AUCTION ALERT!! Directly Opposite Milton Keynes Hospital, 3 bed terrace, £140k guide price, 8% rental yield

Another auction gem coming up on 1st November - don't delay, these properties are great value and always let well......

Although this is located on an older housing estate, it is literally opposite Milton Keynes Hospital, and being a larger house over 3 floors it could be utilised in several ways. Firstly you could let it as a single-let family home and achieve a rental of around £930 PCM or 8% yield, very attractive in its own right. Another option is to break it down into a HMO and possibly let 3 or even 4 individual bedrooms out for £350 PCM, considerably more income is to be made like this but of course the wear & tear would increase, as could the amount of management and hassle you would have, but for some investors this is the way to go.

With a guide price of £140k, I would not suggest paying much more than this, as the market level is already around that price today, and don't forget you will need a budget to restore and refurbish the internal living space, possibly with a kitchen, bathroom, central heating and decoration. As a guide, I would budget for up to £10k worth of works, simply because you can't yet see the inside and it is best to look at the worst case scenario and be prepared for a lot of work and then be pleasantly surprised if it isn't needed.

I will regularly post what I consider to be great buy to let deals across Milton Keynes and surrounding areas on this blog 3 or 4 times a week, irrespective of which agent they are being marketed with. Maybe you should subscribe and be kept up to date?

If you are thinking of getting into the buy to let property rental market as a new investor and don't know where to start, or you would like some impartial advice and guidance to get the best return on your investment, call me now on 01908 373580 or pop along and speak to me in person at our new offices in Central Bletchley, Milton Keynes.

danielle@inspiedagents.co.uk

Fancy a game of Buy-To-Let Monopoly?

As the nights draw in, if there is nothing on TV, a lot of families like to huddle around and play the board game Monopoly, my family included. The buying and renting of property is like a busman’s holiday for me! Interestingly, the game was originally invented at the turn of the 20th Century (in 1903) and the game was initially called ‘The Landlord’s Game’! Anyway, after a few years in the wilderness, the current owners of the game renamed it in 1935 and so began Monopoly as we know it today.

Regardless if you are a homeowner or landlord in Milton Keynes, what would a Monopoly board look like today in the town? Property prices over the last 80 years have certainly increased beyond all recognition (not to mention the physical landscape which has of course changed beyond all recognition from the arable farmland that used to be seen for many miles around), so looking at the original board I have substituted some of the original streets with the most expensive and least expensive locations in Milton Keynes today.

Initially, I have focused on the MK2 postcode only, looking at the Brown Squares on the board, the ‘new’ Old Kent Road in Milton Keynes today would be Serpentine Court, with an average value £71,020 (per property) and Whitechapel Road would be Garrowmore Grove, which would be worth £113,200. What about the posh dark blue squares of Park Lane and Mayfair? Again, looking at MK2, Park Lane would be Manor Road at £309,200 and Mayfair would be Mill Road at £324,900. However, look a little further afield from the MK2 postcode, and such roads as Woodside in Aspley Guise would claim the Mayfair card at £1,130,000! Also, I can’t forget the train stations (my favourite squares), and over the last 12 months, the average price that property within a quarter mile of Central Milton Keynes station was £264,800 or 6% higher than those located in the next game square.

So that got me thinking what you would have had to have paid for a property in Milton Keynes back in 1935, when the game originally came out?

- The average Milton Keynes detached house today is worth £453,900 would have set you back 760 Pounds 8 shillings and 7 old pence.

 - The average Milton Keynes semi-detached house today is worth £248,600 would have set you back 416 Pounds 9 shillings and 3 old pence.

 - The average Milton Keynes terraced / town house today is worth £217,300 would have set you back 364 Pounds and 2 shillings.

 - The average Milton Keynes apartment today is worth £165,300 would have set you back 276 Pounds 18 shillings and 3 old pence.

If that sounds like another currency, you must be in your 20’s or 30’s, because it was back in February 1971, that Britain went decimal and hundreds of years of everyday currency was turned into history overnight. On 14th of February of that year, there were 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound. The following day all that was history and the pound was made up of 100 new pence.

