Written by Lauren Whitaker SEO Executive | Zelst The Sunday Times recently listed Ilkley as the north’s most desirable postcode in its definitive Best Places to Live Guide 2021. For those living in and around Ilkley, this inclusion will come as no surprise because waking up to the charm of this stunning spa town in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales never gets old. But, for those thinking of moving to Ilkley, what makes living in Ilkley so great? And, how much would it really cost to relocate? The Cost of Living in Ilkley Following the pandemic and several lockdowns later, Rightmove has no ..read more

Now this property has great potential, taking advantage of the stamp duty holiday that at the moment currently runs through to 31st March 2021. The Wharfe Valley rental market is the strongest I have personally seen in the last 10 years of being in the property market, the market is instant and big rents are being paid. Have a look at this low maintenance mews style two bedroom property, this will rent until the cows come home. You will be able to hand pick the next tenants here from no doubt half a dozen applications. Breaking £800 per calendar month giving a gross yield of 5% – you don’t get ..read more

Some interesting facts on the 2020/21 stamp duty holiday, locally Hunters Ilkley & Otley have seen a significant interest in buyer demand for the family home – Buyers are taking advantage of the stamp duty savings making it almost impossible to satisfy the demand. We are now also seeing investors coming back into the market given the savings. Lester Hurst owner of Hunters Ilkley & Otley is advising to be on the market to capitalise on the buying trends. 40% of our buyers come from outside the local area, this is now on the increase, we have had many people re locating from London to mo ..read more

Rightmove have just released the House Price Index figures this morning and gives a national picture of house prices and activity over the past few weeks. 2.3% (+£6,785) surge in the price of property coming to market, the largest monthly rise we have ever recorded at this time of year Increased optimism also releasing pent-up demand as would-be buyers judge the election result gives a window of stability Over 1.3 million buyer enquiries since election, up 15% compared to same period a year ago, suggesting an active spring market ahead 7.4% growth in number of sales agreed, as early birds act ..read more

The need for more homes has always been one of the biggest issues with regard to the Country’s housing crisis. One of the main reasons for families wanting to move home is the need for more accommodation as their families grow and so in 2013 and 2015, the planning permission rules were relaxed to try an alleviate this issue. Initially in 2013, Nick Clegg, as Deputy Prime Mister, brought in temporary planning rules to allow larger single storey rear extensions without the requirement of a full planning application. The temporary rules allowed terraced and semi-detached homes to be extended by j ..read more

Looking back at the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day landing earlier this year, it reminded me of the huge changes that have happened to Otley and more specifically the Otley property market since WW2. Back in 1946, the average wage in Otley was just over £5 a week and to buy an average car would cost you just under £600, yet this is a property blog, so… The average value of an Otley property in 1946 was £1,191 In fact, in those 75 years, the average Otley house had doubled in price by 1961, then again in 1971, 1975, 1980, 1988, 2000 and 2006. Now a lot of those increases (especially in the 1970 ..read more

Only 25.5% of #Ilkley Households are Eco-friendly Well as per the front picture I have gone for the Tesla 3, I’ve been driving by electric for only a month and I must say I’m living the electric dream. (link below to 1000 free supercharger miles) You’ll not find me protesting down the street at the next environmental rally but I have joined the electric car revolution, I’m not going back either – let me just say that I will never have to call into a petrol station ever again unless for a Costa! Now that’s a statement but I really don’t think I will eat my words either ..read more

Otley Homeowners Sell Their Home Nearly 14% More Than the UK Average The average homeowner in the UK moves every 20.2 years… That average in the 1970’s and 80’s was around every 10 to 11 years; in the 1990’s it increased to the mid-teens (in terms of years) and in the early part of the Millennium, it dropped again to the low teens. When we had the Credit Crunch years of 2008/09/10, that shot up to every 25.3 years and has been steadily decreasing ever since to the 2018 figure of 18.7 years. The graph shows that as the economy improved after the Credit Crunch, British homeowners started to mov ..read more

Would it surprise you to know that in some parts of Ilkley, predominantly prosperous areas with high proportions of mature residents, the housing crisis is not one of supply so much as dispersal of that supply? Theoretically, in Ilkley there are more than enough bedrooms for everyone – it’s just they are disproportionately spread among the population, with some better-off and more mature households living in large Ilkley homes with many spare bedrooms, and some younger Ilkley families being over crowded. Yet it is not the fault of these well-off mature residents that this is the current situat ..read more

One of the key factors of the health of the Otley property market is the number of properties for sale at any one time. The issue with housing is that when demand goes up, unlike with a chocolate bar factory, who can add a couple of hours overtime to increase supply/production to satisfy demand, it takes a good 18 months to two years from planning permission to someone moving into a home. I have talked at length (and proved) in previous articles that we are still not building enough homes in the long term in the Otley area.. yet for the short term, a good indicator is the number of properties ..read more