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Wednesday 22 November 2017

The Maidstone House Price Index - 159.94


I had the most interesting conversation the other day with a local Maidstone accountant, who asked me about my articles on the Maidstone property market. It was quite humbling to be given praise by such a professional, when he commented enthusiastically on the articles I write. He was particularly interested with the graphs, facts and figures contained within them – so much so he recommended his clients read them, as most of them were either Maidstone homeowners, Maidstone landlords and a lot of the time - both. However, one question that kept me on my toes was, “With so many House-Price-Indices, how do you know which one to use and how can you calculate what is exactly happening in Maidstone?

To start with, there are indeed a great number of these Indices, including the Land Registry, Office of National Stats, Halifax, Nationwide and LSL to name but a few. The issue occurs when these different house price indices give diverse pictures of the state of the UK housing market. Whilst some indices measure the average value of every property in the UK (sold or unsold), others measure the average ‘price-paid’ of houses that happen to be sold over a fixed time scale… confusing isn’t it!

A lot of the variance between house price indices occurs because of the distinctive ways in which the numerous indices endeavour to beat these issues. You see, the biggest problem in creating a house-price-index when comparing and contrasting with most other indexes (e.g. inflation where the price a ubiquitous tin of Beans can easily be measured over the months and years), is every home is unique and as Maidstone people are only moving every 14.5 years, it appears the only thing that can be measured is the price of property sold in a given month.
By their very nature, all of the indices are only able to paint a picture of the whole of the UK or, at best, the regional housing market. As I have said many times in my articles on the Maidstone property market, it is important to look to the medium term when considering house price inflation/deflation. Looking at the month-to-month jumps, many indices look like one of those jumpy lie-detector needles you see in the cold war movies! 
I can guarantee you in the coming few months, on a month-by-month basis, one or more of the indices will say property prices will have dropped. Let me tell you, no property market indices are representative of the housing market in the short term. Many indices have shown a drop around the Christmas and New Year months, even the boom years of 2001 to 2007 and 2013 to 2015.

So, back to the question, how do we work out what is happening in the Maidstone Property Market and can there be a Maidstone House Price Index?
To calculate what I consider is a fair and proper House Price Index for Maidstone, I initially needed to decide on a starting place for the index. I have chosen 2008 as far enough away, but still gives us a medium/long term view. Next, I split all the house sales into their types (Detached/Semi/House /Apartment) to give us an indication of what is actually selling by postcode district. So, for example, below is a table for the ME15 postcode district (the sample shows 2008, 2016 and 2017.



Then I look at the actual numbers of properties sold in the ME15 postcode district. Below is the graph with the numbers for the years already mentioned.


Next, I have looked at the prices paid for those types for every year since 2008, again in this example using the sample years of 2008, 2016 and 2017 for the ME15 postcode.


Finally, I amalgamated the same data points for the other postcode districts covered by Maidstone and the surrounding villages, weighted it accordingly, to produce the Maidstone House Price Index ... which after all that work, currently stands at for Q4 2017 at 159.94 (Q4 2008 = 100).

I hope you found that of interest and over the coming months and seasons, I shall refer back to Maidstone House Price Index in my Maidstone Property Blog www.maidstonepropertyblog.blogspot.co.uk  to give you a flavour of what is really happening in the Maidstone Property Market.

** If you are a vendor looking to sell or a Landlord looking to rent.  If you are a buyer looking to purchase a home or you are looking to rent a property you need to talk to us. **

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Monday 6 November 2017

Maidstone Property Market - But to Let


I see many new and experienced Buy- to -Let Landlords .They come from all walks of life. Some have just one property others many more. One of our landlords has 24 but he started with just one ! 

Our landlords often think of themselves as simply typical landlords but there are so many different types. There are portfolio landlords with a great wealth of experience, we have new landlords who have had some cash to invest. There are’ accidental landlords ‘ who have inherited a property or have moved elsewhere, couldn’t sell and now decided to keep their property as part of their pension scheme.

I have worked in the lettings business for many years and it is important for me to understand the individual needs of each type of landlord as it can change how they want to let their property-the approach to maintenance and the type of tenant required.

As an Independent Family Firm we can tailor what we do to achieve that perfect relationship and get the most from your investment. Many of our clients have been with us for many years .

We produce a fortnightly blog on the Maidstone Property Market – please subscribe by visiting http://maidstonepropertyblog.blogspot.co.uk/ 

Thinking of Selling please visit our web site ww.seekershomes.co.uk and download our selling guide

Now some important Information :                       

MONDAY NOVEMBER 20 TH
                                                                             
BUY-TO-LET SEMINAR

SPEAKER : CHRIS WATKINS PROPERTY JOURNALIST

THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE MAIDSTONE PROPERTY MARKET

5.30 pm for 6pm VILLAGE HOTEL MAIDSTONE ( JUNCT 6 M20)

See you there !