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Average Bath Rents Exceed £1,600

Posted on by prateek

The private rented sector for both Bath landlords and Bath tenants is facing immense challenges, with a shortage of available homes for rent putting renters under significant pressure.

And you can see why when the average UK rent in 2021 was £1,381 and in 2023 it has been £1,706, an increase of 23.53%.

Let’s look closer to home in the Bath area.

The average rent for homes coming on the market in the Bath area in 2021 was £1,413 per month, whilst in 2023, it has been £1,660 per month.
(BA1/BA2)

You can understand why people are accusing landlords of “widespread profiteering”.

But as always, the devil is in the detail.

This increase in average Bath rent is for new tenancies, not tenancy renewals.

A new tenancy is when a brand-new tenant moves into a home, whilst a renewal is when an existing tenant renews the lease with their existing landlord.

Government data shows that most landlords are not exploiting the mortgage crisis, with 64% of landlords maintaining and 4% decreasing rents to shield renters from the impact on renewal of their tenancy agreement, dispelling the notion that they are exploiting the situation.

Looking at the same Government data, of the landlords setting rents for new tenants, just under half of landlords (45%) stated they increased the rent compared to the previous tenancy with the old tenant, whereas a third (35%) kept the rent they charged at the same level, and surprisingly 1 in 12 (8%) decreased the rent.

Therefore, whilst the average percentage growth in Bath for new tenancies is 17.5%, the overall average for all tenancies is only 4.6% for Bath.

And 4.6% is much lower than the rate of inflation.

Contrary to popular belief, landlords’ profit margins have significantly dwindled in recent years. The profits for private landlords are at their lowest since the Credit Crunch due to rising mortgage rates and limited tax relief. This demonstrates that private landlords are not profiteering during the cost-of-living crisis.

Now some of you will say, Bath house prices have risen in that time. Yes, that is the case, yet not by the rate of inflation, so in fact in ‘real’ terms, their investments have gone down in value.

Landlords are often portrayed negatively in the media but are in fact making considerable efforts to provide safe and secure housing for millions of tenants.

Landlords face growing costs, including increased mortgage payments and the negative impact of a tax system that discourages investment in the rental market. These challenges are further exacerbated by ongoing uncertainty surrounding reforms to the law regarding landlords.

With limited options available, landlords must choose between leaving the private rented sector, increasing rents as a last resort, or absorbing mounting costs. However, the latter is nearly impossible for most individual landlords who lack deep pockets. To address these challenges, the Government must provide crucial support to the rental market.

To alleviate the burden on renters, the Government should reconsider current taxes which are designed to discourage landlords from providing more rental homes. It is vital to ensure that the supply of rental properties does not further diminish, as Bath tenants simply cannot bear the consequences of a dwindling market and it will lead to further housing hardship.

Without proper government support, both renters and landlords will continue to face challenges, caught between a rock and a hard place.

Housing is such an important thing (rather like the NHS), and I would urge all parties, to move beyond rhetoric and take positive action to support the private rented sector.

I know many Bath landlords who are making sincere efforts to shield Bath renters from the mortgage crisis, and it is crucial their contributions are recognised.

By fostering an environment that encourages investment and providing support to renters, the Government can help alleviate the strain on both landlords and tenants and ensure a sustainable and fair rental market for all.

Reside is an award-winning independent letting agent in Bath. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss any aspect of letting or managing your property; we would love to hear from you.

The Average Bath Homeowner Pocketed £354k in the Last 20 Years

Posted on by prateek

  • The average house price in Bath has increased by 195.9% to £535,700 in the last 20 years, a profit of £354,650
  • That means, when adjusted for inflation in those two decades, Bath house prices have risen in real terms by 123.8%
  • What does this mean for existing Bath homeowners and first-time buyers trying to get on the Bath property ladder?

Since 2001, average UK house prices have risen by an astonishing 187.2% across the UK, while in London the figure is 247.6%.

Looking back at the people that bought in those first few years of the new Millennium, few of those buying or selling property in 2001 could have forecast the massive financial impact that their decision then would have on the rest of their lives.

In those years, there have been winners and losers, where some Bath buyers have made hundreds of thousands of pounds and Bath renters have paid out tens of thousands of pounds and yet been unable to buy their first home – but life is often not as simple as that, so in this article I wanted to discuss the matter further.

The average house price in Bath has increased by 195.9% to £535,700 in the last 20 years, a profit of £354,650.

