Housing Needs Survey Results

Housing

• Average property prices of £339,363 within Bere Ferrers in 2022, increasing from £301,385 in 2021.
• 6.7% of homes are 1 bedroom properties, 33.7% are 2 bedrooms, 39% are 3 bedrooms, 20.6% are 4 or more (which is lower than the 21.1% average for England and Wales). 
• Occupancy ratings for bedrooms:
  • 39.9% have 2 or more spare bedrooms
  • 39.1% have 1 spare bedroom
  • 19.8% have the right amount of bedrooms for their households
  • 1.2% are lacking 1 bedroom
  • 0.1% are lacking 2 or more bedrooms
• Of the households in the parish, 48.8% own their home outright, 24.5% own with a mortgage or shared ownership, 11.9% live in social rented accommodation and 14.8% live in private rented accommodation or live rent free.

Renting in Bere Ferrers Parish

• Average 2 bed rental prices of £712.50 per calendar month between 2020 and 2022 (median).
• The maximum Local Housing Allowance is £583.40 per month for a 2 bed property.
• In the PL20 postcode area, there has been a 2.8% increase in demand for rental properties, whilst there has been a 40% decrease in available listings, in the period between Oct 22 and Oct 23.
• During the same period, there has been a 28.7% increase in the asking price on Rental Properties in the PL20 postcode area.

Affordable housing

• Current stock (approximate):
  • Live West - 123 current affordable stock.
  • Westward - 20 current affordable stock.
  • Hastoe - 17 current affordable stock.
• There have been 16 Affordable Housing units available through Devon Home Choice, between January 2019 and 2023.
• Turnover of stock between Jan 2019 and August 2023 included 8 x 1 bed properties, 5 x 2 bed properties and 3 x 3 bed properties.

Devon Home Choice

• 48 applicants registered with a local connection through residence  
• 18 applicants registered with a local connection through immediate family connections
• The average income of households registered on Devon Home Choice with a local connection to Bere Ferrers is £15,189 annually.

Disposals

• At present, there have been 4 known properties marked for disposal by Live West within the parish within the last 2 years.
• These are a mix of properties all of which have been houses, which are family-sized properties with 2 or 3 bedrooms.
• These properties will be or have been sold on the open market.
• One of these properties was adapted with an adapted bathroom, grabrails and ramps.

Bere Alston Primary School

• Bere Alston Primary School provides for children aged 2 years until 11 years.
• The number of children enrolled at the school has experienced an overall decline in recent years.
• The percentage of children eligible for Free School Meals has decreased but remained high. This is an indicator of income and affordability of essential provisions.

From the census

• 30% of households in the parish are single person households. 41.5% are two people households, which is above the average for England. 14.2% are three person households, and 14.3% are four or more person households.
• 30.5% travel less than 10km to their work place. 30.4% work mainly from home. 
• 49% of the parish population are economically active and in employment, 1.3% are unemployed. 49.7% are economically inactive.
• 89.3% provide no unpaid care. 4.1% provide 50 or more hours of unpaid care a week. 2.3% provide 20 to 49 hours a week, and 4.3% provide 19 hours or less a week.
• 45.7% of households are not deprived in any dimension. 37.9%are deprived in one dimension, and 13.4% deprived in two dimensions.