Winchester Rental Market
Walking through the city centre and looking in the window of a Winchester estate agent, or peering at the pages of the property section of local newspapers, it's clear that the last decade has been a boom time for Winchester house prices.
There are a number of reasons that explain why the city has seen property price rises on a large scale. Some, of course, reflect the wider picture: locations throughout the country have witnessed massive rises during this period.
At a micro-level, Winchester has attracted buyers as a result of its scenery, history and location. We're also now seeing a rise in the rental market. Buy-to-let in Winchester has become big business. Why is this so?
To some extent the rise of the Winchester rental market reflects the UK as a whole. As property prices have risen in the city, so many young people and would-be first-time buyers have been forced into becoming tenants, rather than being able to purchase their own properties.
Those in more fortunate financial situations have been able to take advantage of this trend, buying properties with the sole intention of renting them out.
Rental returns on such properties have been helped by a number of phenomena, not least the number of workers in the city looking for a place to live. The rise of Winchester as a university city has also led to an influx of younger people looking to rent.
The result is that many Winchester estate agents have been keen to get involved with the rentals market. Many landlords don't want to deal with tenants direct and have hence looked to estate agents to manage rentals on their behalf.