Now of course these are average prices and don’t take inflation into consideration.

Yet even when adjusted for inflation, Bath house prices have still risen by 123.8% in the last 20 years.

Characteristically, the longer a homeowner has owned their property, the larger the gain when they sell. Yet most of these profits are never seen by Bath homeowners. It has never been money in the bank unless you sell up and downsize or move somewhere cheaper. Instead, these gains are re-invested back into the housing market when they buy their next home.

So, whether the gains are banked or tied up in their bricks and mortar, it looks like all the Bath homeowners are in the driving seat.

What about all the first-time buyers, priced out of the market and unable to get on to the property ladder?

Are the young of Bath losing out again?

Reading the newspapers you would think so, yet nothing could be further from the truth. In fact…

It’s 26.8% cheaper today to buy a house in Bath compared to 2007

(That isn’t a typo!)

In 2002, 28.3% of a first-time buyer’s household income went on the mortgage payments. Today, that figure stands at 37.3%, yet in 2007, it was 51%… hence why it’s cheaper today!

Of course, for most young potential first-time buyers, the other largest barrier to home ownership is the matter of raising an adequate deposit.

Rising rents (and future energy prices) won’t help and will in fact make this problem worse, giving ambitious first-time buyers not much left at the end of the month to save a deposit for their first home.

With soaring Bath house prices, this means the amount Bath renters need to save for their deposit is growing year on year.

For these annoyed renters, there is the unpleasant irony that if they could only get on the Bath housing ladder, they would find themselves better off. They would spend a lower proportion of their monthly take home pay on keeping a roof over their heads.

Some people in the press have suggested the older generation, with all the equity tied up in their homes over the last 20 years, should release some of the money and give it to their children or grandchildren to help them on the ladder.

Reports in the press have also said that many homeowners aged 60+ have changed their plans to move home. Many were planning to downsize to release the tied-up equity in their home. That equity would either be used to invest in the bank to produce an income for them and/or to help their children (sometimes even grandchildren) on to the property ladder.

Yet with the interest paid by banks and building societies on any lump sum being very low, to many mature homeowners it hardly seems worthwhile making the move to downsize. This means many younger would-be first-time buyers are missing out on help from the Bank of Mum and Dad (or the Bank of Grandma and Grandpa) with their deposit.

However, the problems caused by low interest rates could also be their saviour.

Many older homeowners have turned to Equity Release, thus allowing them to get hold of a share of the equity amassed in their property, in exchange for a tax-free lump sum of cash.

Cash that could be used to help with deposits for their children/grandchildren?

The mature homeowner then stays in their larger family home and helps their family buy a property.

Whilst I am not a mortgage adviser (and you must take proper advice from a qualified mortgage broker), equity release mortgages don’t have end dates and the interest payments are rolled up (until you pass away). This means that there aren’t any monthly payments.

The interest rate you pay is normally fixed for the mortgage and because interest rates are so low, that means the debt shouldn’t balloon up. And should you decide to sell in a few years’ time, you just pay back the capital, redemption fee and the small amount of interest accrued.

Now of course, that does mean there will be less for your offspring to inherit when you pass away.

Equity release mortgages though have had some bad press recently. In the past they were unregulated and pricey. Yet today, there is more protection for borrowers.

One answer to the growing interest debt is to pay part or all of the monthly mortgage interest charged, yet you must have the income for that.

You also need to take advice on how the equity release will affect your liability for nursing home fees and inheritance tax. Also, if only one person in your home is the owner of the property, if that homeowner dies, the partner who is not on the mortgage (because only owners can go on a mortgage) won’t have any rights to stay in the family home.

Finally, if you are planning to move, don’t just compare the interest rate, but the redemption charge for early repayment – some of them can be very high.

My advice – take professional advice and speak to your family and involve them. Yes, we have all built up some amazing equity in our Bath homes, and yes, there is potential to help the younger generations with that wealth. Just go in with eyes open and know all the facts, all the pros and all the cons – then decide what is best for you with all that information to hand.

What are your thoughts, as a mature Bath homeowner or a first-time buyer, on this? It would be good to hear from you.

Reside is an award-winning independent letting agent in Bath. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss any aspect of letting or managing your property; we would love to hear from you.

What Will Happen to Bath House Prices in 2022?

Posted on by prateek

Traditionally, if you had not sold your Bath home by the first week in November, you would normally have to wait for the house sellers to return in the famous Boxing Day rush on the portals (Rightmove, Zoopla etc) to get potential buyers interested.

