Milton
Keynes house prices up or Milton Keynes house prices down? ... and if so, by
how much? Those of you who read the Milton Keynes Property Blog will know I am
not the sort of person who pulls punches nor someone who ever fails to give a
forthright and straight talking opinion – so here are my thoughts for the 35,450
Milton Keynes homeowners and landlords.
The average Milton
Keynes property is 10.6% higher today than it was a year ago, which doesn’t
sound a lot, but when you consider inflation is currently running at -0.1% (ie consumer/retail prices are dropping)
and average salary growth is only around 2.5% pa, this is bad news for first
time buyers as property affordability continues to decrease (although I was
reading in The Times the other day that wage inflation (ie salary growth) is showing signs of weakening).
Some
commentators have said the higher stamp duty taxes announced a few weeks ago in
the Autumn Statement for buy to let landlords, concerns over first time buyer affordability
and the outlook of UK interest rate rises in 2016 will really dampen the
property market. I hope you all read my previous article about what the new
stamp duty rule changes would REALLY mean for Milton Keynes landlords in my
blog, but I believe the real issue in the Milton Keynes property market is the
shortage of property to buy, as people either worry there will be no suitable
house to move to, or cannot afford to upgrade. However, on the supply side, Mr
Osborne said in his Autumn Statement that he will change the planning laws to
ensure the government meets the pledge made at the General Election (back in
May) of 200,000 new homes a year. All I
can say is .. good luck George hitting those numbers!
Why? Because houses take years to build .. not months .. so George
and his fabled house building aside .... where does that leave us in Milton
Keynes in 2016?
Well, talking of supply ... whilst Mr Osborne builds his
properties (and let’s be honest - a week doesn’t go by without him being filmed
on a building site with a high viz jacket and hard hat building a house here
and there!), let us look at the shortage of properties for sale. Back in December
2011, 2,596 properties were for sale in Milton Keynes .. today that figure is 1,098.
On the face of it, this means there is less choice for Milton Keynes buyers –
but it also means with a restricted supply of properties for sale .. it keeps
property prices high for Milton Keynes house sellers.
Everything isn’t all doom and gloom though ... again back in
December 2011, the average property in Milton Keynes took 106 days to find a
buyer .. latest figures state this has dropped to 55 days .. a drop of 48% in
how long it takes to find a buyer. However, when you delve even deeper, the
best performing type of property today in Milton Keynes is the 3 bed, which
only takes 40 days to find a buyer (on average) compared to the 1 bed, which
takes 69 days. It just goes to show, even though the average has dropped since
2011, how varied that change has been!
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