Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
THE PROPERTY EXPERT
More reasons why people choose property
RECENT statistics from Halifax gave rise to the revelation that in over 30% of the UK, house prices in the last two years have grown more than their owners have earned in their actual jobs.
Just to be clear, topping the list is Haringey, where the average house price has risen by £139,803 – average earnings are just £48,353. Breaking this figure monthly, the average homeowner in Haringey ‘earns’ £3,810 a month just by owning their home!
Looking at these numbers, it’s not difficult to see why property is a preferred option of investment for many. What pension, bank account, or shares could offer competition to such a strong performance over a two-year period? This is why, despite stamp duty increases for owners of more than one home, and reduction in tax relief for landlords, property is going to remain a strong investment.
Particularly given that in many cases just owning the property is earning more than real jobs; if you consider rent that properties can generate for landlords, the case is even stronger.
The National House Building Council statistics show 141,175 homes were built in 2016, much lower than 10 years previously, when 187,853 were built. We see that the price of homes has increased mostly due to the restricted supply of new residences to the market.
The typical house price in the UK is now 7.6 times what the average employee earns in a year.
For those not on the property ladder, it is understandably a challenge to get together the required deposit and funds to make that first step. The government has made good progress in terms of getting first-time buyers into homes using Help to Buy schemes and so on, but their record on building homes is simply insufficient.
Until serious growth in the housebuilding sector is stimulated, the affordability of homes is not going to get much easier.