1 bed flat in suburbia close to town centre and public parks, £125k with 6.5% gross yield

Certain to appeal to tenants with a need to be close to Central Milton Keynes without paying sky high prices, this low cost apartment is certainly worth a second look for any investor.....

With all the main upgrades already in place such as UPVC windows and gas to radiator central heating, all the main work to keep this up with it's peers has been completed now, and with a healthy EPC rating of 'C' you have no worries there either. Located opposite Campbell Park, this first floor apartment might benefit from a more modern kitchen (and possibly bathroom, no photos of this so do enquire with the vendor), but the location and cleanliness is what would cause this to be of interest to potential tenants, and being at the lower end of the price spectrum this means they are likely to be younger, maybe a university graduate starting a new job around here or a couple just starting out in their first place together. The very fair asking price of £125k means this won't be around for long, and it would rent today for around £675-695 PCM which is around 6.5% gross, maybe a few pounds more and very much dependent upon condition and specification (we can help you prepare this correctly).

With a lease of 98 years still left, a peppercorn rent payable and a small service charge, do speak to the agent and find out the full costs before you miss this little gem.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-57542231.html

I will post what I consider to be the best 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 690700 or pop along and speak to me in person at our offices in Central Milton Keynes.

danielle@inspiredagents.co.uk

Great value family home in Northampton, £180k up to 6.2% yield

How about this lovely 4 bed family sized home, within short walking distance of the centre of Northampton and the west coast mainline station, and built with decent room sizes that actually work for a family.

For sale right now at £180k, we would expect this to rent for around £925 now that we are in a strong market with lots of activity. Offering space for a family and also great transport links, something like this won't hang around for long, so don't delay and make an appointment to view this. The internal condition is very good, but do remember this has warm air heating, and you may wish to price up a new system comprising a more efficient boiler and radiators to each room, other than this it looks pretty much ready to let.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-41377614.html

 

To answer the question on what you should be buying these days, on this blog 3 or 4 times a week I will post what I consider to be the best buy to let deals across Milton Keynes and surrounding areas, 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 690700 or pop along and speak to me in person at our offices in Central Milton Keynes.

danielle@inspiredagents.co.uk

How EU Migration has changed the Milton Keynes Property Market

The argument of migration and what it does, or doesn’t do, for the country’s economic wellbeing is something that has been hotly contested over the last few years. In my article today, I want to talk about what it has done for the Milton Keynes Property market.



Before we look at Milton Keynes though, let us look at some interesting figures for the country as a whole. Between 2001 and 2011, 971,144 EU citizens came to the UK to live and of those, 171,164 of them (17.68%) have bought their own home. It might surprise people that only 5.07% of EU migrants managed to secure a council house. However, 676,091 (69.62%) of them went into the private rental sector. This increase in population from the EU has, no doubt, added great stress to the UK housing market.

Looking at the figures, the housing market as a whole is undoubtedly affected by migration but it has been the private rented housing sector, especially in those areas where migrants come together, that is affected the most. Indeed, I have seen that many EU migrants often compete for such housing not with UK tenants but with other EU migrants. In 2001, 3.68 million rented a property from a landlord in the UK. Ten years later in 2011, whilst EU migration added an additional 676,091 people renting a property from a landlord, there were actually an additional 4.14 million people who became tenants and were not EU migrants, but predominately British!



As a landlord, it is really important to gauge the potential demand for your rental property, especially if you are a landlord who buys property in areas popular with the Eastern European EU migrants. To gauge the level of EU migration (and thus demand), one of the best ways to calculate the growth of migrants is to calculate the number of people who ask for a National Insurance number (which EU members are able to obtain).



In Milton Keynes, migration has risen over the last few years. For example, in 2005 there were 2,770 migrant national Insurance cards (NIC) issued and the year after in 2006, 2,790 NIC cards were issued. However, in 2014, this had increased to 4,530 NIC’s. However, if the pattern of other migrations since WW2 continues, over time there will be an increasing demand for owner occupied property, which may affect the market in certain areas of high migrant concentration. On the other hand, over time some households move into the larger housing market, reducing concentrations and pressures.

