Spennymoor housing market is starting to pick up again

There is a natural flow to the UK housing market, and the way that the Spennymoor housing market acts is very similar to the rest of the country. There is activity in January as people start to put their houses on the market for sale. The main reason for this is that people have spent more time at home. They either realise that their home doesn't quite do what they want it to do or that they don't want to share it with the person they currently share it with - solicitors also report a big increase in divorce enquiries in January.

The first real buying market of the year starts as the weather improves. Easter is traditionally the time that things start to pick up as people are more willing to view properties, the weather turns drier and warmer and the nights get lighter. This works well in tandem with the January moves as the properties taken on by estate agents in January are the properties that sell in and around Easter. This more vibrant market lasts until around late-June or early-July before that market sees a lull during the 6 week school summer holidays.

When the children go back to school, the market starts again for people that are looking to move again. It's similar to January as more properties come back into the market. This is coupled with another period if high demand as people who want to live decide that they want to gerbil with it ang get the sake agreed quickly with one eye on moving in before Christmas. As I've said before, the Spennymoor market beiadly follows the rest of the UK in theses peaks and troughs, these ebbs and flows.

So, we're just starting the second busy seller phase of the market, and it shows. The number of properties available has dwindled since July as there have still been a few sales but very few new properties to the market. That is now starting to change as the children go back to school and the parents start to get back to normality.

This means that my blog will be able to expand again in the run up to Christmas - where the market will drop again as people's minds move onto things other than property. I'll be taking a look at two new properties per week to let you know what is out there and what might make a decent investment return for buyers, plus there will be some ideas in there for owner-occupiers.

Stay tuned and I'll take a look at the Spennymoor property msrket and introduce things such as my Facebook and Twitter feeds for Spennymoor property alerts and other exciting additions to the blog.

Parkside in Spennymoor will attract families and investors

A new property to the market is this 3 bedroom family home that's just come to the market via Dowen-

PARKSIDE, SPENNYMOOR, SPENNYMOOR DISTRICT

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50169509.html

It's in the ever-popular Parkside and has gone on the market at £118,500. Although it's another example of an estate agent not getting to grips with portal pricing, there's definitely potential here. It may appeal more to a family than an investor, but there's probably value here for either.

It's got three bedrooms and a kitchen/diner, which is popular for current buyers. Personally I'd get the estate agent back round to re-take some of the photos - a car on the drive is never a good start, for example.

For an investor, this property would attract a monthly rental return of between  £525 and £600. This equates to an annual rental return of between 5.3% and 6.1%, based on the asking price.

For a family home, there is always a demand for homes on Parkside. There have been 8 sales on Parkside in the last 5 years, with sold prices ranging from £86,000 to £130,000 but recent sold prices have been towards the lower end of this range-

http://m.nethouseprices.com/soldprices/property_results?street=PARKSIDE&town=SPENNYMOOR&outcode=DL16

It's definitely worth viewing for investors and owner-occupiers, so call the agent and make an appointment!

Why new build properties are distorting the Spennymoor property market

There are still 41 new build properties showing on Rightmove for the Spennymoor area.

From this at £441,500

Whitworth Road, Spennymoor, DL16 7LN

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/new-homes-for-sale/property-24192879.html

To this at £89,995

Coulson Street, Spennymoor, DL16

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/new-homes-for-sale/property-29549649.html

Now the impact that new builds have had on the Spennymoor property market has been large. It comes in more than one form, but let's take a quick look at where things have been impacted-

Mortgage demand

The government has put in incentives in the past that have incentivised the buying of new build homes. Nationally, this makes sense, as the country isn't producing enough new homes to satisfy demand and keep house prices on an even keel. But the majority if new homes are needed in and around London, where demand and house prices have soared.

The incentives have included low deposits for buying new homes (one if the earlier incarnations if Help To Buy) and this has made new build properties easier to buy than pre-owned properties in Spennymoor. Add to this the incentives that the builders offer and part-exchange then the desirability if a new home goes through the roof, financially.

Part-exchange

This is a marketing tool used by the builders to ensure that they can shift their properties quickly, and not be involved in lengthy chains. The downside it has had on the Spennymoor property market has come when the part-exchanged property is then sold in. The builder doesn't want to hang into this asset for long, so sells it at a price lower than market value. This makes other nearby properties look poorer value and subdues the asking prices. Add to this the valuation a surveyor puts on a property for mortgage purposes, and they take recently sold properties as a comparable and a benchmark, then even properties with an agreed sale may fall foul of the mortgage lender when they disagree in a true valuation.

