Huddersfield Apartments are 18.6% more affordable than 10 years ago

My research shows that certain types of Huddersfield property are more affordable today than before the 2007 credit crunch.

Roll the clock back to 2007 just before the credit crunch hit which saw Huddersfield property values plummet like a lead balloon and the Huddersfield property market had reached a peak with the prices for Huddersfield property hitting the highest level they had ever reached.  Between 2008 and 2010, Huddersfield property values lay in the doldrums and only started to rise in 2011, albeit quite slowly to begin with.

Nevertheless, even though property values have now passed those 2007 peaks, my research indicates that Huddersfield property, especially flats/apartments, are now more affordable than they were before the 2008 credit crunch.

Back in 2007, the average value of a Huddersfield flat/apartment stood at £118,395 and today, it stands at £127,167, a rise of £8,772 or 7.4%.

However, between 2007 and today, we have experienced inflation (as measured by the Government’s Consumer Price Index) of 25.97% meaning that in real spending power terms Huddersfield apartments are 18.6% more affordable than in 2007. Looking at it another way, if the average Huddersfield apartment (valued at £118,395 in 2007) had risen by 25.97% inflation over those 10 years, today it would be worth £149,142 (instead of the current £127,167).

The point I’m trying to get across is that Huddersfield property is more affordable than many people think.  Huddersfield first time buyers can get on the ladder as 95% mortgages have been readily available to first-time buyers since 2010.

It really comes down to a choice and if Huddersfield first-time buyers can get over the hurdle of saving the 5% deposit for the mortgage on the property – they will be on to a winner, especially with these ultralow mortgage interest rates, a mortgage can be between 10% and 30% cheaper per month than the rental payments on the same house.

So why aren’t Huddersfield 20 somethings buying their own home?

Back in the 1960’s and 1970’s, renting was considered the poor man’s choice in Huddersfield (and the rest of the Country) a huge stigma was attached to renting. However, over the last 10 years as a country, we have done a complete U-turn in our attitude towards renting - meaning that many people find renting a better option and a lifestyle choice.

Saving the 5% deposit means going without many luxuries in life (such as holidays, every satellite movie and sports channel, socialising or the latest mobile phone – even if only in the short term) therefore instead of saving every last pound to put towards a mortgage deposit Huddersfield 20 somethings choose to rent.

There is no denying the simple fact that over the next 10 to 15 years, the people who choose to rent instead of buy in Huddersfield will continue to rise.

Therefore, everyone in Huddersfield has a responsibility to ensure that an adequate number of quality Huddersfield rental properties are safeguarded to meet those future demands. Interestingly, what I have noticed though over the last few years are the expectations of Huddersfield tenants on the finish and specification of their Huddersfield rental property.

I have perceived that in the past, what a tenant wanted from their Huddersfield rental property was moderately unassuming because renting a property was only a short-term choice to fill the gap before jumping on the property ladder. Before the millennium, wood chip wall paper and twenty-year-old kitchen and bathroom suites were considered the norm.

However, Huddersfield tenants’ expectations are becoming more discerning as each year goes by.  I have also noticed the length of time a tenant remains in their Huddersfield property is becoming longer (and this was backed up recently by stats from a Government Report), although I have noticed a tendency for many Huddersfield landlords not to keep the rental payments at the going market rates  - maybe a topic for a future article for my blog?

The bottom line is this … Huddersfield landlords will need to be more conscious of tenants needs and wants and consider their financial planning for future enhancements to their Huddersfield rental properties over the next five, ten and twenty years -  e.g. decorating, kitchen and bathroom suites etc etc ..

The present-day and future situation of the Huddersfield private rental property market is important, and I frequently liaise with Huddersfield buy-to-let investors looking to spread their Huddersfield rental-portfolios. I also enjoy meeting and working alongside Huddersfield first time landlords, to ensure they can navigate through the minefield of rental voids, the important balance of capital growth and yield and ensuring the property is returned back to you in the future in the best possible condition.

22.16% of Huddersfield and Kirklees is Built on ... Building Plot Dilemma or Not?

Well the fallout from the recent Budget is still continuing.  I was chatting to a couple of movers and shakers from the Huddersfield area the other day, when one said, “There isn’t enough land to build all these 300,000 houses Philip Hammond wants to build each year”.

...and if you read the Daily Mail, you would be forgiven for thinking the Country was at bursting point ... or is it?