In essence, migration has affected the Milton Keynes property market; it couldn’t fail to because of the additional 30,174 working age migrants that have moved into the Milton Keynes area since 2005. However, it has not been the main influence on the market. Property values in Milton Keynes today are 34.49% higher than they were in 2005. According to the Office of National Statistics, rents for tenants in the South East have only grown on average by 0.95% a year since 2005 .... I would say if it wasn’t for the migrants, we would be in a far worse position when it came to the Milton Keynes property market. This was backed up by the then Home Secretary Theresa May back in 2012 - more than a third of all new housing demand in Britain is caused by inward migration and there is evidence that without the demand caused by such immigration, house prices would be 10% lower over a 20 year period.

If you want to know more about how the current political climate might affect you as a landlord, or you would like some impartial advice and guidance to get the best return on your investment, call me now on 01908 690700 or pop along and speak to me in person at our offices in Central Milton Keynes.

danielle@inspiredagents.co.uk

Close to the centre - Fishermead 2 bed flat, £140k with 6.8% gross yield

Within a few hundred metres of Central Milton Keynes, this 2 double bedroom apartment represents a great opportunity at this price.....

Serving the workers and younger rental market who want to be close to the city centre or train station but don't want to pay sky high city prices, this refurbished and tidy apartment represents great value for money, especially with a tenant in place currently paying £795 PCM until October 2016 and a healthy 91 year lease remaining. With a yield of 6.8% gross it certainly adds up when it comes to delivering a decent financial return, the work has all been done and it is ready to work right from the moment you complete, and with no upper chain it will be a quick and painless purchase for a savvy investor. We have keys for this as it is presently managed by our Central Milton Keynes office, so don't delay and call now for an early viewing.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-54633766.html

To help you decide what you should be buying these days, on this blog 3 or 4 times a week I will post what I consider to be the best buy to let deals across Milton Keynes and surrounding areas, 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 690700 or pop along and speak to me in person at our offices in Central Milton Keynes.

danielle@inspiredagents.co.uk

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danielle@inspiredagents.co.uk

Milton Keynes Buy to Let saw growth of over 16% during the last year

I recently got chatting with one of my out of town landlords who was back in Milton Keynes visiting his family. Brought up in Milton Keynes, he went to The Denbigh School back in the 1970’s (when it was located in West Bletchley) and is now a University Lecturer in central London. To enhance his retirement, he has a small portfolio of four properties in the town and wanted my advice on where to buy the next property in Milton Keynes (as he lives in a college owned flat and anyway, would never dream of buying where he lives in Kensington (where the average value of a flat is £1.62m and a town house £4.1m. Eye-watering to say the least!!).

Before I could advise him, I reminded him that the most important thing when considering investing in property is finding a Milton Keynes property with decent rental yields for income returns, yet at the same time, it must have the potential for capital growth from rising house prices over time. Mid way through 2016, Milton Keynes landlords will be under more pressure to find the best permutation of yields and capital growth, as extra stamp duty charges for buying properties and a squeeze on mortgage interest relief will raise their costs.

However, (you knew there would be a however) before we look at yield and capital growth, one important consideration that often many landlords tend to overlook, is the propensity of how likely the rent will increase. Interestingly, the average rent of a Milton Keynes property currently stands at £1,101 per month, which is a rise of 6.0% compared to twelve months ago (although it must be noted this rise in rents is for new tenancies and not existing tenants).

Anyway, back to yield and capital growth, the average value of a Milton Keynes property currently stands at £281,100, meaning the average yield stands at 4.70% per annum, which on the face of it, many landlords would find disappointing. That is the problem with averages, so if I were to look at say 2 bed houses in Milton Keynes which are the sort of properties a lot of landlords buy, in Milton Keynes, the average value of a 2 bed house is £203,500, whilst the average rent for a 2 bed house is £709 per month, giving a yield of 5.31%. However, if that wasn’t high enough, there are landlords in Milton Keynes who own some specialist properties with specialist tenancies, that are achieving nearly double that yield – again it comes down to your attitude to risk and reward (give me a call if you wanted a chat about those sorts of properties – although they can be fun and games!)