Loved and lived in

One if the advantages the new property builders have, and use, is the show home. They are able to produce a property that looks fantastic and appeals to buyers by spending a bit of money on it and by having the show home kitted out with all the 'optional extras.' Someone living in their own home doesn't have the luxury of doing this. They have to live there every day and this creates dirt, objects and time-constraints that the show home doesn't have to deal with. Immediately, every pre-owned home in Spennymoor looks in some way inferior to these carefully stage-managed versions of the truth, and selling a pre-owned home becomes more difficult.

Now, you may say that these above would be the case anywhere, but I disagree. The fact that Spennymoor has had SO many new build sites in a short period of time, plus the fact that the high demand for property probably lies elsewhere means that the effect will be amplified here.

Is there still value in this 2 bedroom terraced house on Durham Road?

Is there still value in this 2 bedroom terraced house on Durham Road?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-32624286.html

It was for sale via auction earlier this year and the "guide price" was around £25,000.  Now there has obviously been a lot of work put into the house.  From the outside it looks as though there has been new windows, probably re-plastering and a lot of decoration, and that's without and unseen improvements, such as rewiring or any work on the central heating system.  The agent leaves a lot of information and images out off their Rightmove listing and have only 2 photos included in the brochure, which could be a worry for a house that they describe as "superbly refurbished." And they also make the age-old faux pas of describing the distance from the town in how many minutes it takes to walk there - surely that depends on how fast you walk?

Now, my question - is there value for any potential buyer?

Well, at the right price, there is.  As an owner-occupier, the average price paid for a property on Durham Road over the last year is £80,068 and prices have appeared static in that time -

http://www.nethouseprices.com/index.php?con=sold_prices_street_detail&street=DURHAM+ROAD&locality=SPENNYMOOR&town=SPENNYMOOR&cCode=EW&year=last_three_years&house_style=All&house_age=All&search_radius=&outcode=DL16&incode=6JU

As a 2 bedroom house, close to the Town Centre, with a recent renovation, the asking price of £67,950 is a reasonable starting point for negotiations, especially given the average figure above. Durham Road has always been reasonably desirable and will provide a good starter home for a first time buyer.

As a landlord, looking to buy this as an investment property, there is potential there too. I'd expect a rental return of £400 to £500 per month, so an annual; return of £4,800 to £6,000 - a gross rental return of between 7% and 8.8%, based on the asking price.

It's one of those properties where everyone can be a winner - the current owner who has bought and renovated and the potential new owner, who can get a recently-renovated house without paying a new-home premium.

Is this Green Lane home country living?

This property has sparked my interest since it first came onto the market-

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-44800045.html

On first look at the photo of the front elevation of the house, it looks imposing, large and looks as though it's set on it's own in perhaps a country or village location.

Now I'm sure it's a lovely house, but the initial photo can be a little deceptive, as the property is quite a bit closer to the road than it appears on the photo.  It's on Green Lane, almost opposite the Council Offices, near the new developments and on a fairly busy road, backing on to a council estate.

There's nothing wrong with any of these things, but they are probably not quite what you expect when you see the initial photo.

The house is decorated in a grand style, with high ceilings and it looks spacious.  The estate agent is Agency Express, who quote "Sell your home in days or weeks not months or years - most of our sales are around 6 weeks." However this particular property has been on the market for far in excess of that.  They also state on the particulars that "the property has the potential to be converted into two separate dwellings" but with a guide price of £330,000, I doubt that would be what any potential buyer would have in mind.

I have worked in the property market in several parts of the country, and this property brings forward a question that I have asked myself time and time again, since moving to the North East.

Are prices like this sustainable in an areas that has low economic growth, lower wages and higher deprivation than area within commutable distance to London?

I know that;'s quite a long-winded question, but it has struck me as odd that a property like the one above is commanding a similar price to a similar property in Essex, for example, where the owner could easily hop on a train to London and bring home £50,000+ with one of hundreds of employers.  It brings finance and debt into the purchase decision of a North East worker, that would be easier to obtain, and less of a worry for someone on a London salary.  I know that there are people in the North East that will earn a lot of money, but statistically there are fewer of them, so the potential market for this home on Green Lane, Spennymoor is naturally more limited.