisonette with 4.7% gross yield and no chain.

A vacant first floor one bedroom maisonette in Dalesford Road Aylesbury HP21 9XZ. The property has a modern kitchen, spacious lounge, modern bathroom and a double bedroom. There is an allocated parking space to the rear of the property. Easy access in to town or to commute by car out of Aylesbury. All in all an excellent property for rental.

Rental value should be fine at £650pcm giving a gross income of £7800pa, equating to a gross yield of 4.7%. After costs still better than the banks and with great opportunity for capital growth.

For viewings ring the Mortimers sales team on 01296 398555.

84.1% of Aylesbury Properties have 3 or more bedrooms

The orthodox way of classifying property in the UK is to look at the number of bedrooms rather than its size in square metres (although now we are leaving the EU – I wonder if we can go back to feet and inches?). Homeowners and tenants are happy to pay for more space. The more bedrooms a house or apartment has, the bigger it is likely to be. The reason being not only the actual additional bedroom space, but that properties with more bedrooms tend to have larger / more reception (living) rooms. This is not so surprising given that properties with more bedrooms would typically accommodate more people and therefore require larger reception rooms.

Aylesbury homeowners and Aylesbury landlords I talk to often ask me which attributes and features are likely to make their property comparatively more attractive and which ones may detract from the price. Over time, buyers’ and tenants’ wants and needs have changed. In Aylesbury, location is still the No. 1 factor affecting the value of property, and a property in the best areas can command a price nearly substantially higher than a similar house in an ‘average’ area. However, after location, the next characteristic that has a significant influence on the desirability, and thus price, of property is the number of bedrooms and the type (i.e. Detached/ Semi/Terraced/Flat).

In previous articles, I have analysed the Aylesbury housing stock into bedrooms and type of property, but here I have cross-referenced type against bedrooms. These figures for the Aylesbury Vale District Council area make fascinating reading. It shows 84.1% of all properties in the area have 3 or more bedrooms

Bedrooms	Detached	Semi-detached	Terraced (including end-terrace)	Flat
1	32	96	95	338
2	320	1,794	2,565	1,146
3	2,881	8,607	5,809	216
4	7,108	3,159	1,083	54
5 or more	3,971	719	189	8

 

I was surprised at the low numbers of one and two bedroom properties as tenants and first time buyers  alike favour smaller one and two bed properties in Aylesbury (so they would be attractive to buy to let investors). It is interesting that there has been little change in the numbers of properties on the market in total. However the split in bedrooms on the market over the last 12 months is much more marked. 

·         12 months ago, 54 one bed properties were for sale in Aylesbury, today 25, a drop of 54%

·         12 months ago, 118 two bed properties were for sale in Aylesbury, today 97, a drop of 18%

·         12 months ago, 105 three bed properties were for sale in Aylesbury, today 165, a rise of 57%

·         12 months ago, 54 four bed properties were for sale in Aylesbury, today 57, a rise of 6%

·         12 months ago, 13 five + bed properties were for sale in Aylesbury, today 15, a rise of 15% 

This availability helps to explain the substantial price increases we have seen at the lower end of the market as investors and first time buyers compete for limited stock…straight forward rules of supply and demand!

This trend is showing no signs of changing post Brexit with the interest rates at incredibly low levels money is cheaper that it has been for years and returns from the banks on invested money are miserly. I think we are likely to see increased activity once we approach September and the end of the holiday season.

Pricing attitudes continue to be an issue for buyers as prices are often inflated by over ambitious agents and vendors alike. But so long as you do your research there are still sensible buys to be had.

Want to talk through you plans?...pop in for a cup of tea and a digestive any time you are passing our office in Temple Street or email me ian@mortimersaylesbury.co.uk 

 

 

Post Brexit - Aylesbury Property Prices set to drop £30,400 in the next 12 months? 

Excluding central London which is another world, most commentators are predicting prices will be affected by around 10%. So looking at the commentators’ thoughts in more detail, property values in Aylesbury will be 10% lower than they would have been if we had not voted to leave the EU. 

As the average value of a property in the Aylesbury Vale District Council area is £303,800, this means property values are set to drop for the average Aylesbury property by £30,380.

 

... but before we all go into panic mode ... the devil is always in the detail.

