Sunderland Rental Market Stats November 2014

I regularly find myself advising landlords & investors that Sunderland has a number of very different property markets within the City with some areas having massive over-supply of rented properties and others with decent rented accommodation in short supply

Until now this has been based more on experience gleaned over many years rather than any hard data, so I thought it would be interesting to see if the statistics back up what we all suspected from our anecdotal evidence 

I've taken a look at the market using ONS and Rightmove data (so it excludes private lets), comparing the number of available properties last month with the total number of rental properties in the area

It's generally accepted within the industry that around 5% of the total property stock will be on the market To Let at any given time, so using this it's easy to see which areas have a shortfall of properties and which are over-supplied at any given time

Clearly statistics can be interpreted to say pretty much anything, but looking at the above, they do appear to back up what I've been consistently saying for some time...that there's over-supply of properties in and around the City Centre and Ashbrooke/Thornhill (predominantly flats & apartments) with a shortage of properties in other areas

This has had a long term effect on achievable rents, with rents in SR1 and SR2 falling steadily and not only that, it's a double-edged sword as tenants realise with a lot of landlords competing for their tenure they don't need to settle for second best, so landlords are having to ensure their properties are in the very best condition for any chance of securing a let

In the other areas, the largest overall shortfall is in SR4 but given this has the largest number of rental properties, as a percentage of the market this is a less significant shortfall than in other areas

It's also telling that the areas I often consistently advise landlords to look at to provide the best long term prospects, SR3 and SR5, show the largest percentage shortfalls in the number of properties to reach the average 5% stock level 

Once again this backs up our findings that when a decent property is made available in these areas there will be no shortage of tenants due to the relative scarcity of decent private rental properties for them to choose from

Discounting SR1 and SR2, the above shows 175 extra properties were needed across the whole of Sunderland in November alone

There can only be one message to investors and landlords at this time – don’t delay any further, do your research, come and speak to us, verify what we're saying makes sense by talking to other agents, speak to other landlords – but make no mistake, this is a good time to be investing in Sunderland

It also shows that if you're thinking of getting into the Sunderland rental market and don't know where to start, you really must seek impartial advice and guidance to get the best return on your investment and to ensure you don't buy the wrong property or buy in the wrong area

For more information about potential investment properties that we could introduce you to, or to ask about our thoughts on your own investment choices, call us now on 0191 567 8577 or pop along and speak to us in person at our offices in Frederick Street