SIDCUP PROPERTY NEWS - MARCH 2017

SIDCUP
PROPERTY MARKET NEWS
BOUGHT TO YOU BY
020 8300 6761 | www.sidcuppropertyblog.co.uk
MARCH 2017
207 SIDCUP HOUSEHOLDS OCCUPIED
BY OAP RENTERS
Recent statistics published by the Office of National
Statistics show that there are 267,704 private rented
households in the Country that are occupied by people
aged 65 and older, meaning 4.39% of OAP’s are living in
private rented property.
Tom Ferguson
Sales Expert
Paul Long
Director & Author of
The Sidcup Property News
David Dirkx
Lettings Expert
It got me thinking two things. How many of these OAP’s
have always rented and how many have sold up and
become a tenant? In retirement, selling up could make
financial sense to the mature generation in Sidcup,
potentially allowing them to liquidate the equity of their
main home to enhance their retirement income. I wanted
to know why these older people rent and whether there
was opportunity for the buy to let landlords of Sidcup?
The Prudential published a survey recently that said nearly
six out of ten OAP renters had never owned a home. Two
out of ten OAP renters were required to sell up because of
debt, just about one in ten OAP renters sold their property
to use the money to fund their retirement and the
remaining one out ten OAP renters, rented for other
reasons.
Funding retirement is important as the life expectancy of
someone from Sidcup at age 65 (years) is 19.0 years for
males and 21.9 years for females (interesting when
compared to the National Average of 18.7 years for males
and 21.1 years for females). The burdens of financing a
long retirement are being felt by many mature people of
Sidcup. The state of play is not helped by rising living
costs and ultra-low interest rates reducing returns for
savers.
So, what of Sidcup? Of the 6,215 households in Sidcup,
whose head of the household is 65 or over, not
surprisingly 5,186 of households were owned (83.44%)
and 743 (11.95%) were in social housing. However, the
figure that fascinated me was the 207 (3.33%) households
that were in privately rented properties.
Anecdotal evidence, by talking to both my team and other
Sidcup property professionals is that this figure is rising.
More and more Sidcup OAP’s are selling their large Sidcup
homes and renting something more manageable, allowing
them to release all of their equity from their old home. This
equity can be gifted to grandchildren (allowing them to get
on the property ladder), invested in plans that produce a
decent income and while living the life they want to live.
These Sidcup OAP renters know they have a fixed monthly
expenditure and can budget accordingly with the peace of
mind that their property maintenance and the upkeep of
the buildings are included in the rent. Many landlords will
also include gardening in the rent! Renting is also more
adaptable to the trials of being an OAP – the capability to
move at short notice can be convenient for those moving
into nursing homes, and it doesn’t leave family members
panicking to sell the property to fund care-home fees.
Sidcup landlords should seriously consider low
maintenance semi-detached bungalows on decent bus
routes and close to doctor’s surgeries as a potential
investment strategy to broaden their portfolio. Get it right
and you will have a wonderful tenant, who if the property
offers everything a mature tenant wants and needs, will pay
top dollar in rent!
Bringing you the latest news and information on the Sidcup property market

£7.69BN – THE TOTAL VALUE OF
ALL SIDCUP PROPERTY MARKET
“How much would it cost to buy all the properties
in Sidcup?”
This fascinating question was posed by the 11-yearold
son of one of my Sidcup landlords when they both
popped into my offices before the Christmas break
(doesn’t that seem an age away now!). I thought to
myself, that over the Christmas break, I would sit down
and calculate what the total value of all the properties
in Sidcup are worth … and just for fun, work out how
much they have gone up in value since his son was
born back in the autumn of 2005.
In the last 11 years, since the autumn of 2005, the
total value of Sidcup property has increased by
73% or £3.25 billion to a total of £7.69 billion.
Interesting, when you consider the FTSE100 has only
risen by 30.78% and inflation (i.e. the UK Retail Price
Index) rose by 37% during the same 11 years.
When I delved deeper into the numbers, the average
price currently being paid by Sidcup households
stands at £378,805 … but you know me, I wasn’t
going to stop there, so I split the property market down
into individual property types in Sidcup; the average
numbers come out like this …
Average Value of a
Detached Property
Sidcup Property Market
Average Value of a
Semi-Detached
Property
Average Value of a
Terraced/Town
House Property
Average Value of
an Apartment
£518,333 £426,163 £372,580 £241,244
… yet it got even more fascinating when I multiplied
the total number of each type of property by the
average value. Even though detached houses are so
expensive, when you compare them with the much
cheaper terraced/town houses and semi-detached
houses, you can quite clearly see detached properties
are no match in terms of total pound note value of the
terraced/town houses and semi-detached houses.
Total Value of all the
Sidcup Detached
Properties
Total Value of all the
Sidcup Semi-
Detached properties
Total Value of all the
Sidcup Terraced/
Town House
Properties
Total Value of all the
Sidcup Apartments
£921,408,646 £3,511,328,755 £1,979,763,222 £1,279,805,078
So, what does this all mean for Sidcup? Well as we
enter the unchartered waters of 2017 and beyond,
even though property values are already declining in
certain parts of the previously over cooked Central
London property market, the outlook in Sidcup
remains relatively good as over the last five years, the
local property market was a lot more sensible than
central London’s.
Sidcup house values will remain resilient for several
reasons. Firstly, demand for rental property remains
strong with continued immigration and population
growth. Secondly, with 0.25 per cent interest rates,
borrowing has never been so cheap and finally the
simple lack of new house building in Sidcup not
keeping up with current demand, let alone eating into
years and years of under investment – means only one
thing – yes it might be a bumpy ride over the next 12 to
24 months but, in the medium term, property
ownership and property investment in Sidcup has
always, and will always, ride out the storm.
60 Second
Online Property Valuation
Curious to know how
much your property
would sell or rent for
but not quite ready for a
visit.
Find out online instantly
using our FREE online
valuation tool.
Sales
Valuation
Click here to get a
FREE instant valuation
visit valuation.drewery.co.uk
Current Average Asking Prices in Sidcup
1
BED
FLAT
£240,746
2
BED
FLAT
£299,997
data from zoopla.co.uk using current properties being marketed
2
BED
HOUSE
£378,499
3
BED
HOUSE
£430,306
4
BED
HOUSE
£596,687
For more Sidcup Property News visit: www.sidcuppropertyblog.co.uk

