I was having an interesting chat with a
Crawley 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 Crawley 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
Crawley 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 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 Crawley Borough Council area, the
average
number of occupants per household is 2.5
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 Crawley Borough Council figures for all tenures (Owned, Council
and Private Rented) a slightly different picture appears...
|
1 person
households in Crawley
|
2 person
households in Crawley
|
3 person
households In Crawley
|
4 person
households in Crawley
|
5+ person
households in Crawley
|
|
28.39%
|
31.07%
|
17.03%
|
15.17%
|
8.35%
|
But it gets even more interesting when we
focus on just private rental properties in Crawley, as it is the rental market
in Crawley that really fascinates me. When I analysed those Crawley Borough Council
private rental household composition figures, a slightly different picture
appears. Of the 5,789 Private rental properties in the Crawley Borough Council area,
·
23.1%
of Private Rental Properties are 1 person Households
·
30.5%
of Private Rental Properties are 2 person Households
·
19.9%
of Private Rental Properties are 3 person Households
·
15.5%
of Private Rental Properties are 4 person Households
10.7%
of Private Rental Properties are 5+ person Households
As you can see, Crawley is not too dissimilar from the
national picture but there is story to tell. If you are considering future buy
to let purchases in the coming 12 to 18 months, I would seriously consider
looking at 1 and 2 bed apartments and houses. Even with the numbers stated,
there are simply not enough to meet the demand. They have to be in the right
part of Crawley 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 Crawley Property Market and
where I consider best buy to let deals are in Crawley, please visit the Crawley
Property Market Blog at www.mycrawleyhome.com
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