WEST HAMPSTEAD HOMEOWNERS HAVE TURNED TO THE RENTAL MARKET TO CASH IN BY £58,900 EACH
Should You Sell Or Should You Buy In This Most Interesting West Hampstead Property Market?
I have calculated that at least 37 West Hampstead (NW6) house sellers have rented a home to break their house chain in the last 12 months, although at a cost as they face paying many thousands of pounds in rent.
There are a number of reasons behind this. One is because they cannot find another West Hampstead property to buy amidst a continuing shortage of new West Hampstead properties coming to the market. Although, there are others who have achieved such a high price for their home they have decided to cash in and are (hopefully for them) waiting for the West Hampstead property market drop?
Or will it drop? (More on that later).
Those selling their home have seen the …
average West Hampstead home rise in value in the last 12 months by £58,900.
Yet, if they have had to go into private renting, they have paid for that privilege in the rent they have had to pay.
The average cost of a six-month rental agreement in West Hampstead is £10,284, meaning accidental West Hampstead tenants have pumped £380,509 into the West Hampstead rental market in the last 12 months.
The unevenness between the number of properties for sale and demand for them is at its widest since the early 2000’s. Whilst we have seen a slight improvement in the number of properties for sale in West Hampstead, there are only …
8% more homes up for sale today in West Hampstead, compared to August last year.
This recent shortage of West Hampstead property for sale is discouraging some hesitant West Hampstead homeowners from putting their property on to the housing market, anxious they will not be able to find their next home and will be left renting.
Yet some savvy West Hampstead homeowners are moving into a rented property as a way to navigate the shortage of properties to buy. If you have someone offering you top dollar for your West Hampstead home, whilst you will have the hassle of two moves, the increase in value of your West Hampstead home will more than offset the rent.
Also, when you come to buy your next West Hampstead home, you will be chain free and in pole position to buy your ‘forever home’, rather than being overlooked for the home because you are sold stc and burdened with a chain.
Yet this trend has made life tougher for long-term West Hampstead tenants.
On average there were normally 1,200 to 1,450 properties available to rent in West Hampstead on Rightmove at any one time (pre-pandemic), today there are only 662 available.
To give you an idea of how this has affected the West Hampstead rental market, with heightened demand and lower supply, demand for rental properties has grown to such an extent …
the average rent in West Hampstead has grown from £1,714 per month a year ago to £1,750 per month today.
Tenants are suffering from less choice and higher rents in the West Hampstead property rental market, with few indications it’s going to significantly ease on the run up to Christmas.
So, what is going to happen to the West Hampstead property market?
Well, those of you that follow me know I regularly write about the West Hampstead property market in my property blog. If you would like some recent articles I have written about the future of the local property, either drop me a line and I will send you some links to those posts, send me a DM or contact me by telephone.
In the meantime, please do share your thoughts on the matter in the comments
