Darren Shaughnessy, Director Kings Residential, Estate Agents in Manchester  and Letting Agents in Manchester writes:

We all know that property prices are high. They are high in that they have become unaffordable to the lower income earners which in a city like Manchester is most of the population. I have heard media speculation that prices are over inflated by as much as 40%. The danger is assuming that this applies uniformly across all towns, villages and suburbs.

There are new developments in some areas that are too expensive in my view. Where developers are charging £150,000 for a 3 bed house in an area where the average income is £10,000 per annum and the local kids are smashing up cars it is clear to me that these prices are too high.

The problem in my view is that the new build property boom of late has been fuelled largely by property investors. This has artificially kept the prices high in some areas and kept the first time buyer out of the market. First time buyers are essential to the long-term sustainability of the housing market. They are the plankton of the housing market.

The answer it would seem is to get first time buyers back in the market place. This can only happen if there is an increase in affordable housing and this means having landlord free zones. If the local authorities had the will power they could insist that for every property that is sold to a buy to let investor they have to build a property in a zone that has been designated landlord free. If it were illegal to rent out properties in certain small pockets the prices would have to be set at a level that is affordable to the local population and some housing would be reserved for the first time buyer.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008 at 12:32 am and is filed under Industry News and Comment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.