It was 60 years ago the first satellite was launched (Sputnik). All the Superpowers have used them to take high definition pictures of each other for decades, but now satellites and their high-powered cameras are being used for more peaceful purposes. The European Environment Agency (EEA) have been taking high definition pictures of the UK from outer-space to give us a focused picture of what every corner of the Country really looks like … and the findings will come as a surprise.

As my blog readers know, I always like to ask the important questions relating to the Huddersfield property market. If you are a Huddersfield landlord or Huddersfield homeowner, this knowledge will enable you to make a more considered opinion on your direction and future in the Huddersfield property market. Like every aspect of all economic life, it’s all about supply and demand, because over the last twenty or so years, there has been an imbalance in the British (and Huddersfield) housing market, with demand outstripping supply, meaning the average value of a property in Kirklees has risen by 217.04%, taking an average value from £45,200 in 1995 to £143,300 today.

Using the information from the EEA and data crunched by Sheffield University with their Corine-Land Cover project, I posed them a few questions about the local area, interesting questions I would like to share with you …

1. What proportion of the whole of Kirklees is built on?

22.16%

That surprised you, didn’t it! In the study, land classified as ‘urban fabric’ defined has land which has between 50% and 100% of the land surface is built on, (meaning up to a half might be gardens or small parks, but the majority is built on).

2. How much land is intensively built on locally?

Of that amount mentioned above, how much of it is high-density urban fabric? (i.e. where 80% to 100% is built on – still leaving 20% for gardens)  0.19%  - again I bet that surprised you!

3. So how is the land used locally?

Sports Facilities                    1.73%

Industry                                 3.13%

Pastures                                 41.76%

...the rest being made up of various other minor types such as arable farmland and forests, etc.

Huddersfield and the surrounding areas are greener than you think! In fact, I read that property covers less of the UK than the land revealed when the tide goes out. The assumption that vast bands of our local area have been concreted over doesn't stand up to inspection. However, the effect of housing undoubtedly spreads beyond its actual footprint, in terms of noise, pollution and roads.

Now I am not suggesting for one second we concrete over every inch of the locality, but the bottom line is we, as a country, are growing at a quicker rate than the households we are building. I appreciate the emotional effect of housing is greater than other land use types because most of us spend the vast majority of our time surrounded by it. As Brits, we live our lives driving along roads, walking on footpaths and working and living in buildings meaning we tend, as a result, to considerably overemphasise how much of it there is.

The bottom line is Huddersfield people and the local authorities are going to have to put their weight into building more homes for people to live in. There is going to have to be some give and take on both sides, otherwise house prices will continue to rise exponentially in the future and Huddersfield youngster’s won’t be able to buy their own Huddersfield home, meaning Huddersfield rents and demand for private rented accommodation in Huddersfield can (and will) also grow exponentially. 

Huddersfield Property Market and Hammond’s Budget Promise to Build 300,000 more homes

I miss the good old days of George Osborne as Chancellor, with his hardhat and hi-vis jacket. He must have visited every new home building site in the UK with his trademark attire! For the last few years, the nearest Philip Hammond got to donning a ‘Bob the Builder’ outfit was at his grandchild’s birthday party. However, with what appears to be a change in focus by the Tories to ensure they get back in power in 2022, they appear to have fallen in love with house building again with the Chancellor’s promise to create 300,000 new households in a year.

Nationally, the number of new homes created has topped 217,344 in the last year, the highest since the financial crash of 2007/8. Looking closer to home: in total there were 983 ‘net additional dwellings’ in the last 12 months in the Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council area, a decrease of 9% on the 2010 figure.

The figures show that 84% of this additional housing was down to new build properties. In total, there were 830 new dwellings built over the last year in Kirklees. In addition, there were 147 additional dwellings created from converting commercial or office buildings into residential property and a further 15 dwellings were added as a result of converting houses into flats.

While these all added to the total housing stock in the Kirklees area, there were 9 demolitions to take into account.

Net additional dwellings in Kirklees in the last 12 months
New build	Conversions	Change of use	Demolitions	Net Additions
830	15	147	-9	983

I was encouraged to see some of the new households in the Huddersfield area had come from a change of use. The planning laws were changed a few years back so that, in certain circumstances, owners of properties didn’t need planning permission to change office space in to residential use.

