The first phase includes developing the St David’s site into retail and residential accommodation, with office spaces and even a cinema. On the other side of Oystermouth Road, a 3,500 seat area will be built on the existing car park beside the LC Leisure Centre, along with a 13-story residential block or hotel.

The second phase involves demolishing the Civic Centre and creating a ‘City Beach’, which would also include an aquarium and digital science centre.

Supply and Demand

In the short term, newly built city centre apartments may drive rents down as tenants choose to live in the newest of properties.This is a trend we see with every new phase of developments being completed, (Copper Quarter, Fisherman’s Way, etc), but once all of the flats are occupied and supply levels normalize, then rents stabilise too.

Comparable Markets 

Swansea Marina apartments have seen a huge uplift in asking rents over the past 5 years, driven mainly by the foreign student market where an average salary is &1900 per month. Rents in this area are typically around &850pcm, but for apartments with sea views, they can go up to &1,200, showing how much demand there is at the moment, with the redevelopment just beginning.

The average rent according to Zoopla for a 2 bedroom Swansea Marina apartment is &788pcm; the most expensive currently available is &2000pcm, and the cheapest &625pcm.*

Check out this immaculate 2 double bedroom apartment on the promenade (Fisherman’s Way): click here to view the brochure.

Student Driven Market

As long as the universities carry on having strong ties to the overseas students, the demand for high end accommodation will be there. Brexit concerns have already deterred EU students from the UK education system, but there are wealthy countries that still see Swansea University as the place to be for their students.

A Boost for the Region

Ultimately, regeneration of Swansea City Centre has to be a priority if we want to see economic growth; more investment will mean more jobs, better pay, and more demand for quality housing as demand to live in a ‘City Beach’ increases.

If you are planning to invest in Swansea ahead of the regeneration, or have a property already available to let, why not give us a call to discuss your requirements on 01792 430100, or email me at [email protected]. 

Source: Zoopla

Related: Swansea regeneration set to boost rental demand

*correct at 13/06/2017, according to Zoopla

It's safe to say that the Conservatives' decision to hold a snap election well and truly backfired - the results of which are a hung parliament, embarrassing coalition with DUP and thanks to Gavin Barwell losing his seat, we now have the 15th Housing Minister in 17 years.

New Housing Minister

The new Housing Minister is Alok Sharma. Taking over from Gavin Barwell who lost his Croyden seat, he is our 6th Housing Minister since 2010 (15th since 2000), and this high turnover doesn't bode well.

Mr Sharma, MP for Reading West, is faced with an almighty task of reigning in the housing crisis. Critics are bewildered that his position hasn't now been made ministerial due to the severity of the crisis, and that yet another Housing Minister has been appointed without any suitable expertise or experience for the job. 

Every party has made a claim to build (8,000/10,000/20,000) homes by 2020, but none have provided any real logistical or financial explanation as to how their target will be achieved.

Mr Sharma trained as an accountant and later worked as a banker for 16 years. His biggest achievement for his constituency so far was to oppose and help fight off a proposed 750 home scheme.

It is questionable how any positive progress can be made when the turnover of Housing Ministers is so high. Let's hope though Mr Sharma is able to make a positive contribution over the next few years. 

What is in the DUP’s Housing Manifesto?

With an informal coalition now confirmed with the DUP, what ideas could they bring to the table? The DUP’s Housing Manifesto would of course have been written without even an inkling of a coalition with the Conservatives in mind. It may however influence what comes next in our housing crisis.

Amongst other things, the DUP's manifesto claims they aim to ‘drive up standards’ in the rental market by buying up private landlords’ portfolios and introducing a bulk-renting scheme, reintroduce  the ‘living over the shops’ scheme, and increase investment in new social and affordable housing in order to be able to build 8,000 new homes by 2020. More on their manifesto can be found here.

Less Legislation?

Yet another coalition, even with the DUP’s support for legislation changes, does make it very difficult for the Conservatives to get through all the laws that they previously were hoping to get through, so we could see a watered-down manifesto going forward.

We've witnessed a number of Conservative-led attacks on the Private Rented Sector in recent years, but as we are expecting the focus to be on negotiating a successful Brexit now (rather than on private landlords), we may be about to experience a 'legislation-light' Parliament. However;

The Queen's Speech

The draft Tenants’ Fees Bill was a definite point in the Queen's Speech and is firmly set to go ahead in England. With Scotland already having a fee ban in place for a few years now, it backs the Welsh Government into a corner and they will also have to bring in a ban at some point.

The Tenants’ Fees Bill will mean tenants will not have to pay fees to letting agents and, in a surprise addition, will also limit deposit amounts to one month's rent.

The Government decided to bring in a full ban due to a minority of letting agents who exploit tenants with excessive fees at the outset and when renewing tenancies. They feel that by removing the temptation to have shorter tenancies (and thus to have more renewal fees), agents and landlords will encourage tenancies to become longer. The ban should also help tenants save for a deposit to buy their own home. 

