Friday 31 July 2015

Modern Chelmsford City centre apartment, prime for investment...




Calling all landlords! This apartment in Victoria Court has just come to the market and before it gets snapped up, wanted to post it out there to you potential investors. 

These apartments are really popular buy to let properties as they always rent really easily, the location is fantastic and the apartments themselves are a really good size, they also come with parking! This should be a nice and easy investment property.

The last 3 properties we rented in the area, went for around the £975 mark, which when you work out the yield, against the asking price of £230,000, it would be 5%, before any service charges or ground rent payments.

Mr door is always open, so if you fancy popping in for a chat, my office is on Duke Street, Chelmsford.

Thursday 30 July 2015

Buy to Let in Chelmsford. It’s all about Supply and Demand...





I get a lot of enquiries from people who are reading my articles on The Chelmsford Property Blog and in the Essex Chronicle about the Chelmsford Property market and in particular what has happened to rents in Chelmsford in recent years.

One particular Chelmsford landlord rang me after reading the Chelmsford Property Blog wanting to know more of the story of what was happening to rents in the City. The reason he asked was that his current agent hadn’t increased his rent for a number of years and he was questioning whether he was getting the best return from his buy to let investment.

Just over a year ago, I wrote an article stating that rents in Chelmsford were 5.4% higher than they were in 2008, when the rental market took a dip due to the market being flooded with property. Another year on and rental prices are now 18% higher than they were in 2008, a huge increase.

The Chelmsford rental market is all about supply and demand - isn’t it so in all parts of the economy? On the supply side, 217 rental properties have come up for let in the last 31 days in Chelmsford according to Rightmove. It sounds a lot doesn’t it until you consider there are 8,349 rental properties in Chelmsford, that means only 2.5% of the rental stock of properties in Chelmsford is coming onto the market.  One reason for this lack of new rental properties coming on the market is the fact that tenants seem to be staying in properties longer.

With this lack of supply, newer tenants have to pay more to secure the property they want. This is the crux of the matter.. properties they want. Older properties in Chelmsford, that haven’t been maintained, still retain their wood chip wallpaper from the 1970’s and thread bare carpets have seen their rents drop. Tenants want either modern properties with all the mod cons or older style properties that have been presented to an exceptional standard – and, generally, they are prepared to pay for the privilege. Any properties, old or modern, put on the market in good or excellent condition will rent in a matter of a few days.
  
Interestingly, looking at Chelmsford property values, the Land Registry has just released its latest set of data on property values. Throughout April 2015, the latest set of data, property values are still creeping up in Chelmsford, with 0.7% growth, meaning they are now 9.4% higher than they were a year ago.  When one looks at the regional picture, the East of England average property values rose by 1.9% in the last month. The difference doesn’t concern me, as the regional and local property values always even themselves out over the months.
 
Looking forward, after considering all the statistics and talking to other property professionals, I expect property values in Chelmsford to rise by 3% to 5% over the coming 12 months.  

..and so back to my chat with the landlord.. Each property is unique and so, as his tenancy agreement allows him to inspect the property with notice to the tenant, we will be visiting the property next week!

Keep reading the Chelmsford Property Blog or get in touch; stephen.frost@martinco.com

Wednesday 29 July 2015

Potential 5.8% yield in Great Baddow, Chelmsford...






This apartment is rather nice looking and would probably appeal to a wide range of tenants, it’s in Great Baddow which is close enough to the city to be attractive for commuters, but far enough away for those who have had enough of the hustle and bustle of City living. 


This particular property has a guide price of £180K – £200K, but considering the rental prices of these apartments at the moment being around the £875 pcm mark, it’s a good return regardless of where in that price bracket it falls. At the higher price end it would generate you an annual return of 5.2%, but if you managed to get it at the lower end of the price bracket, you could be looking at an annual return of 5.8%.


Properties of this quality are not hanging around at the moment, so don’t delay, get down to the agents now to register your interest. 


If you would like any advice on any aspect of buying a property to let, feel free to give me a call 01245 330500

Monday 27 July 2015

1 Bed apartment in Chelmsford with 5.5% yield...

Good morning, I came across this property this morning and wanted to put it out there. This could prove to be a good little buy to let property. The location is pretty good, just off New London Road, near the Miami roundabout end, it's a 1 bedroom apartment and has just been listed with an asking price of £140,000. I'm not sure on what it's like inside though as there are no photos, so definitely need to get a viewing to assess the condition. It could need to be updated slightly. 
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50947510.html

Once it is ready for letting, you could be looking at around the £650 mark per month, so before service charges and ground rents you are looking at a potential return of 5.5% per year. 