Sidcup First Time Buyers borrow
£33.7m in the last 12 months
Starting with the bigger picture, over the last 12
months in the UK, 1,061,557 properties were sold with
a total value of £223.74 bn. To give that some context,
ten years ago 1,581,727 properties sold with a total
value of £405.56bn, so it can be seen the number of
people moving house has dropped by over a third over
the last decade.
Whether you are a landlord, homeowner or tenant, it’s
always important to keep an eye on the Sidcup
property market, not just from your point of view, but
also from every player’s point of view. Over the last 12
months, 702 properties have sold (and completed) in
Sidcup, worth £261.1m. Interestingly the number of
properties changing hands in Sidcup has also dropped
when compared to a decade ago.
It might surprise you that first time buyers in 2017 will
benefit from a slight decline in Sidcup buy-to-let
investors.
Those looking to buy a home in the spring and
summer of 2017 will face a far less competitive Sidcup
property market than the same time of year in 2016,
when the urgency to beat the buy-to-let stamp duty
hike was in full swing.
Many landlords brought forward their purchases to
beat the tax, and since then, the number of buy-to-let
purchases has dropped slightly. First time buyers have
taken advantage of that and have increased their
buying. In fact, looking at the Bank of England figures,
this is what UK lenders have lent on buy-to-let
properties versus first time buyers over the last 12
months …
Q4 2015 - £1bn buy-to-let mortgages vs £1.31bn for
first time buyers
Q1 2016 - £1.35bn buy-to-let mortgages vs £1.08bn
for first time buyers
Q2 2016 - £760m buy-to-let mortgages vs £1.28bn
for first time buyers
Q3 2016 - £827m buy-to-let mortgages vs £1.42bn
for first time buyers
When looking at the figures for Sidcup itself, first time
buyers have borrowed more than £33.7m in the last 12
months to buy their first home. This is a ringing
endorsement of their confidence in their jobs and the
local Sidcup economy. Those 20 and 30 something’s
who are considering being first time buyers in 2017 will
find that the number of properties on the market has
never been as good as it has for quite a while, meaning
you have more choice of properties and less
competition from so many buy-to-let landlords than a
year ago.
Rightmove announced nationally that new seller
enquiries are 26% up on the same time last year giving
the stoutest indication that we may see a slight ease in
the lack of properties on the market. When I look at
Sidcup, at this moment in time there are 83 properties
for sale, compared to 47 properties a year ago. All this
will be welcome news amongst Sidcup first-time
buyers with a combination of a proportional reduction
in new investors and landlords.
2017 will be an interesting year for all homeowners, be
they buy-to-let landlords, existing homeowners or
future homeowners. For more thoughts on the Sidcup
property market like this, you might want to visit the
sidcuppropertyblog.co.uk
Current Average Asking Rents in Sidcup
1
BED
FLAT
£888pcm
2
BED
FLAT
£1,105pcm
data from zoopla.co.uk using current properties being marketed
2
BED
HOUSE
£1,224pcm
3
BED
HOUSE
£1,435pcm
For more Sidcup Property News visit: www.sidcuppropertyblog.co.uk