Property values today, according to the Land Registry are 15.66% higher than a year ago in the Aylesbury Vale District Council area. The 12 months before that they rose by 9.35% and the 12 months before that, they rose by 5.42%. If we had not voted to leave, we could have safely assumed Aylesbury House prices would have been 15% higher by the Summer of 2017.

… and that is the point, we will not see a house price crash in Aylesbury, it is just that house prices in a years time will only be 5% higher than they are now (i.e. 15% less the 10% lower figure because of Brexit). Let’s look at the historic figures and how that compares to today’s figures for the Aylesbury Vale district Council area and Aylesbury as a whole.

Average Value of a property 20 years ago                             £  70,100

Average Value of a property 10 years ago                             £208,600

Average Value of a property 2 years ago                               £240,200

Average Value of a property 1 year ago                                 £262,700

Average Value of a property today                                          £303,800

Projected Value of a property in 12 months’ time               £319,000 

The average value of an Aylesbury property will be £15,200 higher in 12 months’ time than today. 

That is not to say Aylesbury property prices might not dip slightly in the run up to Christmas (they always have done just about every year since 2000 and most of those were boom years) ... but in 12 months’ time this is where Aylesbury property values will be.

Whilst the UK's vote for Brexit has created an uncertainty in the Aylesbury housing market, there is no need to panic and prospective buyers should merely use common sense about their purchases. I always say to people to be prudent and if you are taking out a mortgage, at some stage during the life of that mortgage, circumstances will be difficult. We will not have a 2008 Credit crunch fire sale of properties. There will not be distressed sales.

There will be asking price reductions as agents reduce the price of their existing stock which was ambitiously priced to start with to attract new business. 

... and Aylesbury landlords? Yields could rise if Aylesbury rents continue to grow, and this might also make it easier for landlords to obtain mortgages, as the income would cover more of the interest cost. If prices were to level  that could help Aylesbury landlords add to their portfolio, as rental demand for Aylesbury property is expected to stay strong as more people find it more and more difficult to obtain mortgages.

For more thoughts on the Aylesbury Property market ... visit the Aylesbury Property Blog http://theaylesburypropertyblog.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Frozen yoghurt...yum!

 

The Aylesbury Love Affair with its 9,700 Terraced Houses

Call me old fashioned, but I do like a terraced house.   In fact, I have done some research that I hope you will find of interest.  

In architecture terms, a terraced house is a style of housing in use since the late 1600’s in the UK, where a row of symmetrical / identical houses share their side walls. The first terraced houses were actually built by a French man, Monsieur Barbon around St. Paul’s Cathedral within the rebuilding process after the Great Fire of London in 1666.  Interestingly, it was the French that invented the terraced house around 1610-15 in the Le Marais district of Paris with its planned squares and properties with identical facades. However, it was the 1730’s in the UK, that the terraced house came into its own in London and of course in Bath with the impressive Royal Crescent.

However, we are in Aylesbury, not Bath, so the majority of our Aylesbury terraced houses were built in the Victorian era.  Built on the back of the Industrial Revolution, with people flooding into the towns and cities for work in Victorian times, the terraced house offered decent livable accommodation away from the slums. An interesting fact is that the majority of Victorian Aylesbury terraced houses are based on standard design of a ‘posh’ front room, a back room (where the family lived day to day) and scullery off that.  Off the scullery, a door to a rear yard, whilst upstairs, three bedrooms (the third straight off the second). The law was changed in 1875 with the Public Health Act and each house had to have 108ft of livable space per main room, running water, it’s own outside toilet and rear access to allow the toilet waste to be collected (they didn’t have public sewers in those days in Aylesbury – well not at least where these ‘workers’ terraced houses were built).  

It was the 1960’s and 70’s where inside toilets and bathrooms were installed (often in that third bedroom or an extension off the scullery) and gas central heating in the 1980’s and replacement Upvc double glazing ever since.  

Looking at the make up of all the properties in Aylesbury, some very interesting numbers appear.  Of the 29,792 properties in Aylesbury …

4,469 are Detached properties (15.0%)

9,503 are Semi Detached properties (31.9%)

9,701 are Terraced / Town House properties (32.5%)

6,104 are Apartment/ Flat’s (20.4%)

And there are 15 mobile homes, representing 0.05% of all property in Aylesbury.   

When it comes to values, the average price paid for an Aylesbury terraced house in 1995 was £51,590 and the latest set of figures released by the land Registry states that today that figure stands at £236,820, a rise of 359% - not bad when you consider detached properties in Aylesbury in the same time frame have risen by 234%. 

