The last decade has seen the first rise in the percentage of households renting since 1918.

And while it’s true that the majority of tenants would like to own their home, a survey from Leeds city living specialist Morgans has found that a third say they prefer to rent and have no intention of ever climbing the slippery property ladder.

Admittedly the research was on a small scale, with 254 tenants being asked about their property aspirations, but the results were a little surprising, and may indicate  a change in the psyche of ‘generation rent’, perhaps reflecting a reduced stigma towards renting, or simply mass defeat in the face of high prices, stagnant wages, and hard-to-get mortgages.

Almost two thirds of the people surveyed who have no desire to buy a property said that they are put off by the commitment that property ownership brings, and the fact that they like having the freedom to move home at short notice.

A further 17% respondents said they can rent a better home, in a more upmarket location than they could afford as a buyer.

Jonathan Morgan, Managing Director of Morgans, says: “Buying homes and discussing property prices is a British tradition so we fully expected the majority of people to tell us that they want to buy their own bricks and mortar.  However the fact so many people are perfectly happy renting came as a surprise and shows that views about property ownership are changing.

“Until recently the private rented sector was predominantly the reserve of students and young professionals but nowadays all types of people are renting homes.  The number of households living in the private sector has more than doubled since the mid 90s and in the short-term this growth definitely looks set to continue.”

The house is on the market for £1.45 million

You need never miss the train again. That is, if the train you need is the Blaenau Ffestiniog to Llandudno Junction; but you’ll have to stick your hand out.

Located as a request stop on a single track country railway line, said to be ‘the least used station in Wales’, the former stationmaster’s home at  Roman Bridge station, Dolwyddelan, Conwy, is a unique property.

There are 12 daily trains to watch chugging past, or you could just sit back and enjoy the mountain views in the beautiful Snowdonia National Park.

And if you tire of trains and views, the property also comes with almost 10 acres of land with fishing rights to the nearby Afon Lledr river.

The property has been recently updated and comes with three bedrooms, underfloor heating and solar panels.

Station House is on the market for £450,000.

According to a survey of 3,214 current tenants, nearly 40% of who are trying to escape being part of today’s ‘Generation Rent’ could become home-buyers when the 95% Help to Buy scheme is implemented in January.

Why? because most despair of every having enough to save a deposit and therefore demand for the government’s mortgage support is likely to be substantial.

To back this up they note that nearly six in ten (58%) current tenants feel ‘trapped’ in their rental lifestyle, and of those currently saving towards deposits, the average savings represent just 11% of take-home pay.

The inability to dave is down to high rents, which account for 37% of take-home pay on average, and for at least 50% of take-home pay for 27% of tenants.

Rightmove director Miles Shipside can only see good in the Help to Buy scheme: “Demanding deposit hurdles have made the transition from tenant to first-time buyer challenging for many in recent years.

“Those who expect to make that move this year tell us that they’ve been working towards a deposit goal of £20,000, rising to £30,000 for those in London – figures that must seem daunting to even the most frugal tenant.

“Even for those who’ve been diligently saving, many are still left hoping that their lottery numbers come up or the Bank of Mum and Dad proves less picky with its lending than the High Street banks.

“However, the Government’s proposed new Help to Buy scheme could yet prove to be a ‘virtual windfall’ by lowering the deposit hurdle to 5%, providing much-needed assistance and motivation for Generation Rent.”

Help to Buy will introduce 95% mortgages on all housing stock – old and new – with the loans underwritten by a mortgage guarantee. The scheme is due to start next January 1.

Unsurprisingly, Rightmove seem to have no concerns about the impact of this on the market – the potential for another boom and bust or the scandalous encouragement being offered to struggling renters to take on significant debt (the 20% aditional Help is, after all, a loan) and offer few alternatives to the current housing market situation – such as more stock, reforms to the rental system, or letting the market find its level rather than propping it up with tax-payers money.

That’ll be why they have an enormous banner ad promoting Help to Buy on their front page.

