The Sunday Times - UK (2021-11-28)

The Sunday Times November 28, 2021 3

and cities fled to stay with

family or rent in the

countryside to escape an

urban lockdown. As more

employers have allowed

flexible working, many of

them have chosen to stay.

Meanwhile, some city

homeowners have sold and

sought a new life in the

country, only to find that

there’s little suitable to buy,

so they sit in rentals, waiting

for their time to strike.

Meanwhile, landlords,

tempted by soaraway

property prices during the

pandemic, have sold or

switched from long-term

letting to short-let platforms

such as Airbnb to capitalise

on the staycation boom.

Rightmove estimated

that there were 47,000

fewer long-term rental

properties available in

Britain this summer

compared with last.

The shortage of rentals

in most places is pushing

rents up at their fastest

pace since 2008, according

to Zoopla. The average UK

monthly rent was sitting at

£968 in September, 4.6 per

cent higher than the year

before and marking the

strongest growth in 13 years.

Once London is taken out

of the picture, rents in the

UK are up 6 per cent

annually, a 14-year high.

So if lifestyle relocaters

are there to stay, there will

need to be some serious

investment in rentals

outside towns and cities, or

a crackdown on short-term

lets, to make sure people on

middling incomes priced

out of homeownership

aren’t also priced out of

renting in these places.

MARKET WATCH

5.5

110%

UK average

house price to

earnings ratio

Percentage of

average salary

needed for 20%

deposit

Source: Nationwide affordability special, Nov 2021

GETTING STARTED

E Mids 8.4

W Mids 8.5 Scotland 5.9

E Anglia 9.5 North 5.9

S West 10.9 Yorks 6.8

Outer SE 11.1 N West 7.1

Outer Met 12.4 N Ireland 7.6

London 15.8 Wales 7. 8

Years to save a 20% deposit

HAS COVID FINISHED OFF

THE RENTAL MARKET?

MELISSA

YORK

@melyork

I

f you are looking to buy,

there still isn’t much out

there, but if you are

looking to rent, it’s even

worse. Across England

there are 614,546

properties listed on the

property portals Rightmove

and Zoopla; 82 per cent of

them are for sale, with the

remaining 18 per cent to let.

The analysis by the

Birmingham-based lettings

agency Barrows and

Forrester shows how the

pandemic has polarised the

housing market over the

past 18 months. “The

property sales market does

account for the majority of

market activity across the

nation and so the current

landscape certainly favours

homebuyers over those

looking to rent,” James

Forrester, the managing

director, says.

In some parts of the

country, notably in rural and

coastal holiday hotspots,

almost all the properties

listed are for sale, rather

than to let. On the Isle of

Wight properties for sale

make up 96 per cent of the

homes on the market.

It’s a similar story in

Cornwall, where those

for sale account for 95

per cent of today’s market.

In Northamptonshire,

Rutland, Shropshire and

Norfolk it is much the same.

At the start of the

pandemic renters in towns

AT A GLANCE

£1.1M

NESTA PROPERTY MARKETING

OXFORDSHIRE

An elegant three-bedroom home in Deddington village.

Built of Hornton stone, it’s grade II listed with twelve-pane

sash windows, high ceilings and a south-facing courtyard

garden. 01295 228 000, savills.co.uk

DORSET

This is an imaginatively restored Regency vicarage with

Victorian extensions in Bridport. It has seven bedrooms

and an attic annexe tucked away down a no-through road.

01935 810 062, knightfrank.co.uk

SHROPSHIRE

Dating to the 15th century, this farmhouse in Dudleston

has six double bedrooms. The eight-acre grounds have

stabling, outbuildings and a swimming pool. It’s a short

drive from Ellesmere. 01743 664202, knightfrank.co.uk

WARWICKSHIRE

High ceilings and porthole windows in the eves add even

more character to this three-bedroom barn conversion

close to Kenilworth golf club and the University of

Warwick. 07880 731580, mrandmrsclarke.com

WEST YORKSHIRE

This restored, double-fronted Victorian home in Yeadon is

only a half-hour drive from the centre of Leeds. It has five

bedrooms and gardens with countryside views.

01132 029 923, hunters.com

OXFORDSHIRE

A charming four-bedroom Cotswold stone cottage near

Chipping Norton, with a wealth of period features, a long

garden behind and a cellar for wine lovers.

01865 264 879, knightfrank.co.uk

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

Kick back in the glazed orangery, then go for a dip in the

30ft heated swimming pool of this two-bedroom

characterful cottage in Long Crendon, a 20-minute drive

from Aylesbury. 01844 212004, fishergerman.co.uk

OXFORDSHIRE

A pretty front garden leads up to a bucolic, detached

three-bedroom Cotswold stone cottage on the southern

side of the Windrush Valley in the hamlet of Little Minster.

01865 566 835, carterjonas.co.uk

£600,000

£800,000 £875,000

£695,000 £749,950

£825,000 £895,000