But then a lot of buy to let landlords and first time buyers I speak to think the Victorian terraced house is expensive to maintain.  I recently read a report from English Heritage that stated maintaining a typical Victorian terraced house over thirty years is around sixty percent cheaper than building and maintaining a modern house.  

Don’t dismiss the humble terraced house – especially in Aylesbury, it will do you proud!

91.2% of Aylesbury Homeowners are over 35 - The affect of their Brexit vote on the Aylesbury Property Market

Well it has been nearly a month since the Referendum vote and we have all had a chance to reflect on the momentous decision that the British public took. Many of you read the article I wrote on the morning of the results. I had gone to bed the night before with a draft of my Remain article all but finished only to be presented with the declaration by the BBC saying we were leaving the EU. I don’t think any of us were expecting that.  

If you want to read a copy of that original Post Brexit blog post, please visit my blog http://theaylesburypropertyblog.blogspot.co.uk/  and scroll back to late June to find it.

 The picture is now becoming a little clearer as the dust settles on the UK, but more importantly, the Aylesbury Property Market.

 

In case you were not aware, the residents of the Aylesbury Vale District Council area voted as follows .. 

Aylesbury Vale District Council          Remain Votes  52,877             (49.5% of the vote)

Aylesbury Vale District Council          Leave Votes     53,956             (50.5% of the vote)

Aylesbury Vale District Council Turnout         78.4% 

I have been reading that there is some evidence to indicate younger voters were vastly more likely to vote Remain than their parents and grandparents. The polling industry's techniques may have been widely criticised, following them getting both the 2010 General Election and the recent Brexit vote wrong, anecdotally, many surveys seem to suggest there was a relationship between age and likelihood to support leaving the EU. 

The average age of an Aylesbury resident is 39.1 years old, which is below the national average of 39.3, which might go some way to back up the way Aylesbury voted? What I do know is that putting aside whether you were a remain or leave voter, the vote to leave has, and will, create uncertainty.  

Interestingly, when we look at the Homeownership rates in the Aylesbury Vale District Council area, of the 50,301 properties that are owned in the Aylesbury Vale District Council area (Owned being owned outright, owned with a mortgage or shared ownership), the age range paints a noteworthy picture. 

Age 16 to 34 homeowners      4,410    or       8.8%  (Nationally 9.6%)

Age 35 to 49 homeowners    16,325    or     32.4%  (Nationally 29.2%)

Age 50 to 64 homeowners    16,481    or     32.8%  (Nationally 30.7%)

Aged 65+ homeowners         13,085    or     26.0%  (Nationally 30.5%) 

So, looking at these figures, and the high proportion of older homeowners, you might think all the Aylesbury Vale District Council area homeowners would vote Remain to keep house prices stable and younger people would vote out so house prices come down- so they could afford to buy?  

But there is a risk in oversimplifying this. The sample of the polling firms are in the thousands whilst the country voted in its millions. Other demographic influences have been at play in the way people voted, as early evidence is starting to suggest that class, level of education, the levels of immigration and ethnic diversity had an influence on the way the various parts of the UK voted.  

So do not assume everyone over the age of 50 voted ‘Leave’ and do not assume most 20 somethings backed ‘Remain’; because many did not! 

.. and the Aylesbury Property Market – well here at the coal face things seem to be returning to ‘normal’ rather quickly. The rules of supply and demand have not changed. The supply of property is so weak that demand would have to fall off a cliff to make any real impact and that is not happening. Mortgages are still available at the best rates we have seen for years.

Hopefully we will see an end to the speculative pricing of some agents, we are certainly seeing many properties being reduced in price…but this is usually from an overly high starting point. Good property priced correctly is still selling well to both first time buyers and investors.

Not sure what strategy is appropriate for the post Brexit market? Pop in and talk it through when you are passing...

 

Nala with siblings at Fairford Leys dog show

 

 

Population in the Aylesbury area set to rise to 231,200 by 2036

Aylesbury faces a predicament. The population is growing and the provision of new housing is not keeping up. With the average age of an Aylesbury person being 39.1 years (compared to the South East average of 40.0 years old and the national average of 39.4 years of age), the population of Aylesbury is growing at an alarming rate. This is due to an amalgamation of longer life expectancy, a fairly high birth rate (compared to previous decades) and high net immigration, all of which contribute to housing shortages and burgeoning house prices.