Yet matters have been different this year as the various lockdowns have caused a surge in house buying right up until when the Christmas edition of the Radio Times goes on sale.

So the question is… how will the Bath property market look in 2022?

The market over the last couple of years have been different in many ways. So much so, many Bath homeowners are presently deliberating over whether they should put their home on the market in January or wait until later in the summer.

Speaking to many Bath buyers, sellers and Bath buy-to-let landlords over the last couple of weeks in the run-up to Christmas, many were asking the very same question.

What is going to happen to Bath house prices in 2022?

Some people asking this question are buyers troubling themselves that they are about to buy their Bath home just before a potential property crash, yet others are homeowners wanting to know where the top of the market is before they sell. Even a handful of Bath landlords unable to either start buying or start selling some of their rental portfolio.

Therefore, let’s see what has happened in 2021 to make a better judgement of what should happen in 2022.

Nobody has a crystal ball that can tell what 2022 holds, however most property experts are not forecasting doom and gloom for the British property market.

Whilst the final numbers won’t be known until Easter 2022, it is estimated that in 2021 one in fifteen privately owned homes in the UK will have changed hands, making it the busiest year in the last 14 years.

1,350 properties have changed hands in the last year in Bath

Although that is only up to October 2021, so numbers will be much higher once all the final counts are in by March / April 2022.

The pandemic made many Bath families re-evaluate what they wanted from their home, with many wanting bigger rooms (and more of them). Many in the press dubbed this ‘the race for space’, meaning the property market was flooded with home buyers, most bringing forward the home move they had planned between now and 2025.

The issue was, there weren’t enough Bath properties on the market to satisfy every Bath buyer, meaning Bath house prices have unsurprisingly been driven up.

The average price of a home in Bath is £425,530

Although it is still premature to say what will happen in 2022, most property commentators seem assured that we are not heading towards a house price crash, mainly due to one reason.

There aren’t enough properties on the market in Bath. Simply supply and demands economics!

The property crash in 2008 was caused by everyone dumping their property on the market.

In January 2007, there were 867 properties for sale in Bath, one year later in January 2008, that had risen to 1,177 properties, whilst today, that stands at 316

And I can’t see that changing for 2022.

In 2007, mortgage interest rates were 6.5% to 7.5%, so when the economy started to falter, everyone looked to sell their homes to reduce their outgoings as unemployment rose by over 60% in just a couple of years. This time round most people have mortgage rates of around 2% to 2.5% and unemployment is dropping, meaning they don’t need to sell their home.

Of course, the stamp duty holiday came to an end months ago, and Bank of England base interest rates are expected to rise moderately in the coming year, yet not to the level they were in 2007 (5.75%).

Nonetheless, demand for Bath homes will still be there. I have even read some reports suggesting that more than 20% of British households are seriously thinking of moving between now and the summer of 2023, and this will support Bath house prices whilst demand continues to exceed supply.

Bath house prices will be 3.3% higher by the end of 2022

Another reason why I believe that will be the case is the return to home working. If, as a country, we will need to work from home each winter for the foreseeable future because of new variants, then this will cement the need for people wanting to move home for remote working.

It might be that Bath buyers are looking for a dedicated office at home or that they feel they now no longer need to be in large built-up areas that are near to their work.

This increase in Bath house prices is expected to entice even more sellers onto the market, which will steady Bath house prices slightly (as supply increases), yet I still believe there won’t be enough properties coming onto the market to satisfy the colossal demand.

What about the Bath rental market?

Rents tend to grow in line with tenants’ wages. So, with many people getting decent pay rises and not enough properties being built, many economists are suggesting rents will be 14% to 19% higher by 2027. Even with the house price growth, the numbers for rental investments still look rosy.

Is it the right time to buy your first property in Bath?

This rise in Bath house prices has had many people asking whether 2022 is the right time to buy their first home? Should they buy now before Bath prices rocket even further or delay in the hope that house prices come back down?

As with any important decision in life, this will mainly depend on your own personal life and your motives for wanting to move.

If the Bath home that you want to buy is on the market, available and you can afford the mortgage, then delaying could be detrimental. It’s like holding off for the ‘next generation TV’, it then coming out; then just as you are about to buy the TV, the next ‘next generation TV’ gets announced for six months’ time… and the cycle is constantly in motion – so you end up never buying a TV… just like you will never buy your own home!

