About Tulip Real Estate London
In 2011, Siddharth Mahajan London fashioned a company to deliver Serviced Rooms and Short-Lets services covering the prime London business districts of Canary Wharf and Stratford areas. The business was established with an initial inventory of 9 Apartments comprising of 30 X Service Rooms on various leases. Tulip Real Estate London. received an overpowering response during the 2012 Olympics and the company hasn’t looked back since then. After a very successful stint in the first year of business, the company acquired 23 additional apartments on lease by May 2013. Furthermore, the Tulip Team expanded by bringing onboard administration executives and cleaners to provide great services to all the tenants.
With the increase in demand, the company started acquiring 4-5 HMO Bedroom Houses on leases and started letting out serviced rooms on short notice. The standard of services provided in these apartments was always a highlight in the tenants’ reviews and satisfaction surveys. In 2016, Tulip Real Estate London added Mansfield Road Block and Gants Hill Block to its kitty to increase its portfolio. Eventually, the Tulip Team underwent more expansion by adding more professionals for the management of the operation and attainment of various blocks to extend the growing model. The real estate company also acquired more residential blocks for rental purposes as well as New Build residential development sites before turning into the epitome of success it is today.
Real estate factors currently trending in London
House Prices
House prices in London have displayed the first signs of market recovery. In inner London, house prices grew in the year right up to November 2019. In outer London, while the annual house price change continues to be negative, the rate of decline appears to have slowed down. House prices showed an increase in all regions, except the East of England where prices decreased. House prices seem to be stabilizing in London and the South East after falling in 2018 and 2019. Prices in inner London were falling since January 2018, but the rate of decline slowed down in the second half of 2019, which was the first indication of market recovery.
Private Rents
Private rents in London continue to increase and December 2019 would be laying the benchmark for 13 consecutive months of positive nominal rental growth. A fall in CPI indicates that, in real terms, rents in London fell by only -0.1% in 2019. Private rents in London rose by 1.2% in nominal terms in 2019 (ONS). This is up from 0.2% as of the year 2018. London’s rental growth rate was among the lowest of any region in Great Britain, second only to the North East. Across England, private rents showed an increase of 1.4% on average in nominal terms.
New Supply: Completions
There were 40,580 new home Energy Performance Certificates registered in London in 2019, which were largely aligned with 2018 and beckoning another strong year of housing completions. Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are documents that are required for all new homes through which EPC data can be used as a proxy for completions. EPC data has tracked the LDD net conventional completions data over recent years.
New Supply: Planning approvals
Planning approval figures mostly remained stable during the first half of 2019. Figures from the Home Builders Federation (HBF) showed that 76,290 homes were granted planning approval in London in the year to 2019. This is up by 7% from the previous year and has been calculated as the highest annualized approvals figure recorded for London. In stark contrast, England has exhibited a 1% low in annualized housing approvals compared to the previous year.
Mortgage Lending
There were 40,840 new mortgages advanced to first-time buyers in London in the year to Q3 2019, which when calculated is 0.9% up on the number of loans advanced in the previous year. It was observed that first-time buyers took out loans averaging 3.8 times their income in Q3 2019 (UK Finance). The number of loans to home movers in London was 26,790 in the year to Q3 2019, which showed a downward slope at 3.1% in the last year. Home movers took out loans which added up to 3.8 times their income.
Transactions and market sentiment
The volume of transactions remains restrained owing to historical standards and, in particular, home mover mortgage lending is low lying. However, more agents reported an increase in new buyer inquiries in London in December 2019 than at any point since 2015. An RICS survey data indicates that the years of inventory held by surveyors and the number of years required for selling all properties at the current sales rate – decreased in London in Q4 2019 to 1.2%. This is the lowest level it has reached in two years but is still higher than the level observed in the year 2008. The surveyors’ price expectations improved noticeably in Q4 2019 and showed a positive graph for the first time since Q4 2016. London surveyors have reported that buyer confidence has shown improvement after the general election and there has also been more clarity around Brexit.