TURN UP THE HEAT WITH A NEW BOILER A
RECENT data from the land registry stated that property values in Huddersfield and the surrounding area were 3.61 per cent higher than 12 months ago.
Despite uncertainty over Brexit, supply and demand issues are causing property values to continue their upward trajectory. Looking at the Huddersfield market, there is both a shortterm dearth of existing properties coming to market and a lack of new homes being built.
Planning laws – starting with the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 – mean that just 1.8 per cent of land is built on in the UK today, which is made up of 1.1 per cent residential and 0.7 per cent for commercial properties. Because of these restrictions, new homes for the younger generations just aren’t being built. Adding to this is a seeming unwillingness of landowners to sell, which has kept land values and house prices high.
Meanwhile, although property demand may have been expected to decline because of Brexit uncertainty – this doesn’t seem true. Many people are risk averse – especially with their hard-earned savings – and so don’t trust the money markets. Property, on the other hand, is tangible.
Brits have historically put their faith in bricks and mortar. Nationally, the value of property has risen by 635.4 per cent since 1984, and while the stock market has similarly risen (593.1 per cent), it has had a roller coaster ride to get there. For example, in the dot com bubble of early 2000s, the FTSE100 dropped 126.3 per cent in two years and it dropped again by 44.6 per cent in nine months in 2007. Meanwhile, the worst drop Huddersfield saw in property values was just 17.17 per cent in the 2008/9 credit crunch.
Despite a slowdown in the rate of annual property value growth in Huddersfield to the current 3.61 per cent (compared to the heady days of 6.3 per cent annual increases seen in mid 2014) it can be argued that the headline rate of Huddersfield property price inflation is holding up well. This is especially true with the squeeze on real incomes, new taxation rules for landlords and the ambiguity around Brexit. With mortgage rates at an all-time low and tumbling unemployment, all these factors are helping to support property values in Huddersfield, and the UK. If your home has an old boiler, it’s easy to put off changing it because it will be expensive, but old boilers are costly to run. A boiler that’s 15 years old or more is only around 60-70 per cent efficient, meaning that 30p-40p of every pound spent on heating and hot water is wasted. Many old boilers also have a standing pilot light, which can cost around £50-£60 a year to keep alight. while the work’s being done. It’s also a good idea to replace the rest of the central heating system if it’s decades old, including the radiators, radiator valves, and pipework, for a number of reasons. Many old boilers are large floor-standing ones that are out of place in a modern home. Boilers like this can usually be replaced by a much smaller, wall-mounted model, which frees up space. In most homes, the boiler is in the kitchen or utility room, so one designed to fit in a wall unit is ideal because it’s small and can be hidden away out of sight. high but water pressure is low,” says Martyn Bridges of boiler manufacturer Worcester.
“System boilers have most of the major components of the heating and hot-water system built in, making them more efficient and less space consuming, as there is no need for a tank in the loft. They are connected to either a mains-pressure hot-water-storage cylinder or a more traditional low-pressure, tank-fed cylinder.” Combis are really popular, mainly because they don’t need a separate cylinder or tank, which saves space and money, and they heat water on demand, but combis aren’t always the answer. Larger homes with multiple outlets, such as taps, baths and showers, can be more suited to a boiler with a cylinder.
With a new installation, this is typically a system boiler and unvented (mains-pressure) cylinder. Cylinders come in different sizes to suit different hot-water needs, and a new cylinder should have a fast reheat time. Combis can struggle with more than one outlet being used at the same time, so if you’re having a shower and someone turns on a tap, water may be diverted away. Some combis are better able to cope with this – a good heating engineer will be able to advise.