Friday, June 26, 2015

Potential 7% yield on this buy to let in Bingham

This flat is on the market for the bargain price of £95,000 with Frank Innes.  OK it may not be the best looking property from the outside, but it is situated in a quiet location close to a good primary school overlooking a playing field, and is within walking distance of Bingham town centre. What's not to love?  

This property will let easily as it will appeal to many different types of tenant. 

It looks to be in good decorative order and I would hope to achieve in the region of £550 pcm.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-33539238.html













Bingham Buy To Let – Bedrooms?


Last week, a landlord from Bingham emailed me to ask, after reading the Bingham Property Blog, if he should extend his terraced house making an extra bedroom in the loft. He had a builder friend who owed him a favour, and thought a good way would be get an ‘inexpensive’ extension.

Having more useable space is generally thought to be consistent with better quality accommodation and homeowners and tenants are prepared to pay for it. If you added a bedroom to a two bed terraced to make a three bed terraced, it will add 10% to the value of the property.  Turn a three bed terraced into a four bed terraced and 9% will be added to the value. Looking at semi detached properties, and turn a two into a three bed and 12% will be added to the value, whilst making a three bed semi into four bed will add 9% in value.

However, before you rush off to the planning department there are some important considerations, whether you are a homeowner or landlord.  What would be the cost of making that extra bedroom? The average value of a terraced house in Bingham is currently £154,000 whilst the average value of a semi detached house is £149,900, meaning to make money the cost of the extension would need to be less than £14,630 on the terraced property and £15,739 on the semi detached house. 

Talking to a number of trades people in the town, most are booking up into the New Year. Also, no matter how good a friend he was, I know of no builders that would charge as little as that. Maybe the builder was just thinking of a bit of pointing work on the chimney!

Well, that got me thinking about how bedrooms affected rental prices and rent-ability.  Interestingly below, you will see that whilst bedrooms do have an effect on the rent that can be achieved and the rent-ability of the property – the difference does not warrant the expense, hassle and trouble of extending.
  •          25% of the one bed properties on the market to rent in Bingham have a tenant with an average rent of £423 per month
  •          46.1% of the two bed properties on the market to rent in Bingham have a tenant with an average rent of £570 per month
  •          40% of the three bed properties on the market to rent in Bingham have a tenant with an average rent of £756 per month

If you want to increase the value of your property, be you a Bingham landlord or homeowner, there are things that cost a lot less than building extra bedrooms. Spruce up the exterior, emulsion all the rooms, install fresh carpets and curtains. For homeowners, a matter of a few hundred pounds will add thousands whilst for landlords, these things can add an extra 10% to the rent that you can achieve. 

For more advice and opinion on the Bingham Property Market, visit me at 18 Market Place, Bingham or call me on 01949 714101 


Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Bright, spacious investment property - over 6% yield - Bingham

This first floor maisonette looks to be in good order and with well proportioned rooms.  A modern kitchen and neutral decor throughout will appeal to all tenants and should mean that there is no maintenance required to bring it to the lettings market.

Close to a primary school and within walking distance of Bingham town centre, it would make a great investment opportunity for any landlord.  At £107,000 it will not be around for long so please see details here:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-49981987.html

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Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Modern Family Home on Medway Drive, Bingham

This very well presented, modern property is new to the market and I don't think it will be around for long! Ready to go and easy to let, it should bring in a return of over 5% to a buy to let investor.

On the market with our friends at Richard Watkinson, here are the details:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50520139.html

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Thursday, June 18, 2015

Bingham Buy To Let – Should you look further afield?


I was at a recent business networking event in Bingham, when a landlord (who it transpired had a couple of Buy to let properties) bent my ear on where the next hot spot town or city is to invest his money in and where the best rental yields are. 

Now it can be tempting to just look at Bingham when growing a buy to let property portfolio, but there can be big differences in the amount of rental income you receive and how much your property will appreciate by considering other locations in the country.

Now regular readers of my articles of the Bingham Property Blog know of my love of the ‘buy to let seesaw’. On one side of the seesaw is yield and the other capital growth. Landlords should be looking for a high rental yield so that they can comfortably cover any mortgage payments and make some profit from the income return, but you also want the property to rise in value over time so you can get some capital growth when you come to sell. 

