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 Dartford property market, the Dartford homeowners and Dartford 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 Dartford, location is still the No. 1 factor affecting the value of property, and a property in the best area 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 Dartford housing stock into bedrooms and type of property, but never before now have I cross-referenced type against bedrooms. These figures for the Dartford Borough Council area make fascinating reading. It shows 75.7% of all properties in the area have 3 or more bedrooms
|
Detached
|
Semi-detached
|
Terraced (including end-terrace)
|
Flat
|
|
|
1 bedroom
|
7
|
49
|
59
|
485
|
|
2 bedrooms
|
126
|
758
|
2,299
|
1,723
|
|
3 bedrooms
|
786
|
4,952
|
5,442
|
247
|
|
4 bedrooms
|
1,514
|
1,874
|
1,038
|
45
|
|
5 or more bedrooms
|
675
|
445
|
191
|
11
|
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 Dartford. You see, it
might interest the homeowners and landlords of Dartford, 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, 33 one bed
properties were for sale in Dartford, today 24, a drop of 27%
·
12 months ago, 72 two bed
properties were for sale in Dartford, today 90, a rise of 25%
·
12 months ago, 57 three bed
properties were for sale in Dartford, today 107, a rise of 88%
·
12 months ago, 29 four bed
properties were for sale in Dartford, today 29, no change
·
12 months ago, 25 five + bed
properties were for sale in Dartford, today 15, a drop of 40%
It can quite clearly be seen more Dartford
properties have become available, which can only be good news for Dartford
first time buyers and Dartford buy to let landlords looking for a bargain
(especially post Brexit) as property prices have stopped rising at the silly
rates they were 12/18 months ago.
For several years Dartford 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 Dartford 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 Dartford landlords ... all is not lost ... you can still
pick up bargains, you just need to be a lot more savvy and do your homework ... one source of such information with articles like this is the Dartford property
market Blog www.dartfordproperty.blogspot.co.uk
