The orthodox way
of classifying property in the UK is to look at the number of bedrooms rather
than its size in square metres (although now we are leaving the EU – I wonder
if we can go back to feet and inches?). It seems that homeowners and tenants
are happy to pay for more space. It’s quite obvious, the more bedrooms a house
or apartment has, the bigger it is likely to be. The reason being not only the
actual additional bedroom space, but the properties with more bedrooms tend to
have larger / more reception (living) rooms. However, if you think about it,
this isn’t so astonishing given that properties with more bedrooms would
typically accommodate more people and therefore require larger reception rooms.
In today’s Grantham property market, the Grantham homeowners and Grantham landlords I talk to are always asking me which attributes and features are likely to make their property comparatively more attractive and which ones may detract from the price. Over time, buyers’ and tenants’ wants and needs have changed. In Grantham, location is still the No. 1 factor affecting the value of property, and a property in the best neighbourhoods, say Manthorpe or Great Gonerby can command a price nearly 50% higher than a similar house in an ‘average’ area. However, after location, the next characteristic that has a significant influence on the desirability, and thus price, of property is the number of bedrooms and the type (i.e. Detached/ Semi/Terraced/Flat).
In previous articles, I have analysed the Grantham housing stock into bedrooms and type of property, but never before now have I cross-referenced type against bedrooms. These figures for the South Kesteven District Council area make fascinating reading. It shows 89.3% of all properties in the area have 3 or more bedrooms
Detached
|
Semi-detached
|
Terraced (including end-terrace)
|
Flat
|
|
1 bedroom
|
10
|
35
|
20
|
74
|
2 bedrooms
|
281
|
930
|
1,170
|
516
|
3 bedrooms
|
3,002
|
6,627
|
3,527
|
109
|
4 bedrooms
|
6,469
|
1,527
|
765
|
29
|
5 or more bedrooms
|
2,874
|
401
|
172
|
6
|
I was genuinely surprised at the low
numbers of one and two bed properties, especially 2 bed semis detached houses, especially
as tenants like the smaller one and two bed properties in Grantham. You see, it
might interest the homeowners and landlords of Grantham, that there has been a
change in the numbers of properties on the market and the split in bedrooms on
the market over the last 12 months
·
12 months ago, 25 one bed
properties were for sale in Grantham, today 33, a rise of 32%
·
12 months ago, 91 two bed
properties were for sale in Grantham, today 84, a drop of 8%
·
12 months ago, 111 three bed
properties were for sale in Grantham, today 132, a rise of 19%
·
12 months ago, 103 four bed
properties were for sale in Grantham, today 65, a drop of 37%
·
12 months ago, 28 five + bed
properties were for sale in Grantham, today 25, a drop of 11%
For several years Grantham buy-to-let
investors have been the only buyers at the lower end (starter
homes) of the
market, as they have been enticed by high tenant demand and attractive returns.
Some Grantham landlords believe their window of opportunity has started to
close with the new tax regime for landlords, whilst it already appears to be
opening wider for first-time buyers. This is great news for first time buyers ...
but one final note for Grantham landlords ... all is not lost ... you can still
pick up bargains, you just need to be a lot more savvy and do your homework