With the scarcity of building land available locally (or the builders being very slow to build on what they have, for fear of flooding the market), it was pleasing to see the number of developers that had reutilised vacant office space into residential homes in the local council area. Converting offices and shops to residential use will be vital in helping to solve the Huddersfield housing crisis especially, as you can see on the graph, that the level of building has hardly been spectacular over the last seven years!

Now we have had the autumn budget, Theresa May and Philip Hammond have set out their stall with housing as their key focus. I was glad to see the Government introducing a variety of changes to improve housing, including more funding for the supply side and an injection of urgency into the planning system.

The biggest question is, just where are the Government going to build all these new houses? Maybe a topic for a future article?

Back to the main point though and the focus on the housing market by the Tory’s is good news for all homeowners and buy to let landlords, as it will encourage more fluidity in the market in the longer term, sharing the wealth and benefits of homeownership for all. However, in the short term, demand still outstrips supply for homes and that will mean continued upward pressures on rents for tenants.

Huddersfield Rents Set to Rise to £832 pm in Next 5 Years

It’s now been a good 12/18 months since annual rental price inflation in Huddersfield peaked at 2.3%. Since then we have seen increasingly more humble rent increases. In fact, in certain parts of the Huddersfield rental market over the autumn, the rental market saw some slight falls in rents. So, could this be the earliest indication that the trend of high rent increases seen over the last few years, may now be starting to buck that trend?

Well, possibly in the short term, but in the coming few years, it is my opinion Huddersfield rents will regain their upward trend and continue to increase as demand for Huddersfield rental property will outstrip supply, and this is why.

The only counterbalance to that improved rental growth would be to meaningfully increase rental stock (i.e. the number of rental properties in Huddersfield). However, because of the Government’s new taxes on landlords being introduced between 2017 and 2021, that means buy-to-let has (and will) be less attractive in the short term for certain types of landlords (meaning less new properties will be bought to let out).

Interestingly, countless market experts assumed at the start of 2017, that the number of rental properties would in fact drop throughout the year. The assumption being as the new tax rules for landlords started to kick in, landlords looked to kick their tenants out, sell up and invest their capital elsewhere. (Although ironically that would lower supply of rental properties, decreasing the supply, meaning rents would increase again!).

Anecdotal evidence suggests, confirmed by my discussions with fellow property, accountancy and banking professionals in Huddersfield, that Huddersfield landlords are (instead of selling up on masse), actually either (1) re-mortgaging their Huddersfield buy-to-let properties instead or (2) converting their rental portfolios into limited companies to side step the new taxation rules.

The sentiment of many Huddersfield landlords is that property has always weathered the many stock market crashes and runs in the last 50 years. There is something inheritably understandable about bricks and mortar – compared to the voodoo magic of the stock market and other exotic investment vehicles like debentures and crypto-currency (e.g. BitCoin). 

Remarkably, there is some good news for tenants, as Tory’s recently published the draft Tenants’ Fee Bill, which is designed to prohibit the charging of tenants lettings fees on set up of the tenancy. However, looking at evidence in Scotland, I expect rents to rise to compensate landlords, thus hammering faithful tenants looking for long-term tenancy agreements the hardest. This growth will be on top of any usual organic rent growth.  It really is swings and roundabouts!

So, what does this all mean for landlords and tenants in Huddersfield? In my considered opinion,

Rents in Huddersfield over the next 5 years will rise by 8.9%, taking the average rent for a Huddersfield property from £764 per month to £832 per month.

To put all that into perspective though, rents in Huddersfield over the last 12 years have risen by 19.4%. In fact, that rise won’t be a straight-line growth either, because I have to take into account the national and local Huddersfield economy, demand and supply of rental property, interest rates, Brexit and other external factors.

In the past, making money from Huddersfield buy-to-let property was as easy as falling off a log. But with these new tax rules, new rental regulations and the overall changing dynamics of the Huddersfield property market, as a Huddersfield landlord, you are going to need work smarter and have every piece of information, advice and opinion to hand on the Huddersfield, Regional and National property market’s, to enable you to continue to make money.

One place for that information is the Huddersfield Property Market blog https://huddersfieldproperty.blogspot.co.uk/

Increase in Interest Rates to cost Huddersfield Home Owners £180.61 a year

Huddersfield homeowners will be among those affected by the latest rise in the Bank of England interest rates. The first increase in 10 years; they have just been raised from 0.25 percent to 0.5 per cent. This uplift comes as inflation hits a 51-month high of 2.9 per cent whilst the national unemployment rate is at an all-time low of 4.3 per cent.

