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Locally, the value of property in Rutland and the number of people moving remain largely steady overall, although looking across at the different regions, there are certainly regional variations.  Talking to fellow property professionals in the upmarket central London areas of Mayfair and Kensington, the number of people looking to buy is beginning to climb after 18 months spent in the doldrums, whilst in other parts of the UK, there is restraint amongst both buyers and sellers in some areas.

The things that affect the national property market are the big economic numbers. Nationally, over the last few months, thankfully, the economic forecast and predictions have improved, notwithstanding the Brexit uncertainties. Inflation has mercifully throttled back its high growth seen in 2016 to the current level of 2.1% (from 2.7% average last year), coupled with marginally stronger wage growth at 2.5%.  Unemployment is at a 42-year low at 4.2% and UK consumer spending power rose to an all-time high last month to £331.04bn – all positives for consumer sentiment.

Look further afield, a resilient property market depends on the UK's economic health with the outside world, so if GBP Sterling weakens that makes imports more expensive, meaning inflation increases and interest rates could be raised to bring inflation under control, which in turn could seriously affect the property market.

On the assumption Brexit negotiations are successful, economic growth should continue to be upward and positive, meaning confidence would be increased - which is the vital element to a good housing market.

Rutland landlords and homeowners might be interested in the how the regional and Rutland markets have performed over the last 20 years (compared to the National picture).  


 

Regionally, the East Midlands has outperformed the Rutland housing market by 4%, but nationally, Rutland has actually outperformed the country by 2.92%.  That means a Rutland homeowner has profited by an additional £9,865 over the last 20 years compared to the average homeowners across the country.

House prices going up or down are only an issue when you sell or buy.  In the last 12 months, only 1,076,288 (let’s call it’s a straight million between friends!) properties changed hands out of 27.2 million households in the UK, meaning only 3.7% would have been affected if property values had dropped in the last year.

Property values in Rutland are 252.59% higher than the summer of 1998, yet this has been a long-term gain in a long-term game.  The biggest issue in property isn’t house values or prices, it’s the number of homes built, because the number of households nationally has only increased by 6% since 2007, whilst the population has grown by 7.6%. That doesn’t sound a lot, until you express it another way…

If the UK population had had only grown by the same percentage as the percentage growth in UK households in the last decade, there would be 1,000,000 less people living in the UK today.