7 Reasons why property values increase

There are many reasons why property values go up and down. Some people might say that it has to do with the economy, while others might say that it has to do with the political landscape.  

However, other factors contribute to the movement of property prices as well. This blog post will take you through some of those reasons. So, if you're curious about what affects property prices, read on! 

Few real estate investors master crystal ball techniques to predict a real estate value drop or trend inversion. This article introduces concepts that affect property value. Once the rules are understood, it's easy to estimate how real estate values will change.

What is property value?

Property value is the price that a property would sell for in the open market. The value depends on a number of factors, including location, square footage, age of the property, and any special features or amenities that it may have. Property prices can increase or decrease over time, depending on market conditions.

7 Factors that cause property values to increase

1. Inflation

In improving real estate, the cost of acquiring the location and creating the structure vs buying an existing building depends on numerous aspects. Land, building design, permits, and construction costs can be more involved and expensive than in the past. 

Even with rising living costs, inflation hasn't affected real estate values everywhere.

Inflation can increase the value of a property, which benefits property investors. In a zero-inflation economy, property value would stagnate, making new development more attractive than buying an older property.

2. Infrastructure improvement

Infrastructure changes predictably affect real estate value.  

A new hospital should boost nearby property value. Disney World would increase real estate values in the neighboring area. Roads, public buildings, public services such as power, water, sewer systems, police and fire protection, bridges, parks, schools, hospitals, and businesses that offer employment possibilities affect a property's value. 

You can expect changes following the creation or growth of a community's infrastructure, and real estate investors can take advantage of them due to their long lead time and previous instances.  

Almost all public works projects and big private ventures take a considerable time from planning to completion. The public forum via which all such initiatives travel provides investors time to assess all elements.  

Reviewing previous programmes in other communities helps forecast the new project's results. Changes in traffic networks, such as new roads, expansions of existing roads, and extra crossroads or highway access, open previously inaccessible places can enhance property prices quickly.

3. Economic transformation

A property's usage changes during economic conversion. This change might be voluntary, like when the property owner wishes to boost rent or service income, or involuntary when the owner has no control over an economic occurrence.

Voluntary economic conversion

The investor can boost value by changing from one usage to another with more significant economic benefit. Increased Cash flow and capital improvements are the other two factors that are discussed below.  

Examples of voluntary economic conversion:

• A buyer converts a tiny residential property into offices.
• Conversion of the single-family residential property into three apartments. 
• A vacant lot becomes a U-Pick strawberry patch.
• A conversion of the motel into antique shops.

In each scenario, the conversion is conceivable because the zoning allows it or because the investor can get government clearance. 

Real estate development and redevelopment involve economic conversion. This investment has the most potential for success for two reasons.

• The investment is short-term, unlike land speculation.
• This method of investing involves converting a property from one use to another that will provide more income. The investor would buy the property at a discount and enhance its value with reliable, predictable outcomes.

The investor must undertake due diligence to identify what type of conversion will work in the area and then carry out the conversion.

4. Increased cashflow

An income property improves in value if the income it produces increases. If other things remain the same, increasing a property's cash flow will raise its resale value.

Property management involves a deep understanding of real estate and people. After a property reaches its maximum gross income, operating expenses and debt service affect its value.

The investor must minimize expenses in eight areas:

Service cost (principal, interest, or both)

• Expenses
• Vacancies
• Carpet replacement
• Repipes
• Marketing expenses
• Cleaning expenses
• Debt collection

5. Capital improvements

Improvements increase value. This assumes that a property's entire worth includes land and structures. When the land value rises enough, capital improvements are no longer a component of value enhancement.  

In other cases, the cost of modifications cannot be recovered, such as when upgrading a home that any buyer will likely rebuild. Property Investors have complete control over property upgrades, so careful planning is required.  

Suppose the only aim for modifications is to increase the property's value, such as adding apartments to an apartment building or adding a bedroom or extra bathrooms to a single-family home. In that case, you must assess the cost of the improvement against the predictable rise in value.  

If the expense of the increase outweighs the benefit, the decision to add it could not be sound. Remodeling properties don't always involve substantial capital expenditures, with or without economic conversion.  

Many investors have found success with physically strong buildings that need a fresh coat of paint, imaginative landscaping, or minor decor alterations.

6. Demand/supply

The theory of supply and demand states that everything's value rises as its demand rises. With a stable demand, values grow as supplies fall or as long as supply decreases faster than demand. 

The local nature of real estate values limits this notion. One type of real estate might be overabundant, such as condos in South Florida, Southern California, and Gulf coast vacation districts. If supply exceeds absorption, prices could fall.  

