The Government's Annual Housing Survey is 50 years old this year. It has taken a snap shot of the UK's property market every year since 1969 and in the recently published report for 2018, it wasn't a surprise that owner occupation is still the most predominant tenure, yet now more people own their home without a mortgage rather than having a mortgage as the number of people buying their first home (obviously with a mortgage) has declined since the Millennium. The report also shows homeowners (mortgaged and owned outright) are, on average, older than renters and between the homeowners themselves, those who are mortgage free are older than those with a mortgage.

Looking at the most recent data for Walsall, I wanted to see how we compared to the national picture. Therefore, focusing on the main 4 tenures of owned outright, owned with a mortgage, social housing (i.e. Council Housing and Housing Association) and private rented, this is what I found out...

Looking at the stats, you can see that home ownership in the Walsall council area as a whole (both owned and owned with a mortgage combined) is lower in the 16yo to 34yo age range compared to 35yo to 49yo, yet roll the clock back to the 1980s and opposite was the case.

So how many local homeowners have paid off their mortgage?

20.69% of Walsall homeowners are mortgage free, yet of the 16,298 households that are owned by 50yo to 64yo in Walsall, 54.33% of those people still have a mortgage.

As most people bought their first house in their early to mid 20's back in the 1980's, this shows that a lot of Walsall people including Walsall Estate Agents must have re-mortgaged in the past and extended their borrowings (otherwise they should have paid their mortgage off by now).

If you amalgamate the national historic ranges going back to 1977 (see the graph below "UK Households with a Mortgage by Age - 1977 to 2018" and note the age bands are slightly different to the recent local stats because they were carried out under different government departments), you will see the number of people who own a property with a mortgage has been dropping since the Millennium, yet nationally the number of people who own a property has remained roughly the same, even with the growth of the private rented sector.

Reports in the industry suggest that in the next ten years that will increase, as nearly 1 in 5 homeowners will be still paying off their mortgage after retirement. One of the reasons behind that will be the legacy of interest-only loans and delayed first-time buying as we become more and more like Germany in our house ownership models, where people naturally rent their homes until their 50's and then buy when they inherit money from their parents.

In the meantime, demand for Walsall rental properties with Walsall Letting Agents will only increase ... so good news for Walsall Buy to Let landlords and indirectly Walsall homeowners as well.

If you need advice on your buy-to-let property or you wish to learn how to create a sustained/ healthy portfolio which will always have tenant demand and a healthy future...get in touch. Or you may be seeking a second opinion on an investment you have in mind. Either way I'll always tell you what you need to hear rather than what you want to hear!

Email: salekm@ashmorelettings.co.uk

Phone: 01922 637672

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