Who owns what property in Gloucester?

Last week, I was talking to a couple from the Maisemore, Gloucester, about them potentially investing in the Gloucester property market for Buy to Let for the first time. As my regular readers will note, the most important consideration you will make before investing in property is the balance between annual return/yield and the annual value increase/capital growth. However, what affects those two things (yield and capital growth) in Gloucester are very varied and complex. The quantity of property and whether property is owner occupied, social housing or private renting has a big difference on yield and capital growth.

The growth in home ownership in Gloucester, which started in the 1950’s, continued through the 1960s and, by 1971, the proportion of owner occupiers was equal to those renting (private and council). By 1981, 62.8% of Gloucester households were owner occupied and, for the first time, the proportion of rentals (private and council) was less than home owners. By 1991, it reached home ownership had risen to 73.5%. Roll into the 21^st Century and in 2001, there was hardly any change in the tenure structure in Gloucester, as owner occupation stayed relatively unchanged at 74.08%. The significant change over the decade (1991 to 2001) was within the rental sector, where the proportion of households privately renting increased for the first time since 1918. In fact, 8.68% of households were privately renting in 2001, while those socially renting (council housing) had decreased to 10.45%.

Between 2001 and 2011, the number of households in Gloucester rose, after over 5,000 houses were built in City, taking the number of households from 45,765 to 50,863, an increase of 10%. Also, the percentage of households that were owner occupiers in Gloucester dropped significantly to 67.2% (from the previously quoted 74.08% in 2001).

However, that doesn’t tell the full story, because whilst there was a significant drop in the percentages (74.08% to 67.2%), the actual numbers tell a completely different tale. Of the 33,903 households in Gloucester that were owner occupied in 2001, that figure had only dropped to 33,858 households being owner occupied .. so with only 45 less owner occupier houses, why the huge drop in percentages? 

In 2001, 3,971 houses were privately rented (8.68%) in Gloucester but roll on another ten years and there are 8,012 households in Gloucester that are privately rented (15.9%). The rapid increase in the number of households privately renting in Gloucester could be linked to the decline in the number of households getting on the housing ladder, usually by way of a mortgage. This is mainly because of the increasing difficulty for first time buyers being able to raise deposits for a mortgage, which haven’t been helped by high property prices. The average Gloucester house price for those who were first time buyers increased by 55.9% between 2001 and 2011. This meant larger deposits which are linked to the house price, were required.

Having this knowledge of the Gloucester property market to hand enables me to give to my landlords the best advice on what (or not) to buy for buy to let. Irrespective of you are a landlord with another agent or someone who is thinking of dipping their toe in the water for the first time as a buy to let landlord, if you want to pick my brains on any matter to do with the Gloucester property market, please feel free to pop through the door of our offices on Worcester Street or send me an email to neil.west@belvoir.co.uk