Welcome back to the TrackCapital weekly news round-up. I hope you’re having a great week.
Here at Track Capital, we’ve been building a webinar covering the exclusive benefits of our new Manchester development. We’ve had a great time working with exclusive units from the developer – offering something truly unique is part of the service we pride ourselves on.
We love ‘doing property investment well’, and working with freehold properties offers a particular kind of long-term return we love to see.
Manchester’s long-term investment future has been a major research point with updates to energy efficiency compliance, ongoing regeneration, and declining interest rates marking a return to market strength.
Demand for private rental is going up, and off-plan investments are positioned to answer the call for new, bullish property investors in the buy-to-let space.
Here are some of the main news headlines behind these big market movements…
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The UK Government must deliver an average of 67,500 new homes per quarter to reach its goal of one million new homes by the end of Parliament. Analysis by Stripe Property Group reveals that this target is unlikely to be met, as the best quarterly performance to date has only reached 51,370 homes.
In the three and a half years since the current Government took power, just 594,805 new homes have been delivered. Plans to build on brownfield land have been announced, but sceptics, including James Forrester of Stripe, doubt the promise will be fulfilled.
Property news this week:
EPC is a major investment focus: Energy efficiency takes centre stage, with Searchland showing investors save up to £28,000 by improving their EPC rating. Each band increases total savings, with moving from F to C saving up to 15% of property value. This is especially hot right now, as government legislation may mandate EPC improvements by 2028 – getting ahead seems to pay off for everyone.
Fixed rate cuts in major banks: In a move that is music to the ears of investors, Halifax, HSBC, and multiple specialist lenders have cut rates. Cuts to fixed rates top out at 0.71% from Halifax, signalling a potential wind-change for the market after multi-decade highs. Hopes remain high that this will continue to decline as the market adjusts towards a more sustainable interest rate.
London’s creeping rents continue: despite poor Growth margins, London rents have reached an average £2,500pcm. This raises the question of future patterns, with poor wage support for these prices. This only reinforces market strength for non-London markets such as Manchester and Liverpool. Local government has committed £4.9 billion to lower rent prices, but change may be slow.
Government called on to boost PRS: the Private Rental Sector’s recent has seen an exodus of private landlords – 70,000 since 2022. Driven by secondary market prices and interest rate hikes (which are now declining), PRS supply remains low, accounting for only 19% of all households. This is a prime signal for off-plan buy-to-let investors, however, avoiding secondary market price hikes and the compliance costs of MEES (newbuilds continue to surge in value with this ‘new stock’ saving).
That’s all of this week’s most important news. If you’ve got any comments or questions about any of these headlines, hit reply and we can go over the details, implications, or your thoughts.
Otherwise, I’ll see you next week for your property market round-up. Have a great weekend!
Tobi Mancuso
Director, Track Capital
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