While California and Florida's condo property market is struggling, other states may be booming. Specific locations and price ranges may be in demand even in South Florida, Southern California, and other "overbuilt" places. 

Home prices aren't a national statistic. You may buy gold, silver, and IBM stock anywhere, and their values are unaffected by location. Real estate is local, so investors must distinguish between national events or situations that affect the property market and national trends or statistics that may indicate a growth or fall in actual prices. 

In real estate development, avoiding property market proliferation is contradictory. Office buildings and retail commercial spaces are overbuilt in most localities. High vacancies in office and commercial space lower property value and rent possibilities. 

Even in these regions, office and commercial buildings are often built. Reasons include:

• Lag time - Some projects take years from design to building; many planned and launched in better times are trapped in economic hard times and high vacancy rates for similar uses.
• New-is-better theory - Some developers feel that a new construction, centre, complex, etc., will attract tenants who desire to leave existing structures in no longer viable town districts. 

It sometimes works but contradicts supply and demand. Property developers who ignore supply and demand risk losing money.

7. Changes in the permitted use

For most real estate investors, land use restrictions are the magic elixir that will lift them to heights frequently neglected by most investors. 

Where do you find these amazing elements? Examine why they're missed. Real estate mechanics include zoning, density, parking, setbacks, storm water retention, and other local factors.  These features are in a community's structure, zoning, and development ordinances.  

They may differ from neighbors'. Other authorities outside the local community may also have laws and regulations that affect a property positively or negatively. These may be harder to determine.  

These include uses that require special permissions, health department approvals, continual or periodic monitoring, or restricted distances from schools, hospitals, or churches. 

As you discover and investigate land-use restrictions, you may identify factors that will provide a higher economic level than the property's current use. These mystical ingredients are the key to success in the real estate investment journey.

9 Reasons why property values decrease

Each of these variables has the potential to produce a significant drop in property values. In general, situations interact to the point where all of these factors can occur at the same time. We'll go through each element in depth in this section.

1. Neighborhood decline

Every property occupies a place in the community that is changing due to several events, some of which may be good to the community and that location, while others may be detrimental. 

When property value declines, vacancy rates rise, resulting in lower rents. Reduced property income implies less maintenance, and the community declines. 

Insufficient long-term planning in communities frequently causes these declines. If a city's infrastructure depends on solid zoning and building laws, areas are less prone to decline.  

You must consider prisons, sewer treatment plants, airports, and city landfills to suit the needs of an expanding population. The building or development of one of these facilities is likely to harm a neighborhood, which might begin a domino effect of rent loss followed by a drop in maintenance, which causes more rent loss and a fast loss of overall value.  

The area's value will only rise with new economic development. The causes of a neighborhood's downfall are usually slow and may not be visible. The introduction or growth of crime in a region may cause a local neighborhood to spill over into adjacent areas, causing the deterioration of a once-thriving part of the town.

2. Infrastructure change's downsides

As a town grows and its infrastructure improves, property values can fall.

As noted, an airport will affect property values positively and negatively. Some infrastructure changes have foreseeable negative impacts.  

Existing residential property under a new airport's glide route should lose value. Undeveloped property in the same area, which was zoned for single-family houses before the airport, may be rezoned for industrial or commercial use to support the airport if the governing bodies allow it.  

Some property values can improve after rezoning, even if they drop during development. 

Road construction gives several chances. A large roadway or crossroads often takes a year to build. Traffic may be diverted to other routes during construction, limiting access to nearby businesses. Even if access is only marginally impeded, construction noise and dirt can hurt businesses. 

Some property owners can't hold out when their heavily leveraged investment has an abrupt vacancy. Even if they know that business will return when construction is complete, a customer that goes elsewhere may be hesitant to return.

3. Government regulations

Bureaucracy has infiltrated almost every element of the real estate sector so that permits for many simple remodeling projects cost more than the job itself. Governing agencies abound, and each wants to impose more authority. 

Property owners must struggle with the following government rules or regulations:

Building Codes:

• Approved construction
• Setbacks
• Department approvals/inspections
• Dimensions
• Certified contractors
• Fees

Zoning rules:

• Site plan approval 
• Allowable uses 
• Green area 
• Parking codes 

Health department restrictions:

• Materials 
• Ground testing 
• Well water and septic tank approvals
• Food inspections 
• Fees

Fire department restrictions:

• Plan permission 
• Fire protection given 
• Maximum persons allowed Inspections

Setbacks:

• Site plan approval 
• Possible construction height regulations

Environmental controls:

• Tests and research to reveal environmental concerns  
• Approvals before construction permission 
• Fees

DOT:

• Possible involvement of city, county, and state DOTs 
• Road access regulation 
• Possible substantial impact fees

Changing any of the following rules or regulations can hinder real estate development. Even when studying a future rule or regulatory change, building moratoriums occur.

