I was having an interesting chat with a
Dartford buy to let landlord the other day when the subject of size of
households came up in conversation. For
those of you who read my Brexit article published on the morning after the
referendum, one of the reasons on why I thought the Dartford property market would,
in the medium to long term, be OK, was the fact that the size of households in
the 21st Century was getting smaller – which would create demand for
Dartford Property and therefore keep property prices from dropping.
Looking at the stats going back to the
early 1960’s, when the average number of people in a home was exactly 3, it has
steadily over the years dropped by a fifth to today’s figure of 2.4 people per
household. Doesn’t sound a lot, but if the population remained at the same
level for the next 50 years and the we had the same 20% drop in household size,
the UK would need to build an additional 5.28 million properties ( or 105,769
per year) .. When you consider the Country is only building 139,800 properties
a year ... it doesn’t leave much for people living longer and immigration.
Looking closer to home...
In the
Dartford Borough Council area, the average
number
of occupants per household is 2.4 people
When we look at the current picture
nationally and split it down into tenure types (i.e. owned, council houses and
private renting, a fascinating picture appears.
The vast majority of homeowners who
don’t have a mortgage are occupied by one or two people (81% in fact), although
this can be explained as residents being older, with some members
of the family having moved out, or a pensioner living alone. People living on their own are more likely to
live in a Council house (43%) and the largest households (those with 4 or more
people living in them are homeowners with a mortgage – but again, that can be
explained as homeowners with families tend to need a mortgage to buy. What
surprised me was the even spread of private rented households and how that
sector of population are so evenly spread across the occupant range – in fact
that sector is the closest to the national average, even though they only
represent a sixth of the population.
When we look at the Dartford Borough
Council figures for all tenures (Owned, Council and Private Rented) a slightly
different picture appears...
|
1 person households in Dartford
|
2 person households in Dartford
|
3 person households In Dartford
|
4 person households in Dartford
|
5+ person households in Dartford
|
|
29.05%
|
32.85%
|
16.21%
|
14.94%
|
6.95%
|
But it gets even more interesting when we focus on
just private rental properties in Dartford, as it is the rental market in Dartford
that really fascinates me. When I analysed those Dartford
Borough Council private rental household composition figures, a slightly
different picture appears. Of the 6,003 Private rental properties in the Dartford Borough Council area,
·
33.4% of Private Rental Properties are
1 person Households
·
30.3% of Private Rental Properties are
2 person Households
·
18.3% of Private Rental Properties are
3 person Households
·
10.6% of Private Rental Properties are
4 person Households
·
5.6% of Private Rental Properties are
5+ person Households
·
As you can see, Dartford is not too dissimilar from the
national picture but there is story to tell.
If you are considering future buy
to let purchases in the coming 12 to 18 months, I would seriously consider
looking at 2 bed apartments/houses.
Even with the numbers stated, there are simply not enough 2 bed
apartments/houses to meet the demand. They have to be in the right part of Dartford
and priced realistically, but they will always let and when you need to sell,
irrespective of market conditions at the time, will always be the target of
buyers.
To read more articles on the Dartford Property Report and where I
consider best buy to let areas in Dartford, please visit the Dartford Property Report
www.dartfordproperty.blogspot.co.uk
