The share of Brits moving each year has been declining since
the late 1980s (when at one stage, people moved every eight years), yet since the
pandemic’s beginning, something has appeared to upset that trend.
Newspaper stories and social media posts painted a picture
of homeowners moving from the city centres to its suburbs, from the suburbs to
the towns and countryside around the UK. Areas like the Cotswolds and coastal
towns around the country got swamped by the ‘race for space’, significantly
affecting housing markets (including Neath).
But how many Brits moved? And how long had they been in
their homes before they moved?
In Great Britain, there are 28.3 million households, of
which 19.3 million are owner-occupied and 4.43m owned by private buy-to-let landlords.
There is £7,035 trillion of residential property in
private hands.
Eight years before the initial lockdown in 2020, an average
of 79,646 properties were sold each month in the UK, meaning just under a
million UK households move home annually.
Therefore, in those 8 years, the average British homeowner moved every 20 years and 4 months.
So, what uplift was there in people moving home after the
first lockdown in 2020?
In 2021 and early 2022, an average of 102,021 people moved
home monthly, taking the average move time to once every 16 years. So even
though there was an uplift in people moving home, it was nothing like the
1980s.
It shows that in the 21st Century, once you have
succeeded in buying a property you can call home, there isn’t much enthusiasm
to move again.
What is happening in the Neath property market now?
We love our homes in Neath, but most of you (including
myself) still want to ‘better our lives’ with a larger house, better area etc.,
which typically requires us to climb up the Neath property ladder.
Yet, with Neath house prices having risen by 360.8% in the last 25
years, the cost of going up the next rung on the Neath property ladder has
become prohibitive.
Everyone remembers back to the 1980s, when we had an upbeat
booming property market as a backdrop, and British homeowners moved home every
eight years; so now, with the average move time in the mid to late teens (in years),
this equates to each homeowner only moving around three to four times in their
adult lifetime.
Or could it be something else?
We all know the phrase, “lies, damn lies and
statistics”.
The home moving statistics above hide some great details
about the British property market.
When British homeowners get into their 50s, 60s and beyond,
their inclination to move home drops like the proverbial stone.
The average time a homeowner without a mortgage moves
home is 24 years and 27 weeks (and just over 7 out of 10 outright
homeowners, i.e. without a mortgage, are 65 or older).
Homeowners with a mortgage tend to be younger to
middle-aged.
Homeowners with a mortgage move on average every 10 years and 11 weeks.
So, whilst I cannot determine which house seller has a
mortgage and which doesn’t, I can look at how quickly people move home in Neath.
Therefore, I have taken a look at the last 50 property sales
in Neath and found some interesting results.
The average Neath homeowner had only been in their home on average 16 years and 12 weeks before they sold.
Yet the devil is in the detail.
There appears to be a two-speed Neath property market …
50% of Neath house sellers in 2022 had only been in their old home on average 8 years and 2 weeks.
Then, let’s split the findings into quarters.
- Top 25% fastest Neath homeowners in
2022 moved on average after 4 years & 17 weeks - The following 25% of fastest Neath homeowners
in 2022 moved on average after 11 years & 24 weeks - The next 25% of Neath homeowners in
2022 moved on average after 21 years & 34 weeks - Whilst the 25%
slowest Neath homeowners in 2022 moved on average after 27 years & 0 weeks
When looking at the properties that fall into the slower
time bands (i.e. the ones that don’t move/sell so often), they tend to be the
larger properties where the homeowners have lived often for 30 or 40 years.
Maybe, the one lesson from these statistics is that once homeowners
get into their 60’s and 70’s, their tendency and inclination to move home declines
significantly.
This means the homes on the lower rungs of the Neath
property ladder are selling quickly (as younger aged homeowners occupy them) …
yet once Neath people tend to get older, their tendency to move diminishes.
This obstructs the younger generation of Neath homeowners
from wanting to buy the bigger Neath properties these mature Neath homeowners
live in.
What is holding the older generation back from selling and downsizing
to free up family homes for families that desperately need them? Some will be
apathy, and some will be wanting to hold on to the homes they brought their
families up in, yet the bottom line is …
As a country, we must reconsider how we can encourage (not force) older homeowners to sell their large homes to release them to the younger families that desperately need them.
Some recent articles I have written suggested tax breaks,
yet the government doesn’t have the money to give massive tax breaks.
One thing I do know we, as a country, have seen (and will
continue to see) a lot of demographic change together with an increasingly ageing
population, so it’s not just about how many households we build but whether we are
constructing the right kind of homes for the older generation?
Thought-provoking times are ahead for the Neath property
market!
If you have a Neath property to sell in the coming months or years and want to know how this and other factors will affect you and your property … without obligation, speak to our award-winning property experts today!
