I was having an interesting chat with a
Huddersfield 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 Huddersfield 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 Huddersfield 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 Kirklees Metropolitan 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 Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council figures for all tenures
(Owned, Council and Private Rented) a slightly different picture appears...
But it gets even more interesting when we
focus on just private rental properties in Huddersfield, as it is the rental
market in Huddersfield that really fascinates me. When I analysed those Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council
private rental household composition figures, a slightly different picture
appears. Of the 24,523 Private rental properties in the Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council area,
·
38.5%
of Private Rental Properties are 1 person Households
·
29.7%
of Private Rental Properties are 2 person Households
·
15.5%
of Private Rental Properties are 3 person Households
·
9.6%
of Private Rental Properties are 4 person Households
·
6.5%
of Private Rental Properties are 5+ person Households
As you can see, Huddersfield is not too dissimilar from
the national picture but there is story to tell. Properties have to be in the right part of Huddersfield 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 Huddersfield Property Market and where I
consider best buy to let deals are in Huddersfield, please visit the Huddersfield
Property Market Blog
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