Jim Spencer's take on Sheffield Housing History...
"I started in estate agency in 1971, after the market had
trundled along steadily since the Second World War in fairly unspectacular
fashion. Almost immediately a boom occurred and prices doubled in around two
years, due partly to a shortage of stock, and partly to major company moves in
the 70s, Sheffield benefitting from the influx from the main offices of the
Midland Bank (now HSBC) and Manpower Services, both of which were poorly
handled by those organisations with employees fighting each other for the same
properties. Their staff were, of course, provided with in-house finance whereas
other buyers in the market place needed Building Society loans, as the High
Street banks were not major providers of finance in the 70s and 80s.
"Building Societies were mutual institutions and needed funds
from savers to be able to lend, hence interest rates soared to 15% in the 80s,
and mortgage queues formed which required a minimum 10% deposit to be held by
the Society for 12 months before you could apply for a loan! A maximum loan of
3.5 times one income was applied, with a further once times a partners income
if they were in full time employment.
"The reason I illustrate this point is to show how different
it became in the 90's and onward, when the major banks entered the game
and started to loan 5/6 times income at rates of up to 125% loan to
value. Such stupidity was bound to end in tears, hence the market crash from
2007 onwards.
"During the boom of the early 2000's first time buyers were given
mortgages often without proper investigation into their credentials, and much
poor quality lending resulted. Complaints today that mortgage finance is not
easily available is understandable, but when compared to the 1980's, ftb's can
hardly complain. There are now government backed packages to help, but with a
present shortage of houses for sale, this could lead once more to rapid
increase in value, which has already been seen in the South East, but less so
in the North.
"The other side to the equation is housing supply, and in
this respect our national efforts to provide new homes has been abysmal,
slumping under the last Government to record low new house starts since the
1920's, and hardly helped since. The housing market has been lightly managed by
successive governments, using a number of housing ministers who have failed
miserably to improve the supply position. Hence our problem today, with easier
finance chasing too few properties, and the prospect of increased prices whilst
incomes have had to be curbed since the financial mess left by the Labour Party
in 2010. As supply cannot be easily increased, the situation is almost certain
to get worse before it gets better and needs a rapid release of potential
building land in the right areas, building attractive properties, at affordable
prices. All this has been beyond the wit of politicians in the recent past, and
there are few signs the situation will improve in the immediate future. What we
do not need is a mass of City Centre flats in "brownfield" locations
as were built in the 2000-2007 period, without consideration for the public
demand. We also give far too much credence to local nimbies who hold up vital
planning decisions for purely personal interest. This cannot be allowed to
continue if the British Isles is to provide
for the large number of people who now need to be housed in the limited space
available. It needs careful management, and planning needs to be taken away
from local politicians with vested interests if we are to meet the demands of
the future.
"Having lived through over 40 years of boom and bust in
housing, it is time we provided some sensible long term management for such a
valuable economic factor, and achieved some measure of stability.
"At present we have too few good quality properties to rent
or buy, and rents have been rising steadily for over two years. Affordable
housing policy is none existent for rental properties, and there are few signs
of this changing. Many rental houses and flats are in poor condition, and often
badly managed by landlords and unregistered agents, despite the efforts of the
property industry, which continually pleads to successive governments for a
level of licensing control, but get ignored.
"The sales market gets little help from Central Government
either, requests for changes in Stamp Duty Land Tax, among other issues, being
repeatedly ignored, despite the ludicrous way it is currently constructed.
"As things stand I can see little change in the future, with
buyers and tenants fighting for acceptable properties whilst those in control
of the property industry fiddle. Consequently it is more important than ever to
obtain good quality professional advice from qualified or registered people to
safeguard what is still a person’s main personal investment in most cases."