If you would like to know about lettings services, feel free to give me a call 01245 330500

Friday 24 July 2015

Chelmsford City centre apartment with a 5.5% yield...

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-52754699.html?premiumA=true

Good morning readers, I came across this property this morning, and it;s a cracking little buy to let opportunity. It's just off Broomfield Road, opposite KEGS, so location wise, can't get much better for a commuter. These flats are really popular in the renting world, so don't miss out, get in touch with the selling agent now!

The price for this property is £172,000 and the rental potential would be around £795 pcm. we rented a 1 bed in the same block for this price and it flew out the door. This means you could be looking at a potential yield of 5.5%, this is before any service charges & ground rents though. 

There seems to be quite a few properties coming to market at the moment, so it is even more important to make sure that the property you buy is a good investment property. I'm always happy to offer my opinion on properties, if you want to drop me an e-mail with a link. stephen.frost@martinco.com

Thursday 23 July 2015

What type of property in Chelmsford sells the best?



Knowing how saleable a property is half the battle when deciding what (or not) to buy for your next property investment. Why?  Well because one day, you may need to sell that property. If you go into the purchase with open eyes, you know most of the risks and can barter the price accordingly if you have to. Bearing this in mind, last week, a couple from Dunmow popped into our offices to ask about investing in property. Their concern was if we have another property slump (and we will because that is what has happened to the British property market ever since the 1950’s), if they did need to sell, what type of property would be easier to sell. Now everything sells, even during a slump, but I did some research and followed up their query – I was actually quite surprised with the results.
A good guide to judge the saleability of property is the number of properties for sale, compared to the numbers that are sold, subject to contract. Now I carried out this comparison last week, so the numbers will be marginally different today, but of the 44,183 households in Chelmsford there are 1,660 properties on the market for sale. Of those 1,660 properties, 647 properties are fully available on the open market waiting for a buyer and 1013 have buyers and are sold subject to contract. That means 31% of property on the market has a buyer in Chelmsford (interestingly in Braintree 55% of properties on the market have a buyer and in Witham 57%).
However, delve deeper, and in Chelmsford today, 58% of detached houses on the market have a buyer and great news for semi detached property owners, as 69% of them have buyers.  Terraced houses fair even better, with 247 of the 340 on the market now having buyers (making 72%). The properties that appear to be sticking though are apartments at a comparatively lower 55% and bungalows at 57%. 
I am always giving advice to my existing and new landlords in Chelmsford on what to buy (or not as the case may be).  Having this detail of information at my finger tips, allows me to spot trends in the local market, which then enables to me to give the very best advice to my clients. I don't charge for that advice as I have plenty of opportunity to earn money by finding the best tenants for my landlords in the years to come on the investments I have advised on. 

Wednesday 22 July 2015

Charming 1 bed house in Chelmer Village...

This is an opportunity to get a proper 1 bed house, (not a quarter house type affair), which has come on to the market with local agent Cmrent for £160,000, which seems to me a pretty fair price. The property itself seems to be in pretty fair condition, having had some updating in recent years. 

The location is pretty good, it comes under the Chelmer Village umbrella, which is one of Chelmsford's 'hot spots', so a good little option for a buy to let property. 

Similar properties in this area rent for around the £700 pcm bracket, which could generate you an annual return of 5.2%.

This property wont be around for long, so make sure you get in touch with the agent and get yourself a viewing booked

Monday 20 July 2015

Beautiful on the inside in Chelmsford....

Now, this block may not be pretty, but inside it is beautiful, check out the link below...
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-51063134.html

This property is in a great location, just off Upper Bridge Road and would be ideal for commuters, so for letting purposes would be a great property. 

The Selling agent have priced this up at £142,500, which may be top heavy, but this is taking into account the condition of it. Because it's so lovely, it would rent for a pretty great figure too, I would recommend in the region of £700 pcm. So with this one, you could be looking at an annual return of 5.8%! (gross)

Not too shabby for an ugly duckling.

If you would like any advice on buy to let, give me a call, or pop in.