Even though the housing market is in an upbeat state in many
parts of the UK,
getting on the property ladder is still challenging for many and regarded as
unattainable by some. However, that goal
has become even worse recently in Grantham as the number of houses available to
buy is at an 8 year all time low.
Back in Spring 2010, there were over 920 properties for sale
in Grantham and since then this has steadily declined year on year, so now
there are only 311 for sale in the town.
This continuing diminishing supply of housing has been happening over
those years for a while and there simply aren’t enough properties in Grantham
to match demand.
According to a recent report by the National Association of
Estate Agents, that said, “There are now 11 house hunters fighting after
every available house which isn’t sustainable.” What that means is Grantham youngsters, who
are looking to buy their first home, are finding themselves being squeezed out
by the competition. However, in the
meantime, nobody wants to live with parents until they are in their 30’s, so
that in turn creates demand for more rental properties, which means landlords
have a greater demand for more rental properties so are buying more, resulting
in even less smaller properties for the youngsters to buy, it’s a vicious
circle.
Talking to fellow agents, mortgage arrangers, surveyors and
solicitors in the town, all of whom have extensive dealings in the Grantham
property market like myself, most of us agree the movement in the Grantham
market is taking place in the middle to upper market, higher up the property
ladder and it’s second and third steppers pushing through the properties that
are being bought and sold.
That has meant as people tend to move less in the middle to
upper market, the number of the properties actually selling has drastically
reduced over the last couple of years.
When we look at the individual areas of the town, it paints
an interesting picture.
- NG31 - Grantham 69 properties sold in May 2015 (with a average value of £153,851), whilst over the Summer months of 2014, the number of properties selling in this postcode reached into the mid/late 90’s.
- NG32 - Croxton Kerrial, Sedgebrook 13 properties sold in May 2015 (the most recent set of figures from the HM Land Registry), whilst over the Autumn months of 2014, the number of properties selling in this postcode was always between 18 and 21 per month. (Interestingly the average value of those properties was £344,838).
- NG33 - Castle Bytham, Corby Glen 13 properties sold in May 2015 (with an average value of £ 220,365), whilst over the Summer months of 2014, the number of properties selling in this postcode reached into the early 20’s.
So what does this all mean for homeowners and landlords
alike in Grantham? Demand for Grantham
property is good, especially at the lower end of the market. However, with fewer properties coming up for
sale, it means property prices are proving reasonably stable too.
You see I believe a more stable, consistent Grantham
property market, with less people seeing property as an easy way to make a
quick buck (as many did in the early 2000’s when prices were rising at nearly
20% a year so people were buying and selling every other minute), but a
property market that has a steady growth of property values in Grantham, year
on year, without the massive peaks and troughs we saw in the late 1980’s and
mid/late 2000’s might just be the thing that the Grantham property market needs
in the long term.
For more insights, comments and facts on the Grantham
Property market please visit the Grantham Property Blog where you will find
many similar articles to this.