If you want a home with a magnificent sea view and a tale or two to tell about the alcoholic enfant terrible of the 1940s and 50s literary scene, Majoda in New Quay, Wales, might be the house for you.

Dylan Thomas, together with his wife Caitlin and baby Aeronwy spent spent a year in the bungalow he called the ‘shack at the end of the cliff’ from September of 1944 through to the early summer of the next year.

It was while renting there that Thomas produced his radio play, ‘Quite Early One Morning’, which is seen as a prototype for ‘Under Milk Wood’.

But it was in one of the local pubs that one of the more dramatic incidents in his life began.

A hostile exchange of opinions on the war broke out between Dylan, his friends, and their neighbour, Captain William Killick, who had just arrived home from a misson behind enemy lines in Greece. The argument led to a fist fight, which was soon broken up.

However, that wasn’t enough for Killick, who suspected that a menage a trois had been going on while he was away at war. He went home and took out a machine gun and granade and attacked Majoda, resulting in him being tried for attempted murder.

Apparently all traces of bullet holes have now been removed as, in our opinion, has most of the charm of the property.

In fact when the story was made into a Hollywood film, The Edge of Love starring Keira Knightly, Sienna Miller and Matthew Rhys, they actually had to build a full-size mock-up of the house in the field next-door.

The property does, however, still have the stunning setting which first attracted Thomas.

However, prime London homes for US-dollar denominated buyers are currently 11% below their 2008 level.

A similar point is made by Gary Hersham of Beauchamp Estates. Singaporean buyers, he says, are being drawn to the London market by an exchange rate that makes central London properties 10% cheaper than five years ago

Overseas buyers, says Knight Frank, accounted for 52% of all £2m+ homes sold in prime central London (PCL) between March 2012 and March 2013, and the agent is predicting that over the next five years US$ denominated buyers will continue to see a significant discount on London property.

Liam Bailey, Global Head of Residential Research, says:

The key issue which has propelled London prices over recent years has been an appetite from global purchasers for tangible investments. Add in ultra-low interest rates, together with the fact that not only is London outside the Eurozone but that the pound is weak, and you have the perfect ingredients for that heady cocktail – “the safe haven investment.”

Prime central London property prices are expected to increase by a further 26% in sterling terms between March 2013 and March 2018. However, property values will increase at a much slower rate over that same time for the majority of international buyers.

For US dollar-denominated buyers for example, prices are expected to increase by 15% over this period. By 2018, our calculations show that prices in US dollars will be just 6% higher than the previous market peak in 2008.

Click pic for full-sized image 

source: Knight Frank

source: beauchamp estates

With views of the Empire State Building…

A few lucky former tenants will soon be moving into luxury new apartments in the East Village, New York with a rental value of as much as $10,000 a month.

And the price of buying their new home will be just ten dollars.

Here’s the story.

The original property, named Mars Bar, but described in the press as a “superdive”, was scheduled for demolition a few years ago after its tenants cooked up a plan to buy it and build new apartments on the site themselves.

Pic via http://evgrieve.com

But the neighbouring building was also being redeveloped, and the developer, Donald Capocci, bought the rights to both properties.

And this is where it gets good.

As he was obliged to provide 20% of the homes within an Inclusionary Zoning Program, he decided to go one better and, in a fit of Hollywood-style generosity, he offered nine of the flats to former long-term residents for under a tenner.

With their walnut flooring, rooftop terrace and wet bar, the new apartments will be quite an upgrade for the residents, most of whom lived for many years in the graffiti-scarred dive among the drug addicts in what the Wall Street Journal says used to be ‘a derelict slice of the East Village.’

It is understood that most of the lucky new owners are delighted, though 83-year-old John Vaccarro, who moved into the building ‘when no one would’, has been reported as grumbling, ‘I liked what I had.’

The pagan-cult island of Summerisle in cult movie The Wicker Man (filmed 1973) is thought by some film critics to be set in this archipelago, although the movie itself was filmed in Galloway and Skye.