I hope you enjoyed this bit of fun, but underlying all this is one important fact. Property investing is a long game, which has seen impressive rises over the last 80 years. In my previous articles, I have talked about what is happening on a month by month or year by year basis and if you are going to invest in the Milton Keynes property market, you should consider the property you buy a medium to long term investment, because Buy-To-Let is pretty much what it says on the label – you buy a property in order to let it out to tenants.

When you become a landlord, you are in essence running a small business – one with important legal responsibilities. On that note, I want to remind landlords of the recent and future changes in legislation and taxation when it comes to buy to let. Failure to adhere to them will mean a minimum of heavy fines in the thousands or in some cases, prison ... it’s a mine field! That’s why I write the Milton Keynes Property Blog, where it has an extensive library of articles like this one, where I talk about what is happening in the Milton Keynes property market, what to buy (and sometimes not) in the local area and everything else that is important to know as a landlord.

If you are thinking of getting into the buy to let property rental market as a new investor and don't know where to start, or you would like some impartial advice and guidance to get the best return on your investment, call me now on 01908 373580 or pop along and speak to me in person at our new offices in Central Bletchley, Milton Keynes.

danielle@inspiredagents.co.uk

Bletchley 3 bed house in a popular rental location, £155k with 6.6% yield

As ABBA once sang - money money money..........but not everyone has bags of money to spare, so for those on a budget but wanting a decent return then cast your eyes over this.........

Todays offering may not win any beauty contests, nor will it suit many landlords expectations or fit with their middle class portfolio, but for some this will be right up their street, being both affordable to buy and popular on the rental market to the families who want, need or can only afford to live in this area.

At an asking price of £155k this is a lot of house for the money, however when you look at the location it is clearly getting on a bit, hence prices for all properties around here are at this level, BUT what that will give you is 2 things in your favour:

1. An affordable resale price, and a way into the lettings market that will not break the bank

2. A greater than average annual yield (cash flow), as lower priced properties still rent out well

The current rental market value for this would be around £850-875 PCM which is a yield of at least 6.6%, and literally whenever we get properties in this area we can have them let within a few days to families extremely keen to get a decent sized house on a tight budget. You will find that having secured the house, they will not want to move for some time, so in reality you will end up with a happy long term tenant moved in quickly.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-56479027.html

I will regularly post what I consider to be great buy to let deals across Milton Keynes and surrounding areas on this blog 3 or 4 times a week, irrespective of which agent they are being marketed with. Maybe you should subscribe and be kept up to date?

If you are thinking of getting into the buy to let property rental market as a new investor and don't know where to start, or you would like some impartial advice and guidance to get the best return on your investment, call me now on 01908 373580 or pop along and speak to me in person at our new offices in Central Bletchley, Milton Keynes.

danielle@inspiredagents.co.uk

Downs Barn large family home, close to the centre, £240k with at least 5.5% yield

How nice is this! A family sized house, good sized rooms, parking and garage, with a conservatory and yet within a short walk of the city centre......

This property will really appeal to a young family where one of the adults needs to get to CMK daily but doesn't want to pay high parking fees, or it also works for those who want to commute up and down the M1 motorway as it is just a few miles and an easy run to get on there and be heading towards London or the East Midlands. There are also a range of good schools locally, again within walking distance and this includes a very good independent school, for secondary education there is Stantonbury Secondary School and Sixth Form centre, and directly opposite this location is Campbell Park with acres of lovely walks, a cricket pitch, and beautiful vistas across North Buckinghamshire.

With an asking price of close to £240k, I would happily put this up for rental at around £1100-1150 PCM, which would be a yield of at least 5.5%, this is the typical figure being charged right now for a house of this size in the area, and with flexible parking & low maintenance garden it should not take long to find decent long term tenants.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-61590566.html

I will regularly post what I consider to be great buy to let deals across Milton Keynes and surrounding areas on this blog 3 or 4 times a week, irrespective of which agent they are being marketed with. Maybe you should subscribe and be kept up to date?

If you are thinking of getting into the buy to let property rental market as a new investor and don't know where to start, or you would like some impartial advice and guidance to get the best return on your investment, call me now on 01908 373580 or pop along and speak to me in person at our new offices in Central Bletchley, Milton Keynes.

danielle@inspiredagents.co.uk

BMV BARGAIN ALERT!! - One for the brave though, with substantial profit in this or a 5.9% rental yield once renovated

Now  I have to say I've not seen a project of this size for around 6 months, with many hurdles to overcome between now and a profit, but for certain this has money in it. Read on and find out why.....