    

Interestingly, the Governor of the Bank of England has indicated that the interest rate is likely to increase again over the next couple of years, but Mr Carney said mortgages and savings would not be affected in the short term. However, look at all the big banks and just about all of them have increased their standard variable mortgage rate..  

The average Huddersfield mortgage is £72,245

I have to ask by how much Huddersfield homeowners (on variable rate or tracker mortgages) will see their repayments increase?

In the HD1 - HD9 postcodes there are 39,062 homeowners with a mortgage, of which 16,781 have a variable rate mortgage (the remaining have fixed rate mortgages). The total amount owed by those HD1 - HD9 homeowners with those variable rate mortgages is £1,212,340,517, meaning the average monthly mortgage payment for those home owners on variable rate mortgages before the interest rate rise was £563.31 per month and now its £578.36 per month … meaning

The interest rate rise will cost Huddersfield

homeowners on average an extra £180.61 per year

Whilst this is the first raise in interest rates in over 10 years, it must be noted it is at a significantly low level compared to figures in the 1970s and early 1990s. Many of my readers talk of interest rates at 17 per cent when Sir Geoffrey Howe increased them to try and combat the hyperinflation (from the fallout of the financial crisis that hit Britain in the 1970’s) and Norman Lamont in September 1992 with the infamous Black Wednesday crisis, when interest rates were raised from 10% to 15% in just one day.

So, what will this interest rate actually do to the Huddersfield housing market?

Well, if I’m being frank – not a great deal. The proportion of Huddersfield homeowners with variable rate mortgages (and thus directly affected by a Bank of England rate rise) will be smaller than in the past, in part because the vast majority of new mortgages in recent years were taken on fixed interest rates. The proportion of outstanding mortgages on variable rates has fallen to a record low of 42.3 per cent, down from a peak of 72.9 per cent in the autumn of 2011.

If more Huddersfield people are protected from interest rate rises, because they are on a fixed rate mortgage, then there is less chance of those Huddersfield people having to sell their Huddersfield properties because they can’t afford the monthly repayments or even worse case scenario, have them repossessed.

However, and this will be of interest to both Huddersfield homeowners and Huddersfield buy to let landlords …

.. for every 1% increase in the Bank of England interest rate, it will cost the average Huddersfield homeowner on a variable rate mortgage £60.20 per month

So, what next? Because UK inflation levels are at 2.9 per cent (the country’s highest rate since April 2012) and the Bank of England is tasked by HM Government to keep inflation at 2 per cent using various monetary tools (one of which is interest rates) – you can see why interest rate rises might be on the cards in the future as increasing interest rates tends to dampen inflation.

Now of course there is a certain amount of uncertainty with regard to Brexit and the negotiations thereof, but fundamentally the British economy is in decent shape. People will always need housing and as we aren’t building enough houses (as I have mentioned many times in the Huddersfield Property Blog), we might see a slight dip in prices in the short term, but in the medium to long term, the Huddersfield property market will always remain strong for both Huddersfield homeowners and Huddersfield landlords alike.

The Huddersfield House Price Index: 109.33

I had the most interesting conversation the other day with a local Huddersfield accountant, who asked me about my articles on the Huddersfield property market. It was quite humbling to be given praise by such a professional, when he commented enthusiastically on the articles I write. He was particularly interested with the graphs, facts and figures contained within them – so much so he recommended his clients read them, as most of them were either Huddersfield homeowners, Huddersfield landlords and a lot of the time - both. However, one question that kept me on my toes was, “With so many House-Price-Indices, how do you know which one to use and how can you calculate what is exactly happening in Huddersfield?”

To start with, there are indeed a great number of these Indices, including the Land Registry, Office of National Stats, Halifax, Nationwide and LSL to name but a few. The issue occurs when these different house price indices give diverse pictures of the state of the UK housing market. Whilst some indices measure the average value of every property in the UK (sold or unsold), others measure the average ‘price-paid’ of houses that happen to be sold over a fixed time scale… confusing isn’t it!