However, high yielding property in say such areas as Carnarvon Place in Bingham, (so the seesaw arm with yield on it goes up on one side), will suffer from low capital growth (so the other arm with capital growth on the seesaw goes down).  The relationship works in reverse as well, so in such upmarket areas as The Mallow Way estate, properties offer good capital growth, but at the expense of a decent yield.  

The North East and North West of the UK are landlord magnets for great yields. The average yield in Bingham today is 5.37%, which when you compare with say Hartlepool in the North East, which achieves 7.73% or  9.43% in the Anfield area of Liverpool, doesn’t look too healthy. Now of course, these are only averages and some of my Bingham landlords are achieving 6% to 7% on some of their properties, but at the expense of capital growth. Anyway, after wasting a tank full of petrol up the A1 to Teeside or the M1 to Liverpool,  that Liverpool property, would have dropped in value by 2.2% in the last 12 months and the Hartlepool property would have dropped by 1.4%.

When you compare the long term house price growth, it gets even worse. Looking at tyhe Graph, Since 1995, property values in Bingham have risen by 121.49%,compared with Hartlepool at 21.02% and Liverpool  at 90.11% – it just shows you shouldn’t always chase the yield because of the poor increases in property values in those two places. As I always like to explain to landlords, a decent yield is important, but when you come to sell your buy to let property it would also be nice to make a decent profit. 

At the end of the day, as a Bingham landlord, you want to be making gains from both your rent and house price growth, particularly when you want to sell, because when combined, the rental yield and capital growth, that gives you the real return on your investment. 

Finally though, do you know Hartlepool and Liverpool as well you know Bingham? Do you know where the good and bad areas are in both those places? Are you happy that it would require you to take a day out of work if there was an issue with your property in the North?  If you can’ t answer yes to all three questions, then maybe you should be considering a closer to home?

Call me on 01949 714101 or pop into my office in Bingham, 18 Market Place for honest Buy to Let investment advice.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

3 bed semi detached property for sale in Bingham - could be a good buy to let opportunity

This property could make a great buy to let investment.  Situated on a great residential development which is popular with families, this property could give you a return of around 5%.  The property looks to be in good order and I think it would let quickly to good tenants.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50473552.html











Thursday, June 11, 2015

Tees Court, Bingham - Tenant heaven

As I have mentioned before, modern properties are great buy to let investments and this is no exception.  In excellent order and with 3 decent sized bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and an easy to maintain, enclosed garden, it would let very easily every time.

This property should achieve around a 5% return for your investment.

Full details are here: 

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-49957342.html

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Bingham Property Market – Post Election Blues?



With the election now over and the stability of Downing Street secure, in Bingham (as in the rest of the UK) average wages are beginning to grow faster than inflation. This is good news for the Bingham housing market, as some buyers may be willing or able to pay higher prices given the more certain political outlook and attractive inexpensive mortgage rates. 

However, sellers who think they have the upper hand due to the lack of property for sale should be aware that we should start to see an increase in the number of people putting their properties on to the market in Bingham giving buyers some extra negotiating power.

At the last election in May 2010, there were 77 properties for sale in Bingham and by October 2010, this had risen to 101, an impressive rise of 31% in five months. An increase in the supply of properties coming on to the market could tip the balance in the demand and supply economics seesaw, thus potentially denting prices. However, as most sellers are buyers and confidence is high, this means there will be good levels of property and buyers, well into the summer, as demand will continue to slightly outstrip supply.

Just before we leave the run up to the election, it is important to consider what the uncertainty in April did to the Bingham property market. I mentioned a few weeks ago that property values (ie what properties were actually selling for) had risen by 0.4% in March 2015. Now new data has been released from Rightmove about April’s asking prices of property in Bingham. It shows that pre-election nerves finally came home to roost in the final weeks of electioneering, with the average price of property coming to market only increasing by a very modest 0.7% (April is normally one of the best months of the year for house price growth).

