Countrywide's Shares Dive As Profits Fall

Shares in Countrywide, the UK's largest estate agent group, lost 20% after it warned of tough times in the market. Countrywide, whose brands include Bairstow Eves and Gascoigne Pees, made a £208.1m after-tax loss in 2017, versus a £17.5m profit in 2016. said about 150 head office jobs would go. The firm has been hit by a slowdown in the housing market as well as the rise of online agents such as Purplebricks. But by the close, the shares had pulled back to stand 1.6% down. The profit figures were also dragged lower by one-off costs as Countrywide continued to restructure the business. Read more on the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43328796

‘Renters In For A Rough Ride’ In 2018

Rising rents and an increasing number of households renting meant that 2017 was a record year for rent, with the total rent bill rising to £1.8 billion, according to the latest figures from Countrywide. Meanwhile, ARLA Propertymark’s latest survey of its letting agents reveals that almost one in five (19%) tenants saw rents go up in January 2018 – as compared to 16% in December. The number of properties its letting agents managed dropped by 8% in January, with 185 properties per branch, compared with 200 in December 2017. Read more on the Moneywise website.

https://www.moneywise.co.uk/news/2018-02-23/renters-rough-ride-2018

UK Tenants Paid Record £50bn In Rents In 2017

The total amount of rent paid by tenants in Britain soared to more than £50bn in 2017, more than double the level of a decade ago, and may soon eclipse the entire sum paid out by homeowners for their mortgages. The figures, compiled by the UK’s biggest estate agency and mortgage broker, Countrywide, reveal the dramatic reshaping of the property market in recent years as home ownership levels have gone into reverse. Last year, tenants in Britain paid a record £51.6bn in rents, an increase of £1.8bn on the previous year and more than twice the £22.6bn shelled out in 2007. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/feb/12/uk-tenants-paid-record-50bn-in-rents-in-2017

Return Of The Accidental Landlord

Tens of thousands of homeowners have become accidental landlords in the last year, as homes in the notoriously expensive South East and London struggle to sell. Around 80,000 homes formerly for sale in the previous six months have come up in the rental market this year, research from estate agent Countrywide reveals. The decision by owners to keep hold of properties and let them, in order to move home, has come despite a tax crackdown on buy-to-let - and Countrywide said one in 12 homes available in the rental market has previously been up for sale. Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Landlord Numbers Down But Portfolio Sizes Are Up

The number of landlords has fallen over the last two years despite a rise in supply of homes available to rent, meaning the typical buy to let investor now has a larger portfolio than ever before.  Countrywide estimates that the number of landlords peaked at 3.72m in 2015 when there were some 171,000 fewer rented homes than today.  In 2017 there are just over 154,000 fewer landlords (3.56m in total) but the number of rented homes has increased from 4.9m in 2015 to 5.1m today.   Fewer landlords and more rental properties means the size of the average landlord’s portfolio is the biggest since Countrywide first recorded such information in 2005.  Read more on Letting Agent Today.

Brexit Is "Biggest Risk" To Housing Market

Countrywide has issued forecasts for the housing market over the next two years amidst a warning that Brexit volatility is the biggest risk to performance. It says house price growth will slow across all regions over the rest of 2017 and into the first half of 2018; there will be a recovery in growth rates beginning from mid-2018 and continuing into 2019 as wage growth returns. In the immediate term Countrywide warns that average house price growth in Britain will be 1.5 per cent in 2017 compared with 5.0 per cent in 2016.  Read more on Estate Agent Today.

UK Average Annual Rents Fall For First Time In Six Years

Rents in Britain have recorded their first annual drop for six years, according to the UK’s biggest estate and lettings agency. In February, the average rent in Britain was £921 a month, £5 lower than a year earlier, and the first annual decrease since 2011. Countrywide, which compiled the figures, said the buying frenzy ahead of the hike in stamp duty last year pushed up the supply of new homes for letting by 10%. Meanwhile tenant demand has been dropping, particularly in London, possibly related to Brexit. Read more on the Countrywide website.

Rents 'Rose At Slowest Rate For Seven Years’

Rents increased at their slowest pace in seven years in 2016, according to an index. Lettings network Countrywide said rents increased by 1.6% across Britain in 2016 to reach an average of £927 per month. The annual increase was around half that seen in 2015, when rents recorded a 3.1% uplift. last year also marked the slowest annual increase seen since 2009, when rents increased by 0.9%. The slowdown has been driven by an increase in the number of homes available to rent, with London seeing a particular increase in the choice of properties for tenants, Countrywide said. Read more on the Belfast Telegraph.