A lot of the variance between house price indices occurs because of the distinctive ways in which the numerous indices endeavour to beat these issues. You see, the biggest problem in creating a house-price-index when comparing and contrasting with most other indexes (e.g. inflation where the price a ubiquitous tin of Beans can easily be measured over the months and years), is every home is unique and as Huddersfield people are only moving every 19.5 years, it appears the only thing that can be measured is the price of property sold in a given month.

By their very nature, all of the indices are only able to paint a picture of the whole of the UK or, at best, the regional housing market. As I have said many times in my articles on the Huddersfield property market, it is important to look to the medium term when considering house price inflation/deflation. Looking at the month-to-month jumps, many indices look like one of those jumpy lie-detector needles you see in the cold war movies! 

I can guarantee you in the coming few months, on a month-by-month basis, one or more of the indices will say property prices will have dropped. Let me tell you, no property market indices are representative of the housing market in the short term. Many indices have shown a drop around the Christmas and New Year months, even the boom years of 2001 to 2007 and 2013 to 2015.

So, back to the question, how do we work out what is happening in the Huddersfield Property Market and can there be a Huddersfield House Price Index?

To calculate what I consider is a fair and proper House Price Index for Huddersfield, I initially needed to decide on a starting place for the index. I have chosen 2008 as far enough away, but still gives us a medium/long term view. Next, I split all the house sales into their types (Detached/Semi/House /Apartment) to give us an indication of what is actually selling by postcode district. So, for example, below is a table for the HD3 postcode district (the sample shows 2008, 2016 and 2017.

	2008	2016	Proj 2017
Detached	15.6%	16.3%	14.4%
Semi Det	28.7%	30.3%	32.4%
Terraced	39.3%	44.5%	43.2%
Apartment	16.4%	8.8%	9.9%

Then I look at the actual numbers of properties sold in the HD3 postcode district. Below is the graph with the numbers for the years already mentioned.

Next, I have looked at the prices paid for those types for every year since 2008, again in this example using the sample years of 2008, 2016 and 2017 for the HD3 postcode.

Finally, I amalgamated the same data points for the other postcode districts covered by Huddersfield and the surrounding villages, weighted it accordingly, to produce the Huddersfield House Price Index ... which after all that work, currently stands at for Q4 2017 at 109.33 (Q4 2008 = 100).

I hope you found that of interest and over the coming months and seasons, I shall refer back to Huddersfield House Price Index in my Huddersfield Property Blog https://huddersfieldproperty.blogspot.co.uk/ give you a flavour of what is really happening in the Huddersfield Property Market.

One in 29 rental properties in the Huddersfield area will be illegal in 2018

As the winter months draw in and the temperature starts to drop, keeping one’s home warm is vital. Yet, with the price of gas and electricity rising quicker than a Saturn V rocket and gas, oil and electricity taking on average 4.4% of a typical Brit’s pay packet (and for those Brit’s with the lowest 10% of incomes, that rockets to an eye watering 9.7%), whether you are a tenant or homeowner, keeping your energy costs as low as possible is vital for the household budget and the environment as a whole.

For the last 10 years, every private rental property must have an Energy-Performance-Certificate (EPC) rating.  The property is given an energy rating, very similar to those on washing machines and fridges with the rainbow coloured graph, of between A to G (A being the most efficient and G the worst). New legislation comes in to force next spring (2018) for English and Welsh private landlords making it illegal to let a property that does not meet a certain energy rating. After the 1^st of April next year, any new tenant moving into a private rented property or an existing tenant renewing their tenancy must have property with an energy performance rating of E or above on the property’s EPC and the new law will apply for all prevailing tenancies in the spring of 2020. After April 2018, if a landlord lets a property in the ‘F’ and ‘G’ ratings (i.e. those properties with the worst energy ratings) Trading Standards could fine the landlord up to £4,000.

Personally, I have grave apprehensions that many Huddersfield landlords may be totally unaware that their Huddersfield rental properties could fall below these new legal minimum requirements for energy efficiency benchmarks. Whilst some households may require substantial works to get their Huddersfield property from an F/G rating to an E rating or above, my experience is most properties may only need some minor work to lift them from illegal to legal. By planning and acting now, it will mitigate the need to find tradespeople in the spring when every other Huddersfield landlord will be panicking and paying top dollar for work to comply.

Whilst there is money and effort involved in upgrading the energy efficiency of rental property, a property that is energy efficient will have greater appeal to tenants and other buy-to-let landlords/investors and this will enable you to obtain higher rents and sale price (when you come to sell your investment).