Ultimately investors want to be making gains from both rent and house price growth. When combined, the rental yield and capital growth gives you the return on investment, and that is what I told our University friend from Kensington. Return on investment is everything. So, looking at property values in Milton Keynes have risen in the last year by 10.9% …. which means the current annual return on investment in Milton Keynes for a typical 2 bed house is 16.21% a year .... not bad.

To answer the question on what you should be buying these days, on this blog 3 or 4 times a week I will post what I consider to be the best buy to let deals across Milton Keynes and surrounding areas, 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 690700 or pop along and speak to me in person at our offices in Central Milton Keynes.

danielle@inspiredagents.co.uk

Doom and Gloom for Milton Keynes Property Market?

One of my landlords rang me last week from Shenley Church End, after he had spoken to a friend of his. Over Christmas, they were discussing the Milton Keynes property market and neither of them could make their mind up if it was time to either sell or buy property. If you read the newspapers and the landlord forums on the internet, there is a good slice of doom and gloom, especially with changes in the taxation towards landlords, new legislation on checking tenants and the general uncertainty in the world economic situation.

 

I would admit, there are certain landlords in Milton Keynes who have over exposed themselves in the last few years with high percentage loan to value mortgages. Those mortgages, with their current (yet artificially low) interest rates, will start to suffer, as their modest monthly positive cash flow/profit, i.e. income (rent) less costs (mortgage, fees, tax), will become negative when the tax and mortgage rates rise throughout 2017 and beyond.

 

It appears to me these landlords seem to have treated the Milton Keynes Buy to Let market as a sure bet and have not approached this as a business and, as a result, they will suffer as they thought "Buy a house - rent it out so it covers the mortgage and make a few quid on top".  These are the people who will be thinking twice. I see opportunity everywhere and won't be stopping, I’m here to stay. It’s going to be an exciting new year.

 

Gone are the days when you could buy any old house in Milton Keynes and it would make money.  Yes, in the past, anything in Milton Keynes that had four walls and a roof would make you money because since WW2, property prices doubled every seven years … it was like printing money – but not anymore.

 

True, since January 1997, the average price paid for a Milton Keynes flat/apartment has risen from £25,240 to today’s current average of £148,296 in the town, an impressive rise of 488% and terraced/town house have risen in the same time frame, from £42,016 to £195,498, also a great rise of 365%. However, look back to 2005, and in that year, the average flat was selling for £109,156, meaning our Milton Keynes landlord would have seen a modest rise of 36% and the terraced owner would have seen an increase of 51%, as they were selling for on average £129,632 ... not bad ... until you consider inflation.

 

Since 2005, then inflation, i.e. the cost of living, has increased by 33.4%. That means to retain its value, Milton Keynes terraced property bought for £129,632 in 2005 needs to be worth £172,888 today. Therefore, our landlord has seen the ‘real’ value of his property increase by 17.6% (i.e. 51% less 33.4% inflation).

 

The reality is, since around the early 2000’s we haven’t seen anything like the capital growth in property we have seen in the past and it’s not predicted to grow at the rates it has previously done either. So it is high time anyone considering investing in property stopped believing the hype and did some serious research using independent investment expertise. You can still make money by buying the right Milton Keynes property at the right price and finding the right tenant. Think about it, properties in real terms are 17.6% higher than ten years ago, so investing in Milton Keynes property is not only about capital growth, but also about the yield (the return from the rent). It’s also about having a balanced property portfolio that will match what you want from your investment – and what is a ‘balanced property portfolio’? Well we discuss such matters on the Milton Keynes Property Blog ... if you haven’t been, then it might be worth a few minutes of your time?