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Monday, January 26, 2009

Adding Up


The volume of statistics about property is almost overwhelming. Statistics, graphs, forecasts, percentages, yields, ratios, and very long numbers everywhere you turn. Sometimes these make Property Sparrow’s little eyes glaze over. She can add and subtract but that’s about it.

There are lots of numbers in the new edition of The UK Housing Review 2008-09. There’s a little summary
here that sets out the main sections for those with a longer attention span and £40 to spare. The research confirms that the private rented sector grew to over 3 million properties in 2007, there are more homes entering the sector than are being sold and the overall quality of private rented housing is improving.

In making decisions about property management, research is very important, of course it is.
Property Sparrow thinks, however, that you don’t have to spend a lot of time poring over figures. A little walk around a neighbourhood will tell you what you need to know. Cliches but still true: look for signs of new employers, skips in the street, run down blocks of flats, whether the parks are well used and what the local transport service is like as these can reveal a lot about the viability of an area and will help you decide whether you would want to manage a property there. Have a good look at what’s in the shops; go into the cafes. Getting to know an area well (especially if you don’t live there yourself) is time well spent. Read the local papers. Get a feel for who lives there and who may want to live there.

Back at your desk, you can always keep checking the facts about an area that you are interested in
here.

If you are still adding up, Property Sparrow wants to remind you to fill in your sheet to
count how many sparrows you saw at the weekend. Who knows, the most successful areas for landlords may turn out to be those with an increase in house sparrows.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does the property sparrow have a tip for an up and coming area or areas?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, A very difficult question, I think, as the housing market is so very quiet. Hardly any turnover therefore very little way of tracking trends in a particular street or parts of a town. Perhaps best just to rely on the pre credit crunch indicators for potentially up and coming areas such as areas with good transport links, good schools, large employers,hospitals, universities. Maybe keep an eye on what the government confirms on large scale public sector infrastructure projects such as Crossrail as once these actually start on site there will presumably be a lot of new jobs in those areas and a need for rented property. Very difficult to answer at the moment!