“Do Rutlanders ever move far away from the area”?
This was an intriguing question asked by one of my clients recently. Readers of my property blog will know I love a challenge, especially when it comes to talking about the local property market!
For the majority, the response is not very far. It is far more common for homeowners and tenants in Great Britain to move across town than to the next town or county. Until now, it’s been hard to say how many homeowners and tenants moved from (and to) relatively far away to buy or rent their new home. However, I carried out some research and requested some statistics from the Royal Mail.
Using statistics for the 12
months up to the middle of autumn 2016, 365 households moved out of Rutland (LE15),
moving an average distance of 57.11 miles - the equivalent of moving from Oakham
to Luton as the crow flies. The greatest
distance travelled was 302 miles, when someone moved to Blairgowrie in Scotland.
Considering there were 365
property sales in LE15 in the year and countless tenant moves, the numbers
seem consistent; once you find a town you like, you tend to want to settle down
and if you do move, you might only move to a different neighbourhood, or for better
transport links or perhaps to be within the catchment area of a particular school,
but the likelihood is you won’t travel far.
I then turned my
attention to people moving into Rutland. Using the same
statistics for the 12 months up to the middle of autumn 2016, 509 households
moved into LE15, moving an average distance of 56.75 miles - the equivalent of
moving from Newmarket to Oakham (again as the crow flies). The greatest
distance travelled was 443 miles, when someone moved from the Isles of Lewis
and Harris to Oakham.
I have looked at the data of
every person moving into Rutland and these have been plotted on a map of the
UK. Referring to the map, it shows
exactly where most people have relocated to Rutland from. As you can see, there are a high proportion of
people moving from London and the South.
So,
what does all this mean for Rutland’s landlords and homeowners?
When
an agent markets a property for sale or to let it is
vital to know the prospective tenant or property buyer well, and that the
properties they are selling or letting fit those buyers and tenants.
There’s
a lot more involved than simply knowing the features of the property, the
mover’s budget and being able to share insight on the area, but agents need to
be constantly reading (and reacting to) trends in the local property market, and
understanding where their homebuyers and tenants are relocating from to appreciate
and match their client’s needs. I say it
might be helpful to factor in where (and how) far people are moving from, so
the property can be sold or let more easily.
Many
say ‘knowledge is power’ and whilst I do enjoy writing my blog on our local
property market, I also use the information to help my clients buy, let and
sell effectively. The information gained
for this article will enable my team and I to be more efficient in where to direct
our marketing resources, therefore ensuring we maximise our clients’ property’s
‘sale-ability’ or ‘rent-ability’.
For
example, residents in the South East of the UK favour Zoopla as their preferred
property search engine, whilst Rightmove is the most used site in the East
Midlands. That’s why we promote our clients’
properties on the three most used property search websites Zoopla, Rightmove
and Prime Location.
UPP
Property Agents – Understanding People and Property.