Firstly let me start by saying any interested party ABSOLUTELY MUST get a full structural survey done on this as part of their pre-purchase checks, even though you cannot buy this with a mortgage (due to it currently being uninhabitable), it could be the best money you ever spend. I'm no structural engineer, but you really must get the roof checked, all the structural roof & floor beams looked at for compliance and signs of infestation, window lintels, brickwork, damp proofing (if there is any) and an overall assessment of the state of the structure. Don't worry about there being no bathroom, no kitchen, or the decorative state of the inside, because all of these are aesthetic and can be remedied by you, this is where you can build in value and see a significant return on investment. In fact, you want it to look as bad as possible to prevent others from snatching it from under your nose.

So let's assume that it is structurally sound, just how do you turn this around, what will it cost and how long will it take?

Don't doubt for a moment the amount of work needed here, but when you break it down to a list, it is mostly the work you would consider doing within 10 years of owning any property except for installing a full gas central heating system from scratch which will be a once in a lifetime install (boiler, radiators, pipework, all controls, maybe even having a gas supply brought into the building for the first time). For this alone I would allow £8k.

The rest of the work covers re-rendering the walls, updating the electrics, full repaint throughout, new flooring throughout, a new kitchen with appliances, new modern upstairs bathroom, possibly some UPVC replacement windows where applicable, and looking at exterior brickwork, drains, gutters and structures.

I am no more a clairvoyant than I am a structural engineer, but I would allow a total of £35k for all of the above work (including gas installation), however you will not be spending one penny of that if the structural survey says it is not viable, will you? Do you see why the survey is so very important on this property?

If the project does go ahead, I would think around 8 weeks of graft from a few teams of contractors that I have on my books would have this sorted for the new owner, and it could be project managed and co-ordinated by me while the new owner just goes about their everyday business (albeit writing a lot of cheques), it's all part of the complete service we offer. Once prepared and ready to let, we can sort out the final legal compliance checks (gas safety, smoke alarms, legionella inspections and a new EPC) before having this rented out at £1150 PCM, which would represent a 5.9% yield if you could keep to a total of £235k expenditure overall. How do I know it will rent for this? Well we have just rented the same house a few doors down, and this was also taken from being a run-down wreck to a beautiful family home just under 2 years ago, and we achieved a rental value of £1125 there last month. And if you really wanted to sell this and realise your profit quickly, this could be offered for sale at around £265-275k, depending on the sales market at the time of year it gets listed.

So there you have it - I've done this before, I've bought, worn and thrown away the T-shirt long before most other agents would have ever thought of doing this.

Do you want an agent who just sells you a project and leaves you to get on with it, or do you want a partner to work hand in hand with you to see the project through every step of the way? If the answer to the second question is yes, just call me to start the conversation today, because all any of this will cost you is literally just one phone call.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-56393584.html

I will regularly post what I consider to be great buy to let deals across Milton Keynes and surrounding areas on this blog 3 or 4 times a week, irrespective of which agent they are being marketed with. Maybe you should subscribe and be kept up to date?

If you are thinking of getting into the buy to let property rental market as a new investor and don't know where to start, or you would like some impartial advice and guidance to get the best return on your investment, call me now on 01908 373580 or pop along and speak to me in person at our new offices in Central Bletchley, Milton Keynes.

danielle@inspiredagents.co.uk

63% increase in use of Limited Companies when investing in BTL properties

New data from Mortgages for Business has revealed that a staggering 63% of applications by landlords purchasing buy to let properties are now being made using a Limited Company structure.

This figure is up from just 21% before the changes to tax relief on mortgage interest were announced by George Osborne in July 2015. This represents a substantial change in landlord behaviour and includes both new purchases and “transfers”, i.e. purchases made by landlords selling their personally owned property to their limited company. In contrast, the number of re-mortgage applications made via a limited company has remained at a similar level and aren’t expected to rise significantly until those who have recently used a corporate vehicle to purchase property are free from early repayment charges.