Some of my colleagues work closely with Durham University and they have kindly produced some statistics specifically for the Aylesbury Vale District Council area. Known as the UK’s leading authority for such statistics, their population projections make some startling reading…

For the Aylesbury Vale District Council area ... these are the statistics and future forecasts 

2016 population           189,862

2021 population           202,376

2026 population           213,556

2031 population           222,887

2036 population           231,241

 

The normal ratio of people to property is 2 to 1 in the UK, which therefore means...

 

We need just over 21,500 additional new properties to be built

in the Aylesbury Vale District Council area over the next 20 years. 

Whilst focusing on population growth does not tackle the housing crisis in the short term in Aylesbury, it has a fundamental role to play in long-term housing development and strategy in the town. The rise of Aylesbury property values over the last six years since the credit crunch are primarily a result of a lack of properties coming onto the market, a lack of new properties being built in the town and rising demand (especially from landlords looking to buy property to rent them out to the growing number of people wanting to live in Aylesbury). 

Although many are talking about the need to improve supply (i.e. the building of new properties), the issue of accumulative demand from population growth is often overlooked. Nationally, the proportion of 25-34 year olds who own their own home has dropped dramatically from 66.7% in 1987 to 43.8% in 2014, whilst 78.2% of over 65s own their own home. Longer life expectancies mean houses remain in the same hands for longer. 

The swift population growth over the last thirty years provides more competition for the young than for mature population.  It might surprise some people that 98% of all the land in the UK is either industrial, commercial or agricultural, with only two percent being used for housing, which means one could propose expanding supply to meet an expanding population by building on green belt – that most Politian’s have not got the stomach to tackle, especially in the Tory’ strongholds of the South of England, where the demand is the greatest. People mention brownfield sites, but recent research suggests there aren’t as many sites to build on, especially in Aylesbury that could accommodate 21,500 properties in the next 20 years.

In the short to medium term, demand for a roof over of one’s head will continue to grow in Aylesbury (and the country as a whole). In the short term, that demand can only be met from the private rental sector (which is good news for homeowners and landlords alike as that keeps house prices higher). 
There is talk from various sections of the media that prices are going to fall in both the rental and sales market as a result of Brexit. Following the rules of supply and demand I struggle to see how this could be so. The demand remains high and is likely to do so, supply of stock remains sluggish…these two factors will continue to support prices.
If you want to discuss your post Brexit investment strategy just email me at ian@mortimersaylesbury.co.uk

Is there really a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow?

 

151% increase in Property Values in Aylesbury since the Millennium

Aylesbury house prices since the Millennium have risen by 151.41%, whilst average salaries in Aylesbury have only grown by 51.27% over the same time frame. This has served to push homeownership further out of reach for many Aylesbury people as they have to battle against raising considerable deposits and meet sterner lending criteria, as a result of new mortgage regulations introduced in 2014/5.  The private rental market in Aylesbury has grown throughout the last twenty years with buy-to-let investors purchasing a high proportion of newly built residential properties that were built and designed for the owner occupier sales markets.  For example, in the Aylesbury Constituency, roll the clock back 20 years and there were 40,398 properties in the Constituency, whilst the most recent set of figures show there are 43,035 properties - a growth of 2,637 properties.

However, anecdotal evidence suggests that a many of those 2,637 were bought by Aylesbury buy-to-let landlords, as over the same 20-year time frame, the number of rental properties has grown from 1,049 to 6,538 in the constituency - a rise of 5,489 properties.

Nevertheless, some say this historic growth of the Aylesbury rental market might start to change with the new tax rules for landlords introduced by Mr Osborne over the last seven or eight months. Yet the numbers tell another story. Across the board, mortgage borrowing climbed to a 9 year zenith in March this year as the British property markets traditional Easter rush corresponded with landlords hurrying to beat George Osborne’s new stamp duty changes – buy-to-let landlords borrowed £7.1bn in March 2016) which was 163% up on the £2.7bn borrowed in the previous March. 

You see, from my point of view, I do not think things will get worse in the buy-to-let market in Aylesbury and these are the reasons why I believe that:

Firstly, what else are Aylesbury landlords going to invest in if it is not property - the stock market? Since the Millennium, the stock market has risen by an unimpressive total of 5.54%, quite different to the 151.41% rise in Aylesbury property prices?