Buying property is a long-term game

Sometimes you just have to make your decision, get something bought and start the journey of the next 25 to 35 years of living in your family home whilst paying off your mortgage.

The present low interest rates for first-time buyers means that there are some very low mortgage deals available for those with a decent deposit, making it a good time to buy or invest in a Bath property, especially if you fix the interest rate.

If your deposit is humbler, the Government’s 5% deposit mortgage guarantee scheme will still enable you to buy a property, albeit at a slightly higher interest rate.

Looking at the bigger picture, these are only my opinions. If inflation doesn’t get too out of hand and interest rates don’t go above 2% to 3%, it looks like Bath house prices will, for 2022 and a few years beyond, continue upwards albeit with a slower trajectory than 2020/21 and probably with a few short, sharp up and down spikes on the way.

The bottom line is, ensure that any Bath house move or buy-to-let investment that you intend to make is something that you can afford, allow for future rises in interest rates and make plans for as many eventualities as possible. Do that, and you should be just fine.

These are my opinions – what are yours?

Reside is an award-winning independent letting agent in Bath. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss any aspect of letting or managing your property; we would love to hear from you.

Bath People’s Addiction to their Spare Bedrooms

Posted on by prateek

The Housing Minister, Chris Pincher, has suggested older homeowners are “rattling around” in their homes as they are too big for them. He implied they are selfish and should sell up and move to a retirement home when he spoke to a committee in the House of Lords. He stated that many British homes are “under-occupied” and could be better used by younger families with children.

He went on to say that the Government will aim to persuade UK housebuilders to build more developments suitable for OAPs, freeing up space in their existing homes, which in turn would open up more homes for first and second-time buyers.

So why is this an issue?

The fundamental problem of the Bath housing ‘crisis’, is the point that the supply of Bath homes has not historically met demand, thus increasing property values (and in turn rents), consequently ensuring home ownership becomes an unattainable ambition for the twenty something’s of Bath.

Call me a pragmatist, but it’s understandable that either demand needs to drop or supply needs to rise to stop this trend getting worse for the generations to come.

Don’t get me wrong, I admire Westminster’s plans to help first-time buyers with their ‘First Homes’ initiative to increase the supply of new homes being built just for first-time buyers. Yet it’s targeted to deliver only 1,500 homes in around 100 locations in the next two years.

To give you an idea of how this a drop in the ocean, the Government sponsored the independent Barker Review of Housing Supply Report in 2004 which was tasked at looking at what could be done to level the playing field regarding the housing needs for the UK. The report found that the UK needed 240,000 homes to be built each year just to meet the demand of a growing and aging population. Since 2000, the average number of properties built in the UK each year has only been 177,975 per year. This means we have been around 62,000 homes short per year. Therefore, after 20 years of this annual shortfall we, as a country, have 1,240,500 too few homes – hence the massive uplift in house prices over the last two decades.

Click/tap to enlarge

Therefore, one option that could resolve the housing crisis is if the Government literally looked closer to home, concentrating on matching households with the appropriately sized home… and this is what the government has shone a light on – people with too many spare bedrooms.

Is having a spare bedroom something that in this day and age is particularly wasteful? Well, let’s look at the numbers for Bath.

12,652 Bath homes have one spare bedroom.

Well, everyone in my opinion needs a spare bedroom, especially in the light of lockdown where many of us needed to work from home.

Ok, let’s see who has two or more spare bedrooms.

Of the 40,336 households in Bath 13,754 have two or more spare bedrooms!

Of all the homes in Bath, be they owned, privately rented or council house, 34.1% of Bath homes have two or more spare bedrooms, compared to the national average 45.2%.

Let’s break it down by ownership/tenure:

Of the 23,889 owned houses in Bath, 11,882 have two or more spare bedrooms or as expressed as a percentage,

49.7% of Bath owned homes have 2 or more spare bedrooms (national average: 53.9%).

Of the 6,848 council houses in Bath, 547 have two or more spare bedrooms, or as expressed as a percentage,

8.0% of Bath council homes have 2 or more spare bedrooms (national average: 11.6%).

Of the 9,599 private rented houses in Bath, 1,325 have two or more spare bedrooms or as expressed as a percentage,

13.8% of Bath private rented homes have 2 or more spare bedrooms (national average: 19.4%).

You can see there is the spare capacity in the Bath housing market.

