Understanding the Housing Market: Market Conditions

Before getting into details about housing, it is important to look at the "big picture". You are entering the housing market, maybe for the first time, and whether you are living in university of private sector accommodation, the main determinants of what you can rent will be decided by the particular factors of your local housing market.

• How expensive is it to live in your area?
• If there an accommodation surplus or a shortage?
• Is there enough good quality rented housing?

These answers to these questions will determine when you should look for housing, how much you can be expected to pay and how much you can negotiate and what you can expect to rent. It is not good trying to drive a hard bargain with a property owner if they can let the property to others that afternoon and it is no good paying a high rent when there are plenty of cheaper, comparative properties available.

To give you some idea of the housing market here are a few indicators: 

Although rents vary the average cost of rents in your area are £40.94

This could be described as a low cost housing area

The number of students housed directly by the institutions in Bradford is 1,943

The number of students housed in the private sector is 4,144

The current state of the housing market in terms of supply and demand is that there is a significant surplus (this will vary according to the time of year because there is never a housing shortage at the beginning of the letting year)

Bradford average rents per person per week in 2006-2007:

The tables below show rent levels of properties let by size and average rent levels by a selection of popular areas: