1 Bed Flat Gloucester - 6.7% Yield

This very well presented one bed flat is for sale with Michael Tuck. On the market for £79950, this should let for £450.00 PCM and that a yield of 6.7%

                             http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/33699372

First floor , well presented, parking, great location for hospital. Give Tucks a call and arrange a viewing. 
If you would like any advise regarding this or any other property, please do contact me on neil.west@belvoir.co.uk

2 bed Cheltenham - 5.3% Yield

This two bed apartment is on the market with Northwoods for £125,000. Very popular area near GCHQ, so appeals to professionals. This one has two double bedrooms and an en-suite bathroom , so great for sharers

                             http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/35283864

Looks in good condition so would require little effort to turn round and let. Don't forger service charges in your calculations. Why not give Northwoods a call and ask for more details. If you would like advise on this or any other property, please do contact me.

Whaddon property market outperforms Charlton Kings’s by 131%

A couple from Gloucester came to our office to discuss potentially investing in property for Buy to Let in Cheltenham after reading the ‘Cheltenham and Gloucester Property Blog’. I reminded them that one of the most important considerations you will have to make before investing is considering the balance between annual return/yield and the annual value increase/capital growth of the property that you buy.

One of the most sought after places to live in is Charlton Kings on the South Easterly side of Cheltenham. There are 4,463 households in Charlton Kings and an impressive 3,715 of those households (83.2%) are owner occupied, yet only 435 of those households (or 9.7%) are privately rented. Charlton Kings is a very popular area with buyers and tenants alike.  The average value of a property is £406,000 and the average rent is £1,036 pcm (this equates to an average yield is 3.06% per year).  Interestingly, the majority of properties sold in Charlton Kings over the last 12 months were detached properties selling for an average price of £666,300, whilst semi-detached properties sold for an average of £306,300 and terraced houses achieved an average price of £253,500.  Whaddon on the other hand is a different story altogether. Only 1,273 of the 2,443 Whaddon households are home owners (52.1%) and surprising only 244 private rental properties (9.9%), the rest being made up of local authority owned housing.

With this in mind, I carried out some further research and found that three bedroom terraced and semi-detached houses in Whaddon have outperformed those detached houses in Charlton Kings. This is because a three bedroom mid terraced / semi-detached house on Whaddon have been selling on average recently for £125,700 and the achievable rents have been £741 per calendar month. The yield which could be achieved from property in Whaddon is therefore around 7.07% per year. When we compare this to the possible 3.06% per year yield on Charlton Kings, that yield/return is 131% proportionally higher in Whaddon than Charlton Kings.

We must remember however that yield is not the sole consideration when investing in Buy to Let properties. Areas which offer good yields (ie Whaddon), normally suffer from poor capital growth (ie the properties in the area with poor yields don’t up in value as quick as the posher areas.) Looking at average property values in Charlton Kings back to 2002, the average property in Charlton Kings has risen by 91.7% to today. However, average values in Whaddon have only risen by 72.1% in the same time frame.  It just goes to show, do you want yield or you want capital growth when in investing in buy to let property?

If you would like more information on investing in Cheltenham’s property market, please call me on 01242 221188 or visit our office on the Bath Road or email me on neil.west@belvoir.co.uk

2 Bed Maisonette - 6.3% Yield

                             http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/35630332

Just spotted this great 2 bed maisonette that is being marketed with Movearound. This would make a great rental property and will let for at least £500 PCM giving a yield of 6.3% . Don't forget that there will be a ground rent to pay and a service charge.If you would like some advice about this or any other property , please do contact me.  

Three bed - Springbank- 5.1 % Yield

                            http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/35589901

This three bed property is on the market with Peter Ball. Priced at £185K , it should let for around £795 PCM  giving a yield of 5.15%. Family homes are always in great demand and tenants stay longer on average than they do in flats. This would make a good, steady , long term let for an investor who does not want to take too many risks. If you are interested in some advise on this or any other property, please contact me.

Two Bed - Tredworth - 6.0 % Yield

                             http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/35551279

This two bedroom terrace property has just come onto the market with Andrews at £100,000. With some TLC, this could make a great rental property. Lets say you spend £10,000 on it , then you could expect a rent of around £550 PCM which would give you a yield of 6.0%. Not bad and you have added value. 

If you are looking for a good yield on a relatively low investment, then this may be for you. Best to contact Andrews quickly to take a look. If you would like advice on this or any other property, then please contact me at neil.west@belvoir.co.uk 

Cheltenham and Gloucester Property Market – What is going to happen in 2015?

I had an interesting chat with a landlord who uses another letting agent in Cheltenham after he popped into our office. We got taking about both the Cheltenham and Gloucester property markets, as he lived in Cheltenham but most of his buy to let properties were in Churchdown and Gloucester and thought other homeowners and landlords might be interested. Whilst the housing markets are so different, with average property prices being almost 50% more in Cheltenham (the average value of a property in Cheltenham is £302,900 compared to Gloucester’s at £204,700), there are a lot of similarities between the two place’s property markets.

You see, property values didn’t stop dropping in Cheltenham and Gloucester until December 2011 (and if I am being honest, there was a very minor dip around Christmas of 2012), so after a strong run over the last 23 months (starting in January 2013), the ever upward drive of house price rises has started to turn with increases now at an almost standstill for the first time since the start of 2013. Now it could be said this easing of the housing market in Cheltenham and Gloucester can be attributed partly to the time of year (in 2013 property values in Cheltenham and Gloucester dropped by 0.1% in November), it is obvious that estate agents in Cheltenham and Gloucester are wary about the direction of the market as a result of the not as strong demand and fewer house sales.

With the uncertainty of a possible interest rate rise, new mortgage rules, a general election on the horizon and recent warnings of a house price bubble. Although the main indicators suggest that buyers will start to gain the upper hand, especially with the new stamp duty rules announced recently by George Osbourne. However, there are many homeowners who don’t need to sell and won’t bother unless it’s economically beneficial to do so, but most homeowners are homebuyers, so what they loose with one they gain with another.

On the one hand going for high yielding Cheltenham and Gloucester property to rent out seems an obvious choice (in say Barton, Matson and Whaddon) but high yielding property often doesn’t go up in value that well and in some circumstances doesn’t keep up with inflation, meaning in real terms you have a depreciating. So surely you should pick a property that has great capital growth then, because of the obvious potential to generate long term capital profit, especially with inflation eating away at our savings. However, rental yields on high capital growth properties (in areas such as Charlton Kings, Prestbury and Upton Saint Leonards) tend to be low meaning if you are taking a high percentage mortgage, the rent doesn’t pay the mortgage payments.

This is all good news for landlords looking to buy rental property with the changes in stamp duty and later in 2015, the new rules regarding pensions, where you will be able to take money out of your pension pot to invest in property. However, at the same time, I would say don’t just buy any old property in Cheltenham and Gloucester. First time landlords need to be cautious. The doubling of house prices every seven to ten years which has taken place since WW2 doesn’t seem to have been seen since the mid 2000’s. The property market is shifting with more properties being built and restrictions put on mortgage lending, the likelihood of the property market increasing at the same levels as the past is questionable. But investing in property is also about receiving the rent.

If you want to chat about property investment in the either Cheltenham or Gloucester, either pop into our offices on Bath Road in Cheltenham or Worcester Street in Gloucester or email direct on neil.west@belvoir.co.uk  and I look forward to speaking to you soon