The Government hit the social housing sector with their ‘Bedroom tax’ in 2012, (also known as under occupancy charge or spare room subsidy) which meant that in council homes you would receive less in Housing Benefit or Housing Costs Element in a Universal Credit claim if you lived in a housing association or council property and were deemed to have one or more spare bedrooms.

Now it seems the Government has concentrated on the group that makes up the bulk of homeowners with spare bedrooms, the older owner occupiers of large properties, in their 60s and 70s, where the kids have flown the nest.

However, there are many explanations why these mature homeowners do not downsize. These people have lived in the same house for 30, 40, even 50 years, and as one matures in life, many people do not want to depart from what they see as the family home. Much time has been invested in making friends in their neighbourhood and it’s nice to have all those rooms in case every grandchild decided to visit, at the same time, and they brought their friends!

But is that a selfish point of view? Are we addicted to our spare bedrooms?

Or should the Government keep its nose out of where people live?

I would ask if the ‘Minister of Superfluously Sizeable Houses’ should be kicking you out of the Bath home you worked for and have spent much of your life in? And why is it assumed that retired homeowners want to downsize to small little bungalows and apartments? Many love their spacious living rooms and kitchens (which are typically found in bigger houses).

This Government is in a muddle about housing policy.

On one side of the coin, the Government announced an increase in the tax burden on the British public with a rise to its highest level since the early 1950s to pay for care and the NHS, yet on the other side of the coin, recently cancelling vote losing policies, so that mature people going into care do not need to sell their homes (which if you think about it, they won’t live in anyway because they are going to long-term care). Whilst at the same time, to muddy the waters, they are suggesting to mature homeowners they have to move out of those same large homes to free it up for younger families?  If the Government doesn’t know what the answer is, who does?

The subject of downsizing is a delicate one to unravel.

We all know that mature homeowners, if they moved to a smaller Bath home, would lose all the space they take for granted and would be unable to have the grandchildren over. Remaining in your large Bath home is not greedy, it’s just the accepted human longing to enjoy a life after 50 plus years of working and paying your dues and taxes. You could say, “Move to a managed retirement home.” Yet many are very small and quite expensive.

And anyway, why should you have to relocate and wave goodbye to all your neighbours who have become friends and provide a support network?

There is a case made by some that mature downsizers could be given stamp duty tax breaks to get them to downsize, yet I am not sure how this could be policed, and it doesn’t solve the problem of increasing the overall supply of property in the UK.

The real issue isn’t spare bedrooms, it’s the need to change the planning rules to increase the number and type of new homes being built that will satisfy these mature homeowners with excess spare bedrooms to move into.

Big national builders have exploited ham-fisted planning rules since the 1980s, but no political party seems to have the answer. Housing Minister Chris Pincher might say he wants to persuade builders to build more suitable homes for mature people, yet his Government’s actions don’t seem to match his words.

In the Queen’s Speech this spring, the Government announced a proposed new planning system, which would create “simpler, faster procedures for producing local development plans, approving major schemes, assessing environmental impacts and negotiating affordable housing and infrastructure contributions”, or in layman’s terms, allowing more building to take place.

However, word coming out of Government is those plans could be cancelled following the Conservatives’ surprise defeat in the Chesham & Amersham by-election to the Liberal Democrats in the summer, which was blamed by some Conservative MPs on the new proposed planning laws.

So, whilst the Government decides what to do, what can mature Bath homeowners do if they feel they do want to downsize?

The biggest fear many mature Bath homeowners have is they will sell their large Bath home but be unable to find anything to buy – thus making themselves homeless.

If you are a Bath homeowner or landlord and think this may affect you – feel free to drop me a line.

Reside is an award-winning independent letting agent in Bath. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss any aspect of letting or managing your property; we would love to hear from you.

Reside Review: October 2021

Posted on by prateek

Everything you need to know about the property rental market in October 2021. This month: an in-depth look into Bath’s rental property shortage.

More Reside records fell by the wayside during October, with more properties let over the course of the month than any preceding October since the company’s inception. Our average letting time was just 3 days between placing the property on the market, and having an offer accepted by the landlord. During the month of October, we achieved an average of 101% of the advertised rent.

This month’s data once again bears out the recent pattern of property supply being vastly outweighed by tenant demand, but exactly how in-demand are Bath’s rental properties?

Bath Property In High Demand

At the time of recording the above video, a quick Rightmove search revealed just 50 properties currently on the market across the entire city, with only 15 placed on the market in the last seven days.

