Chelmsford " Eye Candy Of The Week "

"Eye Candy Property of the Week" on Rightmove this week I have chosen a property in the ever popular Avenues.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-39775626.html

Have a good weekend and look forward to next weeks Eye Candy Property of the week.

Is North Springfield, one of Chelmsford’s Hot Spot’s?

I was talking to a homeowner, who had a three bed terraced house on Petunia Crescent, in North Springfeld, which had sold in a matter of days. He asked me if there something special about the area, so I did a little research...

...I have included the surrounding road such as Lupin Drive, Cornflower Drive and the off-shoot road in my findings to give more of an idea about this particular area as they are similar styles of property, being a mix of 1, 2, 3 & 4 bedroom flats & houses.

The properties that seem to have turned over the most sales in the last year are three bed houses, which average at a selling price of £242,888, two bed apartments, averaging with a selling price of £136,785 and one bedroom apartments have an average selling price of £107,000.

Comparing the rental prices for these properties in the last year for the same types of property, have been as follows. Three beds have rented for an average rent of £1024, which would give you a fairly decent 5% yield against the average selling price of £242,888. Two bedroom apartments rent with an average rent of £718, which gives us an amazing yield of 6.2% against the average selling price of £136,785. But the one bedroom apartments have completely outperformed the rest, potentially generating yields of 6.9%! (Average rent of £623 against selling price of £107,000).

It appears on these figures that there are no bad investments within this area, even the lower performing 3 bed houses are still able to potentially generate you a 5% return. One thing to bear in mind with the flats in this area however is that there are a lot that are being sold with short leases, this means that the purchase price appears to be very attractive, however it may make getting a mortgage a bit trickier as you won’t be able to choose from as many lenders. We have been advised that extending a lease would cost approximately £12,000 - £15,000 for these properties, so this is something that you could factor in to your investment. If you plan on keeping the property rented out for a few years, when you eventually come to sell the property, look at extending the lease at this point. This means that you will benefit from not only natural capital growth, but also a higher price, because it will then have a long lease.

In the last 3 – 4 years, the property values on the three bedroom houses has risen by 21%, on the one bed flats by 17%, but on 2 bedroom apartments, the rise in value has been 23%, the best of the bunch.

This research highlights to me that 2 bedroom apartments are the better bet for this area, whilst they don’t give you the highest yield, (6.2% is still pretty darn good!) the capital growth is the better out of the types of property.

If you would like to talk to me about property, feel free to pop into our office on Duke Street. 

Chelmsford Buy to Let Deal of the Day....

Check out the details for todays Chelmsford buy to let 'Deal of the Day'. Details on the video above.

Click on the link below to look at the property details on line...
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-39670050.html

Chelmsford Buy To Let Deal of the day...

Good afternoon potential buy to let landlords, thought I'd post a video about today's deal of the delay, click above for further details.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-52900687.html?premiumA=true

Chelmsford Eye Candy of The Week

Hello I'm Stuart the Property Expert of Martin & Co Chelmsford,

"Eye Candy Property of the Week" on Rightmove this week I have chosen a property on the ever popular Beaulieu Park.

This Four bedroom executive home offers good size accommodation  and is being offered for sale by Bond Residential.

This house is really well looked after and the photos look amazing.  For the full details click here

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-52668205.html

Have a great weekend and I look forward to bringing you next weeks Eye Candy Property.

Stuart.

Buy to Let tax changes, what they mean to you?

I ran into one of our landlords last week, who owns quite a few properties in Chelmsford and we got to talking about the recent changes in taxation for landlords and how this was going to affect him. There has been a lot of reports about this and a lot of landlords are worrying about how this is going to impact their investment, so I thought I would have a look into it and outline some of the facts.

So, let us start by looking at what is going to be changing. The first change is stamp duty. Currently, you pay no stamp duty on the first £125,000. You then pay 2% between £125,000 - £250,000, 5% between £250,000 - £925,000, 10% above £925,000 up to £1.5m and then 12% above £1.5m. The proposed changes mean that as of April 2016, if a landlord buys a property for buy to let, their stamp duty bill will face a 3% surcharge.

In 2017, Landlords’ tax relief is going to be affected as they will no longer be able to deduct mortgage interest from their rental income before it is assessed for tax, but will instead get a flat rate of 20% tax credit. This means that those paying a higher tax rate will lose half of their relief, while some others will be moved into this bracket and will likely see their tax bill soar.

Landlords are also facing a change to the way they pay tax when they sell their buy to let properties. At present, capital gains isn’t due until the end of the tax year, but from April 2019 landlords will have to pay their capital gains bill within 30 days of selling the property.

A lot have landlords have asked, why have these changes been made? The reports say that it is a way of trying to slow down buy to let landlords snapping up property, freeing them up for first time buyers. The council of mortgage lenders revealed in November 2015 that the number of buy to let mortgages granted had increased by 36% in the previous 12 months, whereas mortgages granted to first time buyers was up by just 10%.

So what does this mean for the future of buy to let? I believe that we will see a few landlords initially sell up that can’t be bothered with the hassle of it all, but after the initial huffing and puffing, it will all settle down. With the stamp duty changes, landlords will end up factoring this in to their initial investment and end up hanging on to the property for a little bit longer to re-coop some more rental income and in turn maximize their capital growth when it comes to selling.

Some banks have accounts whereby they are giving cashback on their direct debits and or on balances between which may help with the finances, might be worth investigating this with your bank to see if it is an option.

In summary, whilst these changes will impact how buy to let works for landlords and for those with properties currently let out, there is an element of recalculating and re-jigging finances. But for new landlords it will become ‘the norm’ and will be something that potential landlords will factor in to their investment when doing their calculations. The best bet is to have a chat with a financial advisor as they will be able to point you in the right direction when it comes to Tax!

If you would like to know more about investing in property in Chelmsford, I would love to talk to you, our office is on Duke Street.  We also have many more articles about the Chelmsford property market available at www.chelmsfordpropertyblog.com

Great Baddow, Chelmsford property with a potential yield of 5.4%...

Hello all you potential landlords. I was just having 5 mins to have a look to see what tasty little properties have come up for sale over the last few days, that would be suitable for buying to let and I came across this little gem. This apartment is on a modern estate in Great Baddow, still not too far from Chelmsford City centre and being modern, they attract young professional tenants. 
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-57673841.html
The only small area of concern with this particular property is the bathroom, it looks a little bit tired in places, but nothing a little bit of TLC wouldn't solve!

The selling agents are Bairstow Eves and they have put this property on the market with an asking price of £155,000. When you look at the potential rental amount that you would be looking to achieve on this which would be around the £700 pcm mark. You could be looking at an annual yield of 5.4%. This is of course before you take into account any service charges or ground rents, so make sure you get this information from the agent before diving in.

If you would like any advice on buy to let, please do not hesitate to contact me, I'm always happy to answer any questions you may have. 01245 330500