The current owners, the Wilder family, bought the island in 1996 and have been resident ever since.

The place is currently managed by their daughter Lizzie and her husband Richard Williams. Their ethos in managing Tanera Mòr has been that of minimising interference with the natural ecology whilst using its existing assets to create a successful tourism business.

Lizzie Williams said: “After many happy years of calling Tanera home, it is time for someone else to have the privilege of looking after this amazing place. We greatly appreciate the effort made by the local Coigach community to consider the opportunity of taking on Tanera and we fully understand their reasons for deciding not to. We hope that whoever owns the island in the future will enjoy the same warm and co-operative relationship with the community that we have for the past 17 years.”

So what does the buyer get? Tanera Mòr is, says the agent:

a flourishing tourist enterprise and superb family residence. The principal house – The Old School House – boasts breathtaking views over the sheltered Anchorage and magnificent mountains of the mainland.

Over the past 15 years the Wilder family have undertaken a woodland regeneration project, planting over 164,000 native trees. This combined with the use of selective livestock grazing has created lush green pockets across the island, encouraging wildlife to thrive.

The established holiday letting business, comprising six properties (with the potential to add a further two properties) has been expanded in recent years to include residential creative and active courses. In addition there is a Royal Yachting Association recognised sailing school which operates throughout the summer months.

The Café and Post Office operate from a former boathouse and are open for seasonal daily visits by tourist boats from Ullapool and Achiltibuie as well as cruise boats, yachts and sea kayakers. The Summer Isles Post Office located on Tanera Mòr is notable for issuing its own postage stamps, with this year’s new edition released on May 9th.

Their figures show that in Q4 2012, 41% of their tenants were European and a further 18% were from the US.

Properties most in demand were priced between £750 and £3,000 per week, and there was, they say “a shift towards 20- to 30-somethings searching for one- to three-bedroom flats.

Zoë Rose, Head of London Lettings, predicts more rental stock will become available as the year progresses and warns landlords (who on their books own an average of 12 properties) that the competition has increased:

 ‘In the heyday of the boom, letting property that wasn’t up to standard still managed to attract decent rent, but it’s not like that now. Anything in really good condition ‘simply flies off the shelves’, while properties that look tired often take longer to find a tenant.

‘This is probably the last asset for many that is still reaping reasonable returns, so spend some surplus funds to give it a lift rather than squeezing it dry. If you’re not prepared to part with any funds to upgrade your property, then you need to be open-minded on offers that you receive.’

Their figures show that average property prices within a 10-minute walk of the central Crossrail stations have risen by 30% since 2008, outperforming the prime central London market by 8% over that time.

Over the next five years, the price of a billet within a central station ‘walkzone’ (within 10-minute walk) is expected to outperform the prime central London market average by 1.2% per annum. That amounts to an average 40% rise in prices between 2013 and the end of 2018

Housing in Farringdon and Tottenham Court Road will see the largest uplift – values will rise by an additional 1.5% per year over and above the growth expected in prime central London prices to give a total increase of 43% in the next five years.

Gráinne Gilmore, head of Knight Frank UK Residential Research, says: “Crossrail will increase London’s rail capacity by 10% when it opens – the most significant upgrade in rail travel across the Capital since the Second World War. Crossrail has already had an impact on property prices around the central stations we have examined, and we expect this outperformance to continue.

“The biggest beneficiaries will be Tottenham Court Road and Farringdon, although for quite different reasons. The area around Tottenham Court Road station is set to be transformed by the new developments planned by Crossrail, giving the junction with Oxford Street a much needed facelift.

“Meanwhile Farringdon will become one of the biggest transport hubs in London, linking the East/West Crossrail route to the North/South Thameslink service and making it a very attractive destination for homebuyers who want to be able to reach most corners of the Capital quickly.”

http://my.knightfrank.com/research-reports/crossrail.aspx