The Bassetlaw Plan - Retford - Have Your Say

What do you think about the ‘Draft Bassetlaw Plan’?

The 221 page document is available online.
You can download it and read online or for bedtime reading here:
https://www.bassetlaw.gov.uk/media/6023/draft-bassetlaw-local-plan-2020-full-version.pdf

Bassetlaw needs to build over 10,000 new homes before 2037. The Bassetlaw District council are currently in a consultation process with the public until 20^th January 2021.

I don’t have space to talk about all the proposed projects in the plan but will focus here on the Retford development projects. There are 8 projects in the plan concerning the Retford town area.

Trinity Farm

A large housing development just off North Road is proposed for 224 dwellings up to the year 2037. The proposal includes a mix of affordable and specialist housing. Full details of the planning application are already available. See the link below.

Milnercroft

A smaller project in Hallcroft to build social housing and/or affordable rental properties.

St Michaels View

Remember the old Hospice building on Hallcroft Road? The land and buildings are owned by the County Council and will be demolished next year and the land used to develop at least 20 dwellings.

Former Elizabethan School

This site will be developed to provide housing, improved open space and health facilities. At least 46 dwellings to be developed offering a range of affordable housing.

Retford Town Centre

Various improvements will be supported through a Neighbourhood Business Forum.
The improvements will include the town centre facilities including residential improvements. Please download the plan to find out more.

Station Road

In order to improve the area around the train station the car sales building across the road will be developed to provide 5 new homes.

Fairy Grove Nursery

Situated just off London Road the site will be development to ‘Deliver at least 60 dwellings during the plan period to 2037 comprising a mix of housing sizes and tenures, including for affordable housing and housing for older people.’

Ordsall South

This is the big one. Situated on the south side of Ordsall the project intends to:
Deliver at least 800 dwellings during the plan period to 2037. Incorporate a mix of housing types, sizes and tenures to meet local needs including:  20% affordable housing; 20% specialist housing for older people as sheltered courts built to Building Regulations standard M4(2); 5% wheelchair standard housing built to Building Regulations standard M4(3); Extra care accommodation; and where appropriate serviced plots for self-build and custom homes.

Details about the Ordsall South project can be found here from an anonymous source but probably initiated by the proposed developer.
http://ordsallgardenneighbourhood.info/index.html

Have your say

If you want to comment, support or object to any of the proposals in the draft Bassetlaw Plan, please don’t just comment about it on social media. Because that will not be recognised. If you want to be serious you must make comments via the links provided by Bassetlaw District Council. You can take part in an online consultation process tomorrow. See below.

Tuesday 1^st December 1400-1500

Draft Bassetlaw Local Plan Online Consultation - RETFORD

(Online Event)

https://www.facebook.com/events/895110537763633

If you miss this event and want to provide feedback to Bassetlaw District Council you may use this link:
https://www.bassetlaw.gov.uk/planning-and-building/the-draft-bassetlaw-local-plan/draft-bassetlaw-local-plan-november-2020/have-your-say-on-the-local-plan-november-2020/

TRINITY FARM

Regarding the Trinity Farm development, the first phase of the housing project is now available to see in detail online.

If you want to look at detailed planning application documents use the ink here where full details and the opportunity to comment is available:
http://publicaccess.bassetlaw.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=QJQSOPCSJN600 

RETFORD LIFE MAGAZINE

If you have not yet looked inside the December 2020 copy of the Retford Life magazine, have a quick read of pages 34-36 where you will find a brief explanation of the Bassetlaw Plan for Retford.

Thanks for reading.

I'm here to help sellers, buyers, landlords, and tenants.

Call me or drop me a message if you think I might be able to help you.

geraldbowers@thegoodea.co.uk

The Good Estate Agent – North Nottinghamshire
Tel: 01777 237310 or 07981 744003

https://www.facebook.com/thegoodestateagentnorthnottinghamshire

RETFORD - Small Business Saturday

 RETFORD 5^th December is SMALL BUSINESS Saturday

It has not been easy for any of our small businesses here in Retford during 2020.
The restrictions of lockdown and Tier 3 are proving to be difficult challenges.
On Saturday 5^th December we can all support our local small businesses by doing business with them. Buying products and services from a local Retford based business is the best way you can help celebrate and support small businesses.

Buy online from them also or ask them to deliver. Small business owners are very adaptable to changing circumstances and they will do everything they can to serve you and provide the best service.

Small business owners are hardworking decent people who care about their community.
Please give them your support.

What is Small Business Saturday?

Small Business Saturday UK is a grassroots, that highlights small business success and encourages consumers to 'shop local' and support small businesses in their communities.

The day itself takes place on the first Saturday in December each year, but the campaign aims to have a lasting impact on small businesses.

