July 19, 2009

Time to let – not buy

For the second time this month a sign of slump in the UK property market has materialised in our street. It appears that nice old lady Doris from over the road (or more likely her daughter) has decided that looking after a house on her own is too much. So Doris and her little dog have moved out. But here’s the thing - her house is not for sale in the stagnant market. It’s to let.

I suspect I am not alone in witnessing this trend. All over the country there must be communities like ours that have turned into a microcosm of the current UK property market. Everything that illustrates the dramatic downturn in the housing market can be found within 50 yards of my front door.

Maybe television is to blame. There was a time quite recently when the property market was full of DIYers with time on their hand buying houses to do up and then rent. This rather loathsome trend was fuelled by a legion of copycat cheap television shows where gurning buffoons assured the viewers that a bit of this and a slap of that was a foolproof way to make money.

The theory, as far as it went, being that the rent covered your costs – and the property done up on the cheap would soar in value while you went and bought another one.

Not any more. So stagnant is the UK property market with prices falling ever downward that it seems an increasingly good idea not to buy a house at all – but to rent.

It seems an excellent idea to me too. By renting you avoid having the millstone of a property around your neck and you divest yourself of all those irritating maintenance bills by offloading them on to the property owner.

So Doris and thousands like her are no longer looking for a fast house sale and are hanging on for better times. The trouble is that the rental market doesn’t seem much more buoyant than the sales market.

It’s not a good time to be an estate agent. It’s not just Woolies that lies empty in our local high street. There are no less than three closed down estate agents. And as you look past the tempting offers of overpriced houses photographed from misleading angles – you can’t help but notice that there is not much work being done in there.

No that too many people have any sympathy for estate agents. There are plenty of stories you can find all too easily on the property blogs that make your toes curl rather than your heart bleed.

Time to let – not buy

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