Secondly, it is true the 3% stamp duty is the first blow on top of a number of other tax changes to be phased in between 2017 and 2021, such as landlords facing a constraint in their ability to offset mortgage interest and, if sizeable numbers of landlords do take the decision to sell their portfolios, this will lead to a substantial amount of second hand properties being put up for sale. Yet that might not be a bad thing, as I have mentioned in previous articles there is a serous shortage of properties to buy at the moment in Aylesbury: the stock of property for sale being at a six year all time low. 

Thirdly, if there are fewer rental properties in Aylesbury, as supply drops and demand remains the same (although ask any letting agent in Aylesbury and they will say demand is constantly rising) this will create a squeeze in the Aylesbury rental market and as a result rents will rise. In fact, I predict even if landlords do not sell up, Aylesbury rents will rise as Aylesbury landlords seek to compensate for increased costs, which means more landlords will be attracted back. 

 

 

Nala keeping a close watch on political events

50.5% of Aylesbury Voters voted leave – What now for the 23723 Aylesbury Landlords and Homeowners?

It’s 5.50am as I start to type this article and David Dimbleby has just announced the UK will be leaving the EU as the final votes are counted. As most of the polls suggested a Remain Vote, it came as a surprise to most people, including the City. The Pound has dropped 6% this morning after the City Whiz kids got their predictions wrong and MP’s from the Remain camp are using words like “challenging times ahead”. 

.. and now the vote has been made .. what next for the 19022 Aylesbury  homeowners especially the 11918 of those Aylesbury  homeowners with a mortgage?

The Chancellor in the campaign suggested property prices would drop by 18%. Using Treasury estimates, their method of calculating this was tenuous at best, but focused around the abrupt and hasty increase in UK interest rates, which in turn would raise the cost of mortgages, and therefore lower demand for property, causing a drop in property prices… and I would say, yes ... that could happen. 

 

Aylesbury  Property Values

Aylesbury property values may drop in the coming 12 to 18 months – but by 18%! - I am sorry I find that a little pessimistic and believe that figure was rhetoric to get homeowners and landlords to vote in a particular way. But the UK property market is quite a monster.  

Since the last In/Out EU Referendum in June 1975,

property values in Aylesbury  have risen by 2132.9%

(That isn’t a typo) and whilst property prices did drop nationally by 18.7% between the peak of 2007 and bottom of the market in 2009, when one compares property values today in the country, compared to that all-time high of 2007, (the period before the financial crisis of the Credit Crunch of 2008/9) .. they are still up 10.14% higher.

Another Credit Crunch?

And so, notwithstanding the Credit Crunch, the worst global economic outlook since the 1930s and the recession it brought us, a matter of a few years later, the Government were panicking in 2012/3/4 that the housing market was a runaway train. 

Now the same Credit Crunch doom-mongers and Sooth-Sayers that predicted soup kitchens in 2008/9 are predicting Brexit meltdown. Bad news sells newspapers. Stock markets may rise, stock markets may fall, yet the British public continued to buy property in 2009/10 and beyond. Aspiring first time buyers and buy to let landlords dusted themselves down, took a deep breath and carried on buying… because us Brit’s love our Bricks and Mortar ... we need a roof over our head. 

If the value of the pound drops, in the past UK Interest Rates have risen to reverse that drop. However, whilst a cheaper pound will make your pint of Sangria a little more expensive on your Spanish holiday this year and make your brand new BMW pricier ... it will make British exports cheaper! Which is great for the economy.

Interest rates

… and what of interest rates? Since 2009, interest rates have been at 0.5% and lots of people have become accustomed to those sorts of levels. So what if interest rates rise ... end of the world? Interest rates in the 1986/88 property boom were on average 9.25%, in the 1990’s they were on average around 6.5% and in the uber-boom years (when UK property values were rising by 20% a year for three or four straight years across the UK) ... 4.5%. Many of those reading this who are in their 50’s and older will remember interest rates at 15%. I can recall myself having a 12% fixed rate mortgage and being grateful!

But I suspect interest rates will not rise that much anyway, as Matt Carney (Chief of the Bank Of England) knows, raising interest rates causes deflation – which is the last thing the British economy needs at the moment. In fact they have been printing money (aka Quantitative Easing) for the last few years (which causes inflation) to the tune of £375bn a month. A bit of inflation because the pound has slipped on the money markets (not too much mind you) might be a good thing?