In terms of market share, buy to let mortgage products available to limited companies now accounts for 16% of all products, up from 13% in the first half of the year – reflecting the ever-evolving way in which buy-to-let property is now purchased and held. By number however, availability has remained stable at 195 (average) because the overall number of BTL products on the market dipped slightly. The index also reveals the average rate of a buy to let mortgage fell to 3.3% at the end of September, down from 3.7% in June. Of the products available to limited companies, rates fell to an average of 4.3%. This means that rates available to limited companies are only around one percentage point higher than the average market value, encouraging figures for those considering this form of borrowing.

Many lenders with products for both personal borrowers and limited companies, offer the same rates to both. At the moment, some of these lenders accept only SPV limited companies, including Foundation Home Loans and Paragon. Some of the more specialist lenders, primarily Aldermore Bank, InterBay Commercial, Shawbrook and Keystone Property Finance, also offer the same rates to trading limited companies.

(Data for the index is obtained from Mortgage Flow, MFB’s bespoke BTL product sourcing software and from its own transactional records.)

If you are thinking of getting into the buy to let property rental market as a new investor and don't know where to start, or you would like some impartial advice and guidance to get the best return on your investment, call me now on 01908 373580 or pop along and speak to me in person at our new offices in Central Bletchley, Milton Keynes.

danielle@inspiredagents.co.uk

Another great priced 3 bed family house, Stantonbury, £220k with 5.4% yield

What is it with affordable 3 bedroom houses right now? Today we have another option to show you, located close to a great Secondary School.....

Offered at a realistic price of £220k right now (similar price to 2 bed homes on more modern, new build estates), this would attract families who wish to live here due to the easy access to a number of schools including Stantonbury High School, great road links to the city centre and the A5 along with excellent employment opportunities all within a very short drive from here.

Whilst not a huge specification, it does meet the needs of growing families on a budget, it presents itself very well and in good, clean order, so this should be able to hit the rental market quite quickly and would not take long to find a suitable tenant who would be happy to live here. With an expected rental income of £995 PCM, this would deliver a 5.4% yield to the new BTL landlord, quite respectable returns for a fairly modest outlay on a property.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-44323899.html

I will regularly post what I consider to be great buy to let deals across Milton Keynes and surrounding areas on this blog 3 or 4 times a week, irrespective of which agent they are being marketed with. Maybe you should subscribe and be kept up to date?

If you are thinking of getting into the buy to let property rental market as a new investor and don't know where to start, or you would like some impartial advice and guidance to get the best return on your investment, call me now on 01908 373580 or pop along and speak to me in person at our new offices in Central Bletchley, Milton Keynes.

danielle@inspiredagents.co.uk

AUCTION ALERT! - 4 bed detached, Browns Wood £250k starting price, rental value up to £1500 PCM

I've just been told about this great looking 4 bed detached house going to auction very shortly, don't delay and have a look now as the viewings start tomorrow, Wednesday 5th October, with the auction taking place on 20th October.....

Advertised with a starting price of £250k (obviously to drum up interest), this is likely to sell for just over £300k, and in fact it makes BTL investment sense right up to £330k, as this would still deliver a 5.5% yield to the new owner.

From the photos it doesn't look in bad condition at all, but do take the opportunity to check it out as there could be hidden damage or unfinished work, there certainly looks like some painting is in need of a refresh, and although the kitchen may be in good order it does look a little dated now for a house at this end of the spectrum, so an investment in a modern kitchen would be very welcome, and would in fact help to attract new high calibre tenants.

If you want to talk about this specific property in more detail, or would like me to attend the viewing with you to advise on works required and the costs involved, please just ask, there is no charge for this service.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-62202695.html

I will regularly post what I consider to be great buy to let deals across Milton Keynes and surrounding areas on this blog 3 or 4 times a week, irrespective of which agent they are being marketed with. Maybe you should subscribe and be kept up to date?

If you are thinking of getting into the buy to let property rental market as a new investor and don't know where to start, or you would like some impartial advice and guidance to get the best return on your investment, call me now on 01908 373580 or pop along and speak to me in person at our new offices in Central Bletchley, Milton Keynes.

danielle@inspiredagents.co.uk