Fab Price, Fab Location, Fab BTL Investment!

This property came on to the market today, with Newton Fallowell Bingham.  It is situated on a lovely cul-de-sac on a development popular with families and commuters.  I can't imagine it will be on the market for long, and it would let just as fast.

With a yield of around 5.2% this is a great investment property.  Click for details below and arrange a viewing today:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-53136151.html

24.4% of Bingham tenants in the private rented sector are on Housing Benefit

“What does the ideal Bingham tenant look like?”, asked one of my landlords the other day, to which he carried on before I could reply, “Let me guess, a professional couple, both in their 30’s, flawlessly tidy, pays their rent early, doesn’t complain or fuss, who has no plans to move and cheerfully accepts annual rent rises”.

Tenants tend to fall into several groups ... 20 something professionals; young and middle aged families; corporate tenants (ie their employer finds their employee a house to live in); students; older singles/couples and housing benefit claimants – and they come with different needs and wants. So choosing who best suits your Bingham property – and steering clear of bad tenants – is a big factor in making property investment a success.

One topic that I am often asked is should they, as a landlord, accept tenants on housing benefit?

It might interest the landlords of Bingham that of the 5,595 private rented properties in the local council area, 24.4% of the tenants of those properties are on some form of housing benefit. (1,368 properties to be exact). I know many landlords have suffered late rent payments with tenants on benefit, especially since 2008, when local authorities started paying housing benefit to tenants rather than directly to the landlords, but you can’t ignore the fact that housing benefit tenants make up a significant proportion of the Bingham rental population. My opinion is that the final choice of accepting such tenants has to be the landlords but you can’t tar every tenant with the same brush (I will always give you a balanced opinion if ever asked).

Interestingly, when we compare the Bingham area to the national picture, 24.4% is much lower than the national figure. Nationally 39.2% of the tenants of the 3,891,467 rental properties in Great Britain claim some form of housing benefit (ie 1,526,915 properties).

Looking at the occupations of Bingham tenants, of the 5,595 privately rented properties in the Bingham area, 4,499 head tenants (the head tenant being classified as the head of the household) are in employment (the other 1,096 rental property head tenants either being retired, long term sick, students or job seekers).

Splitting those 4,499 head tenants down into their relevant professions, 2,425 of them are Managers, Directors, Senior Officials, Professional or Technical Professions, 430 in Administrative and Secretarial occupations, 453 in Skilled Trades, 277 in the Caring, Leisure and other Service occupations, 325 Sales and Customer Service Occupations, 232 Process, Plant and Machine Operatives and finally, 357 in Elementary Occupations.

The one thing I have always known anecdotally, but until I did my research, never had anything to back it up with, was the high proportion of professionals and skilled trades renting property in Bingham – intriguing!

If you are considering investing in property in the area please feel free to give me a call for honest opinion on potential rental returns or keep an eye on the Blog as I like to post good buy to let investments that come on the market.

Easy to let apartment in Bingham - great investment opportunity

These apartments let so easily, this should not be on the market for long, it would make a great investment as there is little to go wrong in an apartment of this age.  The area is very popular with professionals and families alike, due to the proximity to good schools and transport links.

There will be a service charge on this, but that should include buildings insurance, plus any maintenance on the communal areas, roof etc, which can all add up.

Snap up this great BTL today, before the new stamp duty taxes come in (1st April).

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-57704573.html

Bingham Landlords Count the Cost of a Conservative Election Win

Can you remember 10.05pm on Thursday, 7^th May 2015 ... with the shock news that BBC Exit Polls suggested the Conservatives would be returned with majority? The middle classes in Aslockton and Scarrington exhaled a huge sigh of relief, as Bingham landlords, faced with rent controls from the Labour Party, now had something to cheer about.  The Conservatives were always considered to be a political party that accepted the importance of the rental market, supported its development while properly targeting the lawbreaker landlords renting out below standard rental accommodation.

Since May though, George Osborne announced future rises in stamp duty for buy to let landlords and a change in the interest relief on buy to let mortgages, some people have started to question that loyalty. 

The loss of higher rate tax relief on mortgages will mean that a number of properties do not stack up financially. The new rules are likely to slow demand in the Bingham housing market, which is in fact good news for the other landlords, as there is less competition from 'amateur' landlords offering too much.

Just a thought, but making Bingham landlords think twice and run their numbers more cautiously is not such a bad thing.

So looking at the numbers, the November figures have just been released and they show a slight drop of property values in Bingham of 0.3% over the month of November. That figure doesn’t surprise me due to the time of year. It’s quite dangerous to look at one month in isolation, so looking at a more medium term view, over the last 12 months, property values in Bingham have risen by 3.7%, not bad when you consider inflation is running at -0.1%.

However, regular readers of the Bingham Property Blog know my passion for looking deeper into the stats. The really interesting information is the value growth; but which types of property are actually selling in Bingham?  Looking at all the properties sold, as recorded by the Land Registry, within 1 mile of the centre of Bingham in September 2015 (this data always runs a couple of months behind the house price data) compared to September 2007 (a couple of months before the credit crunch started to bite and the subsequent property crash).

	Sept 2007	Sept 2015	Difference
Detached in Bingham	7	5	- 29%
Semis in Bingham	5	2	-60%
Terraced Houses in Bingham	1	5	+400%
Apartments / Flats in Bingham	2	0	-100%

Now I have mentioned in previous articles that the numbers of properties selling in the town has certainly dropped post 2008, but what amazed me were the drop in the number of detached, semis and apartments selling in Bingham compared to the rise in sales of terraced properties, which rose considerably.

Less properties are selling than last decade in Bingham and the types of properties selling have changed ... interesting times ahead for the Bingham Property market!

Therefore, all I can say to the landlords of Bingham is do your homework, make sure the numbers do stack up, take advice and opinion from professionals and above all, for those of you planning to add to your portfolio, buy the right property at the right price.

If you would like to discuss the Bingham property market or the viability of a potential investment please feel free to pop into our office on the Market Place in Bingham or give me a call on 01949 714101.

Lovely 2 bedroom investment property - Langdale Grove, Bingham

This property is in excellent order and so shouldn't need much work to get it ready for letting.  It will be quick to let due to its popular location for both small families and professional couples.

On the market with Newton Fallowell, it should see a return on your investment in the region of 5%.  

See the details here and take the first steps to becoming a landlord today:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-52854421.html?premiumA=true