Chichester Property News: open house

Showing posts with label open house. Show all posts

Thursday, 1 August 2019

What’s popular with Chichester’s tenants?

I get enquiries from prospective tenants on a daily basis looking for a property to rent in or around Chichester. Whilst this in itself gives me an insight as to what types of property are popular amongst Chichester’s tenants, a far easier way to gauge this is by looking on the property portals and comparing how many properties are available vs the number let agreed:

It is clear to see that two-bedroom houses are by far in the shortest supply, but as a percentage of the available stock they are in the greatest demand! That’s why I’ve been banging on these past few years to prospective landlords that they should buy two-bedroom houses in Chichester, as it’s always been clear that they will rent well.

But whilst I’ve found two-bedroom houses to be as popular as this all year round, it should be said that some property types are more seasonal than others. For instance, right now we’re in the school holidays, which affects the demand for family homes (three & four bedroom houses) far more than it does those properties aimed at individuals or couples (one and two bedroom homes) as families are focusing on childcare and their summer holidays, rather than moving house.

I wasn’t surprised to see a high number of three-bedroom houses available, but what was a little more unexpected was the higher number of four-bedroom houses than normal. A lot of this can be explained by the seeming oversupply of student houses that are still sat on the market. I’ve been contacted by quite a few landlords who would ordinarily have their student properties rented months ago, but have struggled to do so at all this year.

Another interesting point to make is whether having a rarer property type to let is a good thing or not. You may have noticed I’ve ignored studio apartments, three bed flats and five+ bedroom houses because there aren’t many of them to rent (in all cases 33% are let agreed). Sometimes there aren’t many of a certain property in a particular location because they aren’t wanted. Then again, when one does come along it can mean anyone looking for that particular property type will be quick to snap it up as they have limited chances to do so.

So, whilst it’s debateable whether following the crowd is the best route to fulfilling tenant demand, I think it’s safe to say that if you have a two-bedroom house in Chichester that’s well-presented and reasonably priced you should find yourself very popular with prospective tenants!

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E-mail me on clive@crjlettings.co.uk or call 01243 624 599.

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Thursday, 25 July 2019

Have property prices in Chichester fallen because of Brexit?

Cast your minds back to the 23rd June 2016 when Britain voted to leave the EU and the long-running saga that is ‘Brexit’ began. In the lead up to the referendum the then Chancellor, George Osborne, warned that voting to leave would see property prices drop by 18%. So, a few years on has that proven to be the case?

Whilst he didn’t set a time scale for such a fall, the simple answer is no, property prices both in the UK and in Chichester have never fallen below where they were in June 2016, according to Land Registry data. In fact, prices in the UK bounced 1.1% in the month after the vote and in Chichester by an even stronger 2.6%. Since then prices in the UK have risen by 7.8% and in Chichester by 8.7%.

But before the vote property prices were rising by about 6% a year, so perhaps Brexit has slowed down the rate of growth compared to the trajectory they were on, even if it didn’t actually cause them to fall. Of course, unlike the movie Sliding Doors we can’t play out two different outcomes in real time, so who knows what might have happened had we voted to remain.

But, is it as simple as that? You see, we may buy property and pay our mortgages using money with the Queen’s face on it but from a worldwide perspective it could be argued that property prices both in the UK and Chichester have indeed fallen, due to a weaker pound. As the Summer holidays approach this is getting mentioned more and more in the media; as we jet off to foreign lands us Brits are suddenly finding our pounds and pence don’t go as far as they used to.

So let’s focus on the US dollar, as it is the most widely traded currency in the world - what do our property prices look like then? Well, when the vote happened the average property price in Chichester was £351,758 and you could get 1.479 US dollars to the pound. That meant the average property in Chichester sold for $520,250. And now, even though prices have increased in sterling terms to £382,233, because one pound will now only buy you 1.248 dollars that means property prices have actually fallen 8.3% to $477,027. The interesting thing is they actually fell by 8.2% in dollar terms the month after the vote as sterling dropped 10.5% practically overnight; so in effect house prices have been flat for three years.

So, if we simply stay on our own island then it appears house prices are holding up just fine. But from a global perspective they have been hit reasonably hard. Is that because of Brexit? Well it’s impossible to say, but based on the fact Sterling dropped so quickly as a result of the vote it’s likely that property prices have indeed ‘fallen’ because of Brexit.

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Thursday, 18 July 2019

The most frustrating thing about letting a property

I was chatting with a fellow letting agent recently when we got on to our pet peeves with the job. We both agreed on what the most frustrating thing about letting a property is - attending a viewing only for the prospective tenant not to show up; especially when you only arranged it the day before! Unfortunately, this is a part of the course when letting properties, but is there a way that landlords and letting agents can prevent it from happening?

Some insist on confirming the appointment an hour before the viewing. Personally, I don’t like this approach as it can cause even more confusion if you can’t get hold of the prospective tenant i.e. should you then go to the viewing or not? More importantly though, if you were to remind everyone they have a viewing, you might let your property to someone who would have otherwise forgotten. And if they would have forgotten about a viewing I can only imagine they might also be the type of person to forget about paying the rent each month too.

One tip is to conduct ‘block’ viewings if possible. This means doing multiple viewings at the same time, but staggering people in to 15-20 minute slots. This gives time for each applicant to take a look around the property and ask any questions, and it ensures if one appointment is a no-show then you have another one to look forward to.

Block viewings also give the benefit of ‘social proof’, as prospective tenants can see they’re not the only ones interested in the property (one person arrives as another leaves). If other people are interested in something then psychologically it becomes more appealing to us, which should in this case prompt those who like what they see to move quickly and decisively.

Some agents and landlords take this a step further by offering open houses; whereby everyone views the property at the same time. Personally I don’t think this provides a very good service to the prospective tenants, nor does it give either party an opportunity to ‘suss one another out’ and see if committing to a tenancy together is the right thing to do.

Beyond that, the only other way to protect yourself against future no shows is to create a list of those people who committed this sin so that they aren’t afforded your time again in the future or, even worse, be entrusted with the keys to your property.

So landlords, contact me and let off some steam - what’s your biggest frustration when letting your property? Is it the niggling maintenance issues that always seem to happen at the most inopportune time, problematic tenants or, dare I say it, letting agents that are causing you the most grief?

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