Rotary Talk – Crisis? What Crisis? Housing in Henley

Matthew Davis, co founder of Davis Tate estate agents was the speaker at this week’s online Henley Rotary Club talk who spoke about the status of the housing market after it has recently reopened following the Covid-19 lockdown.

The talk covered buying versus renting, the impact on shops and offices including people now working from their homes, planning for new homes and whether property is still a good investment.

Investment figures showed that property is still a good investment. Relative values were shown for the House Price Index showing that it is has performed much better over the last 10 years than the FTSE 100 and Retail Price Index.

Stamp duty figures were also shown with Matthew saying that “it’s very much a tax on the SE England as there aren’t any properties in Henley under £125K.”  This of course has been superseded by the Chancellor’s announcement this week that there will be a stamp duty holiday for properties up to £500k.

Matthew confirmed that the current market in June is back up to 2019 levels, saying “The market is much more robust than you would expect.  Whilst green shoots are there for an active market, prices may well be under pressure.”

A video was shown of how Davis Tate are currently operating their house viewings in line with government guidelines.

Matthew concluded by saying that historically residential property has done well but is driven by inflation, employment, mortgages and standard of living and that nice places like Henley out perform others but questioned whether Henley is less nice nowadays and he didn’t know if or what impact of Brexit would have on the housing market.

To watch the full talk go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRYiNdjCV0Y&feature=youtu.be

If you would like to become a member of the Henley Rotary Club, please contact Phil Fletcher on phil.fletcher@henleyrotary.club