I am sure our local MP, Kenneth Clarke would agree that the biggest issue is the lack of new properties being built in Bingham. The Conservative manifesto pledged to build 200,000 discounted starter homes for first-time buyers in the next five years. For Bingham to gets its share, that would mean only 7 such properties being built in Bingham each year for the next five years, not much when you consider there are 3,889 properties in Bingham.


Housing is not a big issue for Conservative voters and because London is an increasingly Labour city where the biggest housing issues are found by a country mile, so will it remain on the ‘to do list’ but won’t get recognition it deserves. Until another political party gets back into power, nothing will seismically change in the property market, thus demand for housing will continue to outstrip supply, meaning property values will increase (good news for landlords). However, as rents tend to go up and down with tenant wages, in the long term, rents are still 4.86% lower than they were in 2008 (good news for tenants)... with renting everyone wins! 

If you are considering investing in property please give me a call 01949 714101 or pop into see me at 18 Market Place, Bingham.

Friday, June 5, 2015

Harebell Gardens, Bingham - 4.8% return on investment

This great family home, for sale with Hammond Property services, would easily achieve £750 pcm. If purchased for the asking price of £185,000 it would provide a potential 4.8% return. 

It looks like a great place to live, requiring little maintenance it would attract long term tenants...

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-49935065.html

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Thursday, June 4, 2015

Property Values rise by 0.4% in Bingham


Property values in Bingham rose by 0.4% in March. This follows several months of sluggish activity in the Bingham property market in the run up to the Election, putting the average price of a property in Bingham at £207,900, 3.8% higher than in March 2014.

Interestingly, the Council of Mortgage Lenders and Estate Agent trade bodies over the last few months have reported seeing a fall in mortgage lending and enquiries from prospective homebuyers. This is important because it comes amid an overall fall in housing market activity in Bingham. Data from the Land Registry said completed house sales in Bingham in the three months to January 2015, (the most up-to-date figures available) fell by 19% compared to the same three month period up to January 2014.

However, I believe that the slowdown in property sales in Bingham is supporting Bingham property values, as there is a shortage of houses coming onto the market. Even though in the whole of the first Quarter of 2015, Bingham property value increases may seem subdued when compared to 2014, let us remember, property values are still rising well above the level of inflation. 

As I have said many times before, the population in Bingham is growing at a much higher rate than the number of properties being built. This increasing demand for a roof over people’s head, which is outpacing the supply of new houses being built in Bingham. This is creating a severe imbalance in the Bingham (in fact the whole of UK’s) housing market, thus making homeownership an ever increasingly distant dream for many of Bingham’s potential first time buyers.

In fact, I still maintain the view that house prices are likely to rise by around 3 to 5% in Bingham in 2015, even after taking into account this blip at start of the year. The reason being is that the rise reflects both strong economic conditions and steady market conditions with (and this is the most important factor) very low numbers of properties on the market. 

Many Buy to Let landlords know that investing in the Bingham property market is a long-term strategy of 10, 20 even 30 years. Governments come and go, but unless Rushcliffe Borough Council start to build hundreds of new properties a year to make up for the shocking lack of supply, Bingham people will always want a roof over their head,  irrespective of which party is in power. If there aren’t any council houses and they can’t (or are unable to buy), a demand for rental properties will always remain.

As my existing Bingham landlord clients will testify, whether you manage your property yourself, or another Bingham agent manages your properties, everyone is always made to feel welcome when they pop in for a coffee at our offices in Bingham to discuss anything to do with the Bingham property market, how Bingham compares with its closest rival towns. I don’t do hard sell, I will just give you my honest and straight talking opinion. However, if you are too busy to pop into town, you could always give me a call on 01949 714101 for advice on the Bingham Property market.


Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Brand new BTL opportunity in Calverton

New builds are an ever popular choice with landlords and tenants alike.  The property will be ready to let and there are always bargains and deals to be had.  Then there is the builder's warranty plus the NHBC 10 year guarantee on any new build.  Tenants love moving into a brand new property and as such they usually achieve a premium rent.

Built by family run Langridge Homes, this development is situated in Calverton, a great village with lots of amenities, schools and a leisure centre.