As Reside’s average letting time of 3 days suggests, if a property has been on the rental market for longer than 7 days in the current climate… something is wrong. It could that the property is overpriced or poorly marketed – either way, the landlord owes their letting agency a serious conversation.

So just how much competition is there for these 15 recently launched properties?

In the above video, General Manager Toby Martin looks closely at the Rightmove data of two apartments that we recently let for £1,200 per month. One property let after just one day; the second apartment was launched on a Friday and let agreed on the Monday. Between them, they amassed around 1,500 views on Rightmove between going on the market and an offer being accepted by the landlord.

Two apartments. 5 days on the market between them. 1500 views on Rightmove. It’s no wonder that properties are letting so quickly, and that rents have been pushed upwards.

Will The Winter Market Slow Down?

Traditionally, both supply and demand dwindle during November, before almost shutting up shop entirely during December. It is likely that supply to the market will reduce even further over the next couple of months, as tenants bed in for the winter and delay home moves until the New Year.

What is unlikely to change, however, is the discrepancy between supply and demand. For every property on the market during November and December, there are still bound to be multiple interested parties. The property shortages of the past few months will have left a large backlog of home hunters who have been unable to secure their next move.

In that respect, it will still be a buoyant climate for landlords bringing their homes and investments to the rental market.

Reside is an award-winning independent letting agent in Bath. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss any aspect of letting or managing your property; we would love to hear from you.

Have A Very Independent Bath Christmas

Posted on by prateek

Milsom Street - Bath

Bath is justifiably renowned for its magical Christmas market, which sees thousands of visitors flood to the city to explore the two hundred timber chalets stocked with festive gifts and cheer.

Many local residents, however, eschew the market in favour of the exceptional independent shops which make a Bath unique shopping destination all year round. This blog guides you around some of our favourite independents, who we think will solve any Christmas shopping conundrums this year.

Rossiters of Bath is an essential starting point for anybody planning an excursion around the city’s independent shops. Situated on Broad Street for over 50 years, the department store is a treasure trove of interconnecting rooms, each filled with homewares, toiletries and fragrances. Shoppers can also cross several items off their Christmas lists at The Loft, where shelves are stacked with an array of gifts, clothes and accoutrements.

Book lovers spend many happy hours nosing around Bath’s independent book shops, but those in search of gifts for literature lovers should look no further than Mr B’s Emporium, whose Reading Spa vouchers entitle the recipient to be plied with cake, coffee and a towering stack of books handpicked by a Mr B’s bibliotherapist.

Bath is a city with a burgeoning reputation as a gastronome’s delight, with high quality independent restaurants and foodie boutiques around every corner. Many restaurants, such as Acorn Vegetarian Kitchen and Hudson Steakhouse, offer gift vouchers that would be sure to prematurely end any New Year’s diet. Richard Bertinet’s cookery school, The Bertinet Kitchen, offers classes and vouchers for cooks wishing to hone their culinary expertise.

For those wanted to stuff stockings with edible offerings, The Foodie Bugle sells delicious artisanal treats, San Francisco Fudge Factory offers decadent handmade confectionery and The Bath Fine Cheese Co. provide hampers crammed with delicious cheeses. Meanwhile, a hamper of craft beers picked from Independent Spirit‘s vast selection would quench the thirst of any microbrewery fanatic.

A locally produced piece of art makes a unique gift and Bertie & Jack, whose stall can usually be found on Burton Street, make customised colourful ‘cut-out’ wall art. For artwork with a local theme, visit Flamingo in Widcombe whose varied and imaginative gifts include prints depicting well-known areas of Bath.

Whether they have been naughty or nice, every boy and girl will be expecting to find an exciting parcel under the tree on Christmas morning. In Spotty Herberts and My Small World, Bath has two innovative independents that will certainly cater for the youngsters in the family.

No shopping trip to Bath is complete without a visit to its many boutique clothing and fashion stores. Start with Grace & Ted‘s award-winning designer re-sale store for unusual and genuine designer clothing, and then to Walcot Street stalwart The Yellowshop for authentic vintage clothing. Nearby Sisi & May offer the finest in contemporary women’s clothing, whilst you will be sure to find glamourous jewelry gifts in The Silver Shop and Alexandra May.

Bath is fortunate to be rich with high quality independent shops and boutiques. Why not treat your family to an independent Bath Christmas this year?

These locations have been added to the Reside Map of Bath, which plots all of the sites of interest that are mentioned in our blogs.