A big month for the Portsmouth housing market

Oct 24, 2017

November brings an interesting buzz to the Portsmouth property market, as we embark upon the first phase of the 2018 student season. November is the time when many students start thinking about their accommodation choices for the following year. Many students who were living in halls of residence and paying top rate for self-contained studio apartments, begin looking at lower cost shared housing opportunities with new friends.

 

This year has seen a huge influx in private purpose-built student accommodation which has meant many Landlords currently have empty, non- performing properties and are likely to do whatever is necessary to ensure this doesn't happen for next year. The market is likely to become highly competitive with Landlords accepting lower and lower room rates just to fill their voids and at least realise some income which will cover bank interest and running costs.

 

Many Landlords have already started doing this by changing their use classes to allow for families to tenant their properties. This is obviously good for the housing supply of Portsmouth and at least provides some income for the Landlord.

 

This November will be a testing time for the market, as we see the true impact of the huge influx in new student accommodation. Landlords and investors will be watching and hoping that there is still significant demand to take up the HMO housing supply. The outcome will have serious repercussions - if it appears that supply level increases have taken away demand for HMO properties then we are going to see a big drop in rentals, and subsequently a big drop in HMO property values as investors will be looking to buy on yields of at least 5%, and these lower income generating properties will see price reductions to allow for satisfactory investor yields.

 

This November is a big month for Portsmouth housing market.

 

Watch this space.

Published by Jamie Gray