Currently, deposits in England are the equivalent of 6 weeks' rent, a figure designed to protect the landlords in the unfortunately common circumstance where the tenant fails to pay the last month's rent as well as leaves the property in poor condition. Limiting this to just one month will undoubtedly raise concerns in the Private Rented Sector. 

The draft bill is expected to be published later this year.

Sources: Property 118 / Property Industry Eye on Appointment of New Housing Minister / Property Industry Eye on Naming New Housing Minister / PainSmith

Related: General Election 2017 - Housing Manifesto Round Up

Hannah McCartan, MD of McCartan Lettings in Killay, celebrates being a finalist in the category of Female Entrepreneur of the Year at this year’s prestigious South Wales Business Awards.

The South Wales Business Awards, now in their 10th year, highlight the very best of businesses across the South Wales region.

The awards organiser, Wesley Skene, comments “WS Marketing is delighted to announce the nominees for the Female Entrepreneur of the Year. Each year, the standard and number of applications rises. 2017 has broken all records for applications across all categories.”

“Every nominee is a truly outstanding business and one of the leading lights of the South Wales Business Community.”

Hannah’s nomination came not only from her success as the Managing Director of an already multi award-winning letting agency, McCartan Lettings, but also the opportunities she has created to grow her own buy-to-let property portfolio and be mortgage-free on her own home within 5 years.

Last year, she also started her own family, and so made the bold move to restructure the company to ensure she could continue to lead the team and drive the business forward, and at the same time spend time with her new baby. The restructure took 6 months to plan, and meant training and empowering her team so that she could delegate many of her day-to-day tasks to them.

Since then, the company has gone from strength to strength, and she is now able to focus more on her weekly blogs and monthly property newsletter, helping landlords in Swansea to get the most from their property investments.

Hannah says “I’m absolutely delighted to be nominated for this prestigious award. I would like to thank Wesley at South Wales Business Awards for this great opportunity, and my team at McCartan Lettings for all the amazing work they do.”

In her video interview*, Hannah explained: “I’ve been able to grow and develop a letting agency where we don't just let property, but work in partnership with landlords from the very beginning of their buy-to-let journey towards getting the right tenant for their property.

I'm able to draw on not only from my 15+ years’ experience of the buy-to-let market in Swansea, but also my own experience of buying property to let, to be able to best advise my landlords from sourcing the right property for their investment needs to securing long-term, stable tenancies.”

The nominees were judged by an independent panel, and the winners announced at the lavish awards ceremony at the Bear Hotel in Cowbridge.

If you would like some free advice on property investment in Swansea, give Hannah a call on 01792 430100, or email her at [email protected]. 

*video interviews with all the nominees were aired on the night of the awards.

Overview of results

Increased tax, unforeseen maintenance costs, and the potential for agency fees to increase due to the tenant fee ban topped landlords’ biggest concerns.

63% said finding long term tenants was the most important factor when letting a property – more important than achieving the highest rent and finding a tenant quickly. This was backed up with 74% preferring 12 month fixed term tenancies.

51% expect rents to rise in the next 12 months, while 49% thought rents would stay the same. 

65% were not aware of new energy performance laws coming into effect next year which will ban F and G rated property from the market.

Views of the property market in Swansea were varied - from ‘gloomy’ to ‘growing’ and ‘positive’ -, but many cited ‘government interference’ as a major factor deterring landlords from the rental market. 

Adding even more value to our service

Analysing the results of the survey, it was clear that landlords would like more visibility of costs and statements, and whilst appreciate of the communication levels we offer, they want to know more about what’s going on with their property.

In response to this, we will soon be launching My Property File: a new, interactive addition to our website that will allow landlords to see their account, download important documents and monthly statements, and view active maintenance works orders. 

My Property File has benefits for tenants, too. They will be able to see their account, access copies of their tenancy agreement, and view the progress of reported maintenance issues. 

If you are a managed Landlord or Tenant with us, expect to receive an email shortly explaining how to sign up! 

With less than 12 months to go before the EPC regulations change, we are in the process of contacting landlords who will be affected to encourage them to start planning in advance what measures will need to be undertaken, and also what the cost will be so that they have time to get their finances in order. 

With regards to maintenance, we will be encouraging our landlords to discuss their financial expectations of the year ahead with us in confidence, to be sure we are all working from the same page and towards the same goals for their property investment.

Our interim property visit reports have also been upgraded to offer more information, and will feature more photos. This was rolled out this week, so landlords on our management service will receive the new reports shortly.

For our Let Only landlords, we’ve taken away the varied set up fee structure based on tenancy length, and now only charge a percentage based on what the achieved rent is or our minimum fee of &360 (incl VAT). This will give more flexibility to landlords and tenants, and should allow for longer, fixed term tenancies to be set up at no additional charge. 

With all of these changes, your feedback is always appreciated, and a huge thank you to all those who participated. 

If you are a landlord and want to know more about how these changes can benefit you, please either call the office on 01792 430100, or email [email protected].

We look forward to hearing from you! 

Related: Could your EPC stop you letting out your property in Swansea?