Cost Of Renting One-Bed Property Soars In UK

The cost of renting a one-bedroom property in the UK has risen to swallow almost half of the average young worker’s take-home pay, according to figures. The average cost of a new tenancy on a one-bedroom home hit £746 a month in May, taking up 48% of the take-home pay of a worker aged under 30, data from property firm Countrywide showed. Rising rents had outstripped growth in earnings to such an extent in the capital that since 2007 the proportion of take-home pay used to meet the cost had increased from 41% to 57%. The firm said tenants were responding to the higher costs by moving into house shares. Read more on the Guardian website.

Research Reveals The Rapid Growth Of The Private Rented Sector In The UK

Over two million homes have changed tenure in the last decade when taking into account all property sales between owner occupiers and landlords. Some 1,550,000 properties have gone from being lived in by their owner to being lived in by a tenant, while 550,000 have moved the other way, from the private rented sector into owner occupation. This has resulted in an extra million homes being occupied by a tenant rather than a home owner, equivalent to the number of households in the North East of England, says the research from property group Countrywide plc. Homes transferring from owner occupation into the private rented sector accounted for half of the growth in the number of privately rented homes over the same period. Most of the remaining growth in the private rented sector has come from landlords buying new build homes. Read more on the Property Wire website.

Buy-To-Let Landlords Snap Up A Million Homes

Buy-to-let landlords have driven a massive shift in the property market that has taken a million homes out of residential ownership in a decade. Since 2005, an extra one million homes are now occupied by a tenant rather than homeowner. Countrywide, which conducted the research, said amateur landlords and other property investors make formidable competition for those trying to buy a place of their own. Two million homes have changed tenure in the last decade, either switching from home owners to landlords or vice versa. The rapid growth of the private rented sector over the last 10 years means that one million homes occupied by the owner in 2005 are now owned by a landlord. Read more on the Introducer Today website.

Private Sector Rents Continue To Rise

More evidence has emerged of the rising pressure in both the private and social housing sectors, with data showing a further spike in rents. Reports from two UK property firms based on official statistics pointed to further pressures for people on low incomes. Data released by Countrywide, based on figures from the Valuation Office Agency, revealed that the average rents in the UK reached £937 per month in July were up 4.6% on a year ago. The biggest increases were in the capital where private rents increased by 6.8%, taking the average monthly cost to £2,583. Read more on 24dash.

Landlords Increasingly Look To Purchase Properties with Sitting Tenants

The proportion of properties bought by landlords with a sitting tenant has reached the highest level since 2005, according to Countrywide Residential Lettings, which analysed over 65,000 rental properties.  Last year 11% of all rental properties bought by a landlord came with a sitting tenant, a fourfold increase on 2008. Landlords are increasingly recognising the value of keeping a reliable, long term tenant and are prepared to reward them with longer contracts. Tenants in properties sold as occupied have lived in their home significantly longer than the average tenant: a quarter of these tenants signed contracts of two years or longer compared to just 5% of tenants overall. This means for a growing number of renters, the decision to sell by their landlord does not affect their living conditions. Read more on the Countrywide website.

Rents Rise As Tenant Numbers Outstrip Supply

The average rent paid by tenants in Britain increased by 2% in 2013 to £854 a month, according to property firm Countrywide.  Tenants have been squeezed by rising prices as those unable to access mortgages or raise the sums needed to buy a property have found themselves trapped in rented housing for longer, driving up demand for homes. It said the increase in rents was broadly in line with the 1.9% rise in the median full-time incomes reported by the Office for National Statistics. Read more on the Guardian website.

Rising Numbers of Over-50s Now Renting

Figures from lettings agency Countrywide reveals a significant increase in the number of tenants aged over 50 living in private rented accommodation. Between April and June, the report says that the rise in the number of over 50s renting properties in East of England and East Midlands was up three per cent year-on-year, followed by Wales and London up two per cent. The figures come as the Government's English Housing Survey shows that around one in three homeowners in England are pensioners and homeownership has dropped to its lowest level since the 1980s.  Read more on the Countrywide website.

'Nation of Renters' Warning from Estate Agency Chief

The chief executive of the UK's largest estate agent has renewed calls on the government to intervene in the housing market to prevent future generations being priced out of owning a home.  Grenville Turner, the head of Countrywide, said the UK could become a country of renters after a survey commissioned by the company found that almost half of 18- to 34-year-olds said difficulty raising a deposit was the biggest barrier to buying a property. The survey of 6,000 people found that of those respondents not moving home, 21% said the reason was inability to afford a deposit, 16% said they could not afford mortgage repayments, and 16% said barriers included moving costs, such as stamp duty.  Only 32% of private rental tenants said they were happy where they lived.  Read more on the Guardian website.