BUY TO LET IN NORTHAMPTON

Thursday 29 January 2015

£100,000 apartment in Cawston, Rugby - over 6% again

Some good value here in Rugby too - this flat is in a really nice area that rents well - you'll get at least £550 for this 2 bed which seems to need little work. Ideal for those who like to play it safe! With an advertising price of just over 100% that's a return of 6.6%, which will still leave you with over 6% when service charges are factored in. It's about as cheap a property as you'll get if you're fussy over area!

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-49986464.html

2 bed house, £115,000 - 6% return.

This has appeared with YOUR MOVE - see http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47488280.html.

It's a 2 bed house in Semilong. Plum Rental. 6% return based on the figures below.

It won't be huge, but looks to be in good order and ready for rent - you'll get at least £575 for something like this and it will be a decent quality private tenant. It's a sensible price too - you can't buy much for £115,000 in a half decent area at the moment.

Upmarket Upton - £169,995 with a tenant paying £775

Barring Street, Upton, £169,995 Tenant in Situ

We've been instructed on this one, which will appeal to investors who want to buy in nice areas. Upton is all new build, with lots more planned, and a VERY popular rental location.
This is a mid-terrace 3 bed, all very nice, with a sitting tenant paying £775 rent. It's a decent price too, if you look at what else is offered in the area - this reflects that the vendor wants to sell so she can buy something else for herself.

Any queries, or if you want to view, please email office@belvoirnorthampton.co.uk and myself or Charlotte will assist.

FIX YOUR MORTAGE AT 3.5% FOR 10 YEARS

One of the big risks to all landlords, myself included, is rising mortgage rates. We've been insulated from this for a while now - rates have been at an all time low for many years - but don't be complacent about that - just as some people allowed themselves to believe that property prices couldn't crash, in 2007 they did. In the same way whilst some people believe that mortgage rates will never rise, at some point, they will! As such fixing your rate at a manageable level can be a good idea.

There was good news for investors this week as a couple of mainstream lenders announced 10 year fixed mortgages from under 3.5%. Until now this sort of offer has been available for private purchases but not for investment properties - that is clearly changing. If you're investing for the long term, as many new purchasers are, this means you can have visibility of your main cost for a decade.
This means spending £125,000 on something that will rent for £600PCM (there are a few options in this price range), will mean you would end up with a monthly mortgage payment of less than £250, fixed for 10 years - so the income and cash flow would be pretty good. I have an investor applying for one of these things currently - she's taken £30k out of her bank, expects to get £250 per month income after all costs - a 10% return (based on the £30k), plus the benefit of (hopefully) appreciating property prices over the next 10 years.

New mortgage products like this, or changes to pension rules which take place later this year, have the effect of drawing even more people to investing in property. If you're thinking of the same, and want to discuss your options, please get in touch with us for an initial chat.

Grange Park, 4 bed (1400 sq ft), £200,000. Really good buy!

Not your ususal rental offering, but a cheap property here for someone. It's been passed to me by the agent who's selling it - need to get at least £200k for it - I suspect it's the makeweight in a longer property chain. It's big as well - 1400 sq ft. At that price you can't really go wrong - Grange Park is a premium area and this sort of property should surely be £25k higher?

It will rent for at least £850PCM so the return isn't going to make your heart flutter, but you're buying this one because you want the area and the value in the bricks. 4 bedrooms over 3 floors, 2 bathrooms, 1 garage. Under 10 years old.

Interested parties, please pop me an email tomorrow. richard.baker@belvoir.co.uk

Shortage of properties under £100k in Rugby

STRONG START TO 2015 IN RUGBY

A quick search of property portals today showed not a single property available to purchase in Rugby for less than £100,000 that was not shared ownership - we can't remember the last time that happened!

In part this is a strong market - even towards the back end of 2014 the market didn't tail off as perhaps you would expect for that time of year. Equally the first few days of 2015 have shown a big appetite from potential purchasers - it seems many people have made it their New Years resolution to get involved in buy-to-let.

The real beneficiaries of this news are vendors - if you own a 1 or 2 bedroom property in Rugby the chances are it's worth as much as it has been for some time now and you shouldn't have much trouble cashing in! If you're keen to do this in 2015 - whether the property is tenanted or not - please get in touch with us for more details.

Tenanted 1 Bed Apartment, Premium Area, Very Safe Bet

We've been instructed on this one today which is a nice 1 bed apartment in a premium area of town. It won't deliver a particularly aggressive return but it will interest those of you who place a great importance on area.

We have had the property rented for a number of years for between £550-575 PCM and you can count void periods on one hand.

We will be arranging viewings later in the week so please get in touch if you're interested.

Cheap, split level, 2 bed. Very Rentable. At least 7% return.

This has appeared and should be of interest to investors. I haven't seen it but would comment as follows:

1. very rentable - close to town - 2 beds - will be at least £550

assuming it's in good order.

2. this will be a leasehold property, but often the lease arrangements

on older properties are fairly informal and the service charges

aren't too high - this clearly needs checking though.

3. the key thing to note here is that this is a 2 bed flat including

the basement. As such you need to keep a good eye on damp - if the

conversion is done properly there won't be an issue, but any sign or

smell of damp needs proper investigation. A specialist damp

contractor can deal with it of course, but you need to be aware of

the cost before you buy.

The agent doesn't like dealing with me(!) so you'll need to approach them direct if you are interested. The link to the property on rightmove is here http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-45041138.html