A third more properties to rent in Chichester than three months ago!

I was speaking with one of my newsletter readers last week who had become fascinated by my weekly statistic of how many properties were available to rent in Chichester.

We discussed how, having seen the number of properties available to rent in Chichester drop throughout much of 2016, the market had made a comeback in the past few months.

I took a closer look at the numbers and found that, with 101 properties currently available for rent in Chichester, it has broken the 100 mark for the first time since March 2016.

Landlords will identify that date as rather significant, as the 3% additional stamp duty levy for rental properties came into force in April 2016. I had written beforehand that I expected a drop in the availability of rental properties after the stamp duty penalties came in to force, but even I didn’t expect such a violent drop off in the number of properties available to rent.

From there being 101 properties available to rent in Chichester in March 2016, week by week it seemed there was a drop in this figure. Only a couple of bounces in May and July slowed the downward trend before it reached its nadir in the middle of August - where just 54 properties were available to rent in the whole of Chichester (a drop of 47% in just five months).

Whilst that may have partially been explained by seasonal patterns in the market (fewer properties are listed as fewer people move in the summer holidays), there had been 89 available in August 2015 - so it was down 39% on the same time the year before.

Even with the recovery in the number of properties available to rent in Chichester now, it is still around 10% down on the same time last year. And considering there are around 15,000 homes in Chichester, with nearly 3,000 of them renting privately, this level of supply is still shockingly low.

This is having a knock-on effect with the affordability of housing, as the median rent in Chichester has risen from £900pcm a year ago to £975pcm now. This represents an increase of 8.3%, which is far in excess of the national average (+1.7%).

It seems there are several notable reasons for this lack of supply:

  -  fewer new landlords entering the market.

  -  some landlords choosing to sell rather than re-let when their tenants move out.

  -  tenants staying longer in their property.

  

If you’d like to keep up to date with the movements in Chichester’s rental market throughout 2017, you can do so via my free weekly newsletter by signing up at www.tinyurl.com/ChiPropertyNews

(This article was featured in the Chichester Observer's property section on 2nd February 2017) 

Clive Janes, CRJ Lettings.  

www.crjlettings.co.uk

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