An investor who buys real estate based on yesterday's rules and regulations may find it unsuitable tomorrow. This had transformed investor thinking regarding raw land and long-term speculation, requiring more extensive investigation than in the past, when any opportunity along the route of progress was a good and profitable investment. 

Even slight delays in launching a project can erase the investor's economic gains. All government controls are implemented for the public good, and the vast majority are effective in maintaining a high standard of growth with public safety in mind. Investors should watch local property trends.

4. Economic obsolescence

Many buildings and construction components attain economic obsolescence with age. Refrigerators, elevators, boilers, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems will become old and burden a property's worth due to the need to replace them with modern equivalents. Modernization may be more expensive than demolishing and rebuilding. 

Everything from a building's design to its equipment can become uneconomical. Constant repair and care can extend the life of each development section, and an older feature's style or charm may even increase a property's worth.  

When a property isn't adequately maintained, its value is diminished by the need to replace outdated equipment. Many investors overlook the age of building parts that may need replacement. They overspend based on current revenue and expenses without considering replacement costs.

5. Demand/supply

The law of supply and demand can raise or lower prices. On paper, supply and demand theory is simple to understand. For example, a bakery can modify it to meet the daily demand for doughnuts.  

To determine strong demand, look at the remaining stock at the end of the day and track what sold out first and the number of inquiries. The next day, the problem is fixed, and new changes are made based on the day's needs. 

Longer-planned and fabricated products require more investigation to determine what marketing and design suit future market demands. Fashion clothing is one of the most complex products for supply and demand planning, and the maker must often build demand through advertising. 

Real estate is immovable, and you cannot relocate it from an unpopular area to a trendy one. You can shift doughnuts and apparel to meet market needs. Permanent location and investment size cause protracted recovery periods when supply and demand lower property values. 

Two key supply-and-demand factors cause real estate housing values to drop or remain flat.

Overbuilt market

Property values plummet when there's more of a product on the property market than existing demand can consume. Defining a suitable time is tough.  

In California's "hot" property market, a subdivision of several hundred homes could sell out in weeks or months. In a moderate property market, selling 300 similar properties can take months.

Tight money

This term originates from recession, depression, expensive or unavailable lending, and market confidence. If the real estate market is similarly overbuilt, it can drop swiftly and stay low for a while.  

Tight money halts new construction; thus, the number of similar properties must decline for the market to rise.

Real estate development requires long-term financing. The type of home loan given, the interest charged, and the period of the loan all affect the buyer's capacity to repay the loan.

6. Mismanagement

A run-down home in a pleasant area is an example of poor property maintenance. It can also alter nearby the values of comparable properties.  

If allowed unchecked, this trend could lead to a neighborhood's demise.

Unmaintained single-family homes are real estate investment jewels. Inadequate maintenance has numerous causes, including:

• Absentee owner
• The owner can't afford it 
• The tenant isn't paying
• Ownership dispute

In each case, a degrading property may ensue. If an investor finds a property going downhill for one of the reasons above, it may be a good investment that may be turned around cheaply.

7. Income drop

Many things can reduce a property's income. Roadwork that blocks a building's entrance or a global financial catastrophe will work rapidly. When net operating income falls below fixed expenses, calamity strikes the property and its owner.

8. Financing problems

When money disappears, banks and lenders avoid traditional revenue sources. They look to high-end loans, credit card loans, and other moneymakers. They borrow cheap money from the government and others with cash to invest.  

We live in a credit environment, which is tragic because spending more is the only way to jumpstart a stagnant economy.

Maintaining high investing leverage helps during good times. When circumstances get rough, high leverage leads to disaster. Always employ long-term fixed-interest financing and keep a cash reserve for dry spells.

9. Urgency to sell

Most real estate can't be sold quickly, unlike IBM stock. When someone needs to sell, the wolves arrive. 

Property investors seek motivated sellers. The higher the seller's motivation, the better the deal. When there's a suggestion of urgency, excitement might be channeled toward getting a bargain. If the seller knows how to exploit this hurry to their advantage, they can sell the property. 

Bargain sales sacrifice price and terms. A motivated seller may drop the property price but get all cash or the whole amount by offering simple terms or exchanging another property. Each is a choice sellers must make to reach their aims. 

Savvy investors look for motivated sellers who must sell. All investors avoid having to sell soon.

Bottom line

Successful real estate investors focus on a property's land appreciation potential rather than its stylistic features. This entails ignoring the most appealing dwellings in a chosen area and focusing on those that offer prospects for improvement, perhaps increasing the land's value.