On Small Business Saturday, customers across the U.K. go out and support all types of small businesses, online, in offices and in stores. Many small businesses take part in the day by hosting events.

The next Small Business Saturday takes place on December 5^th, 2020.

https://smallbusinesssaturdayuk.com/about-us

I'm here to help sellers, buyers, landlords, and tenants.

Call me or drop me a message if you think I might be able to help you.

geraldbowers@thegoodea.co.uk

The Good Estate Agent – North Nottinghamshire
Tel: 01777 237310 or 07981 744003

https://www.facebook.com/thegoodestateagentnorthnottinghamshire

Retford Property Market - We have a problem

One thing that has come out of this Covid-19 situation has been the inexorable movement of Retford households wanting to upsize to a larger home. Often considered to be first time buyer properties, the smaller 1st step on the property ladder one and two bedroom properties are selling quite well yet demand for those properties on the 2nd and 3rd step rungs on the Retford property ladder (i.e. the three or four bedroom homes) has been even greater.

This demand has been driven by Retford buyers looking for more living space, especially those looking for an area or room to work from home (be that a bedroom, reception room or even an outbuilding converted into a study).

Retford selling prices during the past six months have been as follows:

Type of Property    Average Price     No of Sales

Detached                  £281,876                   28

Semi-Detached        £159,235                    34

Terraced                   £133,367                    12

Flats                         £100,833                      3

The average asking price of a 4 bed Retford home is currently £294,300, whilst for a 5 bed Retford home it stands at £395,830

As you can see, quite a jump for an extra bedroom! The heightened contest for 2nd and 3rd step Retford homes for that extra bedroom pushed demand to a record in October for those looking to take the next step up the ladder. 

Historically, as a family and its household income grow, the need for more space has permanently been the No.1 reason for moving home, yet now there is a new need for additional space to facilitate people working from home. 

This means not only do we have growing families wanting larger Retford homes, there are also the people needing the same larger homes for space for a home office. The Retford property market is doing quite well, but we do have a problem.

These ‘sold’ properties are causing another issue. Just because a property becomes Sold Subject to Contract (SSTC) doesn’t mean the property is actually “sold”. 

Before going into Covid-19, it was taking approximately 19 weeks from agreeing a sale price (and instructing lawyers) to completing the sale. Yet, because we are running at 95% of properties SSTC, many of my estate agent colleagues are having to manage expectations with buyers and sellers, and tell them that the date they are going to move will take a little longer.

The elephant in the room is that the temporary stamp duty holiday ends on the 31st March 2021

It sounds an age away, yet trust me, nothing could be further from the truth. Adding an extra month for the additional homes in the bottleneck means even if the sale of your Retford home was agreed today, that would take us to the 3rd week in March ... that’s cutting it very close for the stamp duty holiday.

It is so fundamental for buyers and sellers of Retford homes to work meticulously with their estate agent, solicitor and mortgage lender. 

For example, there are less staff in the local authorities to do the local searches, bank staff are working from home meaning mortgages are taking much longer to get approved, and conveyancer/solicitors are snowed under with work. 

Therefore, if you get a document that needs filling in, are asked to provide documents, pay disbursements or questions need answering, do it immediately and without delay. A day here and day there will snowball and could mean you miss the stamp duty holiday … and that could cost you thousands and thousands of pounds.

The bottom line is that we haven’t seen this sort of pressure on the UK property market since 1987, when dual-MIRAS (Mortgage Interest Relief at Source) was abolished. 

With many legal and banking staff working remotely or still on furlough, the perfect storm has occurred with unprecedented demand from buyers looking to move post lockdown. 

The best advice I can give is, as soon as you put your property onto the market, find a solicitor that has the capacity to work with you, then instruct that solicitor to start work immediately to prepare the paperwork, so once you have a buyer, things can move more smoothly and quickly. 

The last thing you want is to lose out on saving thousands of pounds by missing the stamp duty holiday by a whisker.

Thanks for reading.

I'm here to help sellers, buyers, landlords, and tenants.

Call me or drop me a message if you think I might be able to help you.

geraldbowers@thegoodea.co.uk

The Good Estate Agent – North Nottinghamshire
Tel: 01777 237310 or 07981 744003

https://www.facebook.com/thegoodestateagentnorthnottinghamshire

 

Retford House Prices 2021: What will happen to the value of your Retford home next year? (10 minute read)

With the end of the Stamp Duty holiday in March, mortgage payment holidays coming to an end, unemployment set to rise after furlough and ongoing on/off coronavirus restrictions ..what will this do to the Retford property market and the value of your Retford home?

Retford House Prices 2021:

What will happen to the value of your Retford home next year?

In the late spring of 2020, many people were forecasting impending doom on the British property market. Drops of 10% were considered optimistic as we all held our breath after lockdown was relaxed. Yet, the property market didn’t listen to the forecasters. UK property values today are 2.5% higher than they were a year ago, and more locally, Retford detached house prices are 13% higher than a year ago.

So, what exactly is going to happen to the Retford property market in 2021?

Well, with the end of furlough and 1.7m people still on the furlough scheme at the start of November, a number of economists are saying that unfortunately many of those furloughed will become unemployed. Unemployment currently stands at 4.5% in Q3 2020 (compared to 3.8% in Q3 2019). The Government’s independent Office for Budget Responsibility believes the unemployment rate will peak at 9.7% in early 2021, and then return to pre-coronavirus levels in 2022. In the past recessions of the early 1980’s, early 1990’s and Credit Crunch of 2009, when unemployment went up, the property market went down.

Yet, in this recession, the link between unemployment and property values may not be so direct.

So why is the link between unemployment and house prices potentially broken? It comes down to interest rates.

The reason Retford detached house prices have gone up by 345% since 1995 isn’t because the labour market has got so much sturdier, nor that the economy has outperformed every G8 country, or that the UK has had less boom and bust economic cycles than the previous decades. Instead, it’s because of the fundamental and underlying decline in the Bank of England (BoE) interest rates.

High BoE interest rates equal high mortgage payments which hold everything back regarding the property market. In the 1980’s, the average BoE interest rate was just over 11%, making mortgage payments very expensive and keeping property prices dampened. In the 1990’s, the average BoE interest rate was a little over 6%, in the 2000’s just over 4%. However, in the 2010’s, it had been a really low 0.5%. Now with interest rates down to 0.1% because of coronavirus and the BoE threatening negative interest rates, there appears little threat of an eruption in mortgage repayment costs.

With mortgage payments at an all-time low of just under 30% of homeowners' disposable income (compared to 48% in 2007), those middle-aged people lucky enough to still be in a job (who are mainly made up of workers who are spending a lot more time working from home), they could be more inclined to dedicate more of their monthly income to mortgage payments than they did pre-coronavirus for a bigger garden or a move out of the big cities?

So, if unemployment isn’t going to make a huge difference to the Retford property market, what is?

Brexit will have hardly any effect on the property market.

The Stamp Duty holiday ends at the end of March 2021 and that certainly will reduce the number of Retford people moving (as many moved their plans forward to beat the deadline) meaning there will be less Retford people moving in 2021, yet that will curtail the supply of property for sale and hence keep Retford property prices higher.

Next, the Help to Buy scheme, (started in 2013 and where the Government underwrites part of the mortgage for the first time buyer, meaning they can obtain a 95% mortgage) ends in April next year, but the government have clearly indicated an intention to create ‘Help to Buy - Part 2’.

The bottom line is in the early 1980’s and 1990’s recessions, when interest rates were over 15%, obviously homeowners couldn’t afford to keep up the mortgage payments when made redundant or on reduced wages, so many handed in their keys to the banks and homes got repossessed, thus exacerbating the issue with falling property values.

However, with interest rates so low, this will not be the case. I envisage that UK property prices will be between 4% to 5% higher by December and Retford values just behind that at 2% to 3% higher, before levelling out in 2021 (although we might see a modest dip in certain sectors and types of Retford homes depending on location and condition).

I also suspect those Retford first time buyers, eager (and able) to break free from  the rental market will want to take up the anticipated ‘Help to Buy - Part 2’ scheme, particularly if the BoE base rate stays low. The other winners in 2021 will be low mortgage/equity rich households upsizing to the countryside or leafy suburbs to test out their boss’s promise of ‘flexible-working’.

Yet the losers will be the 18 to 29 year old renters … most likely to be made redundant and least likely to buy a home.

My advice to the Government for this cohort is to not ignore them once the country is out of this coronavirus situation.

As the Generation X and Millennials get older and take over as the largest demographic they need to be kept happy and rewarded with an easier route to home ownership. I would go further and suggest that the Conservatives need to really grasp the nettle on this and make sure homeownership is a priority. The other political parties will ignore it as usual.

I mean, we have £400bn to pay back because of coronavirus … it has to be repaid and it has to come from somewhere. Those denied real access to buying their own home in the last 10 years, because of massive house price gains over the last 25 years, could vent their anger via the ballot box - if not at the 2024 General Election, maybe in 2029, when they realise that housing policies are not working for them.

Maybe we should all look to the grocer’s daughter from Lincolnshire who in 1979 set out a bold vision of home ownership for everybody. I suggest American style long term mortgages might be a starting point.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks for reading.

I'm here to help sellers, buyers, landlords, and tenants.

Call me or drop me a message if you think I might be able to help you.

geraldbowers@thegoodea.co.uk

The Good Estate Agent – North Nottinghamshire
Tel: 01777 237310 or 07981 744003

https://www.facebook.com/thegoodestateagentnorthnottinghamshire