So, how many properties are there in the area that are F and G rated .. well quite a few in fact. Looking at the whole of the Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council area, of the 26,941 privately rented properties, there are ..

707 rental properties in the F banding

210 rental properties in the G banding

That means just over one in 29 rental properties in the Huddersfield and surrounding area has an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of F or G. From April next year it will be illegal to rent out those homes rated F and G homes with a new tenancy.

Talking with the Energy Assessors that carry out our EPC’s, they tell me most of a building’s heat is lost through draughty windows/doors or poor insulation in the roof and walls. So why not look at your EPC and see what the assessor suggested to improve the efficiency of your property? I can find the EPC of every rental property in Huddersfield, so irrespective of whether you are a client of mine or not, don’t hesitate to contact me via email (or phone) if you need some guidance on finding out the EPC rating or need a trustworthy contractor that can help you out? 

Huddersfield Homeowners Are Only Moving Every 19.5 Years (part 2)

Huddersfield Homeowners Are Only Moving Every 19.5 Years (part 2)

In the credit crunch of 2008/9 the rate of home moving plunged to its lowest level ever. In 2009 the rate at which a typical house would change hands slumped to only once every 29 years. The biggest reason being that confidence was low and many homeowners didn’t want to sell their home as Huddersfield property prices plunged after the onset of the financial crisis in 2008. However, since 2009, the rate of home moving has increased (see the table and graph below), meaning today:

The average period of time between home moves in

Huddersfield is now 19.5 years.

This is an increase of 49.01 per cent between the credit crunch fallout year of 2009 and today, but still it is a 35.66 per cent drop in moves by homeowners, compared to 15 years ago (The Noughties).

Average Length of Time (In Years) between Home Moves in Huddersfield and the Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council Area
1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
20.96	19.15	16.94	17.30	16.09	16.10	13.52	12.49	12.17	12.86	14.66
2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
11.79	12.22	23.59	28.93	28.35	28.38	27.15	24.60	20.99	20.48	19.42

So why aren’t Huddersfield homeowners moving as much as they did in the Noughties?

The causes of the current state of play are numerous. In last weeks article I talked about how ‘real’ incomes and savings had been dropping. Another issue is the long-term failure in the number of properties being built. Only a few weeks ago in the blog, I was discussing the draconian planning rules meaning house builders struggle to locate building land to actually build on.

Back in the 1960’s and 1970’s, as a country, we were building on average 300,000 and 350,000 households a year. The Barker Review a few years ago said that for the UK to stand still and keep up with housing demand (through immigration, people living longer, a just under 50% increase in the number of households with a single person since the 1980’s and family makeup (i.e. divorce makes one household now two)) we needed to build 240,000 households a year. Over the last few years, we have only been building between 135,000 and 150,000 households a year.

Finally, as the UK Population gets older, there is no getting away from the fact that a maturing population is a less mobile one.

So, what does this mean for Huddersfield homeowners and landlords?

Well, if Huddersfield people are less inclined to move or find it hard to sell a property or acquire a new one, they are probably less likely to move to an improved job or a more prosperous part of the UK.

Many of the older generation in Huddersfield are stuck in property that is simply too big for their needs. The fact is that, in Huddersfield and Kirklees, more than four out of every ten (or 41.9 per cent) owned houses has two or more spare bedrooms; or to be more exact ...

48,962 of the 116,973 owned households in the Kirklees

area have two or more spare bedrooms.

So, as their children and grandchildren struggle to move up the housing ladder, with those young families bursting at the seams in homes too small for them i.e. overcrowding, we have a severe case of under-occupation with the older generation - grandparents staying put in their bigger homes, with a profusion of spare bedrooms.

Regrettably, I cannot see how the rate of properties being sold will rise any time soon. Many commentators have suggested the Government should give tax breaks to allow the older generation to downsize, yet in a recent White Paper on housing published just weeks before the General Election, there was no reference of any thoughtful and detailed policies to inspire or support them to do so.

This means that there could be an opportunity for Huddersfield buy to let landlords to secure larger properties to rent out, as the demand for them will surely grow over the coming years. As for homeowners; well those in the lower and middle Huddersfield market will find it a balanced sellers/buyers market, but will find it slightly more a buyers market in the upper price bands.

Interesting times ahead!