 

.. because whilst property values might drop they will bounce back. It’s only a paper loss... because it only becomes real if you sell. And if you have to sell, again as most people move up market when they sell, whilst your property might have dropped by 5% or 10%, the one you want to buy would have dropped by the same 5% to 10% ... and here is the best part – (and work your sums out) you would actually be better off because the more expensive property you would be purchasing would have come down in value (in actual pound notes) than the one you are selling. 

The 4,701 Aylesbury buy to let landlords have nothing to fear , nor do the 11162 tenants living in their properties.

Buy to let is a long term investment. I think there might even be some buy to let bargains in the coming months as some people, irrespective of evidence, panic.  Even if we pull up the drawbridge at Dover and immigration stopped today, the British population will still increase at a rate that will exceed the current property building level. Britain is building 139,600 properties a year, but needs according to the eminent ‘Barker Review of Housing Supply Report’, 250,000 properties a year to even stand still. As the birth rate is increasing, the population is living longer and just under a quarter of all UK households now are occupied by a single person demand is only going up whilst supply is stifled. Greater demand than supply equals higher prices. That is definitely a fact. 

So, what will happen next?

Well, there are many challenges ahead. The country has spoken and we are now in unchartered territory – but we have been through a couple of World Wars, an Oil Crisis, Black Monday, Black Wednesday, 15% interest rates and a Credit Crunch … and we survived! 

And the value of your Aylesbury property? It might have a short term wobble… but in the long term -it’s safe as houses regardless.

 

56.4% of Aylesbury Tenants are White Collar Middle Class

Renting is not like it was in the 1960’s and 70’s, where tenants could not wait to leave their landlords, charging sky-high rents for properties with Second World War wood chip wallpaper, no central heating and drafty windows. Since 1997 with the introduction of buy to let mortgages and a new breed of Aylesbury landlord, the private rented sector in Aylesbury has offered increasingly high quality accommodation for younger Aylesbury households.

So whilst I knew in my own mind that the type and class of tenant has improved over the last 20 years, I had nothing to back that up . According to some detailed statistics from Durham University just released, for the Aylesbury Vale District Council area, the current situation regarding social status of tenants shows some very interesting points. Using the  Demographic ABC1 grade classifications which refer to the social grade definitions (which describe, measure and classify people of different social grade and income and earnings levels, for market research, social commentary, lifestyle statistics, and statistical research and analysis) this is what I found out. 

Of the 13,984 tenants who live in a private rented property in the AVDC area, 23.0% (or 3,217) of those tenants are classified in the AB category (AB Category being Higher and intermediate managerial / administrative / professional occupations), compared to 32.48% owner occupiers who own their property without a mortgage or 5.28% who rent their property from the local authority.

Looking at the C1’s (C1’s being the Supervisory, clerical and junior managerial / administrative / professional occupations), of the already mentioned 13,948 tenants in the area, an impressive 4,670 of them are considered to be in the C1 category (or 33.40%). Again, when compared with the owner occupiers who own their property without a mortgage, that figure stands at 31.03%   and 17.95% who rent their property from the local authority.  So, if we use the conventional measurements recorded by the white-collar “ABC1” i.e. middle class ….

 

This means 56.40% of tenants are considered middle class in Aylesbury  

I could go through all of the social categories through to ‘E’, but I do not want to bore you with too many numbers. The fact is that private tenants are moving up the social ladder and whilst back in the 1960’s and 70’s, the private rented sector in Aylesbury (and the rest of the UK) had been viewed as a temporary tenure for 20 somethings before they bought a property, the increase in renting in Aylesbury, which I have talked about many times in the Aylesbury Property Market Blog may be a reflection of increasing difficulty for this group in accessing other tenures, but may also be a reflection that people now choose to rent long term instead? 

Aylesbury Landlords need to be aware that tenants now demand more from their properties, the agent and their landlord and whilst affordability for first-time buyers and tighter controls on lending may mean that potential first-time buyers are in the private rented sector for longer, they will still pay ‘top dollar’ rent for a ‘top dollar’ property.

It is however essential for any landlord to be aware what 'top dollar' rent actually is. Overpricing your rental property can seriously damage your wealth. ian@mortimersaylesbury.co.uk

All this talk about Brexit is quite tiring