Here's a little gem for you to consider and it offers a good yield too.

This 3 bedroom flat located at the prestigious, modern development at St Matthews Gardens is on the market with Cheffins with a guide price of £325,000 which if I am honest seems almost too good to be true.
Situated within walking distance of Cambridge's Grafton Centre and Grand Arcade shopping centres and only a stones throw away from large chain store supermarkets etc this property would be a perfect let for any working professional.
These properties let with ease for £1750pcm which would give you a yield of 6.5% and as per usual that's if you pay the full guide price, I would however expect this property to go fast so if your interested then I would suggest that you act upon it sooner rather than later.
Please see the link below for full pictures and details, you wont be disappointed in this one.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50635054.html

Cambridge Buy To let – Bedrooms?

Last week, a landlord from Cambridge emailed me to ask, after reading the Cambridge 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 Cambridge is currently £343,800 whilst the average value of a semi detached house is £352,100, meaning to make money the cost of the extension would need to be less than £32,661 on the terraced property and £36,970 on the semi detached house. Talking to a number of trades’ people in the City, 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 as well.   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.

·         25.5% of the one bed properties on the market to rent in Cambridge have a tenant with an average rent of £782 per month

·         34.8% of the two bed properties on the market to rent in Cambridge have a tenant with an average rent of £1,252 per month

·         30.8% of the three bed properties on the market to rent in Cambridge have a tenant with an average rent of £1,428 per month

·         34.3% of the four bed properties on the market to rent in Cambridge have a tenant with an average rent of £1,803 per month

No, if you want to increase the value of your property, be you a Cambridge 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 Cambridge Property Market, visit the Cambridge Property Blog http://cambridgeproperty.blogspot.co.uk/

 

3 bedroom detached house for sale offering a 4.2% yield

Not the greatest yield at present but this modern, detached house occupies a quiet and tucked away position within this popular south city cul-de-sac and is up for sale with TuckerGardner for £400,000. It offers practical and well-maintained accommodation that benefits from a replacement boiler and double glazed windows and doors meaning no immediate work required (a plus point already).
Now here comes the selling point; This larger than average plot enjoys a sunny aspect and provides scope for further extension, subject to consents meaning that rooms could be easily added creating a potential lettings goldmine. At present this property would rent for £1400pcm giving you an instant yield of 4.2% - imagine the yield of a 6 bedroom property and the location is great to capture working professional sharers. Built to a good standard you could easily reach £550 per room pcm so with this property potentially the sky is your limit.

Cambridge Buy To Let – Demand and Supply

Following on from my recent article about the state of the Cambridge property market and in particular what had happened to the rents Cambridge tenants have had to pay since the Credit Crunch, if you recall, I said rents in Cambridge are still 0.71% lower than they were in 2008. A Cambridge landlord has since rung me after reading the Cambridge Property Blog, wanting to know more of the story of what was happening to current rents in the City. The reason he asked was that his current agent hadn’t increased his rent for a number of years and was concerned weather he was actually getting the best return from his buy to let investment.

The Cambridge rental market is all about supply and demand (isn’t that so in all parts of the economy?). On the supply side, 531 rental properties have come up for let in the last 31 days in Cambridge. It sounds a lot until you consider there are 13,862 rental properties in Cambridge, that means only 3.83% of the rental stock of properties in Cambridge are coming onto the market each month (it is normally around 5%).  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. And this is the crux of the matter ...properties they want. Older properties in Cambridge, 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 they are prepared to pay for the privilege. Rents for top quality properties in Cambridge have risen by 0.4% in the last month. Any properties, old or modern, put on the market in good or excellent condition will rent in a matter of days.  

Interestingly, looking at Cambridge property values, the Land Registry have just released their latest set of data on property values. Throughout April 2015 (the latest set of data), property values rose in Cambridge, with 0.7% growth, meaning they are now 8.7% higher than they were a year ago.  When one looks at the regional picture, the East of England average property values rose by 0.3% 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 Cambridge to rise by 3% to 5% over the coming 12 months, following the Conservative victory.  In a forthcoming article, I will discuss how the number of properties changing hands each month has dropped considerably in the last 10 to 15 years in the City. 

...And so back to our 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. 

For more in depth thoughts and opinions like this on the Cambridge Property market ...visit the Cambridge Property Blog http://cambridgeproperty.blogspot.co.uk/

Three bed do-er upper in Cambridge with a 6.0% return.

As some of my regular readers will know, I spend a fair chunk of time trawling the property portals, trying to find potential deals that would make a great buy to let investments. With more landlords coming to the market, it is more important now to make sure that landlords are buying the right types of property for what the market demands. That's why I have been doing what I have, which will hopefully aid you within your decision making process.

Today I bring to you a really good sized semi-detached house in the popular Newmarket road area…… but it definitely needs some modernisation, so if you want a do-er upper then this could be the one for you.  It looks like you will to put in a kitchen and bathroom, redecorate, new carpets and possibly some new windows, so you will of course need to budget for this.

 

Rental wise, these type of properties should rent out for around £1700 pcm, so when you compare it the asking price of £325,000 and let’s say you spend £15,000 on bringing the property to a good specification, you are looking at a potential annual return of 6.0%.

 

Check this one out at the following link and give Tucker Gardner a call.....

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34970046.html

Monday morning madness & using your head

This 3 bedroom property is situated on Brooks Road which is located off Mill Road on a thriving commercial road with a unique atmosphere and a wealth of retail shops and services. The area offers schooling for most ages, A large superstore and this area has easy access to the cities main railway station offering links to Liverpool Street and Kings Cross making this property desirable to the working professional family.

For sale with Bush for offers in the region of £350,000 and offering a rental income of around £1700pcm this property could make you a yield of 5.8% and as always that's if you pay the full asking price and stick to having 3 bedrooms?

Imagine making an offer of say £335,000 and changing one of the two reception rooms into a fourth bedroom, this could increase your rental income to up to £2200pcm subsequently increasing your yield to a healthy 7.8%

For further information please see the link below:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-52669844.html

Brand New 2 bedroom apartment for sale in Cambridge offering a 5.5% Yield

Its very rare that I suggest a property like this but I think that this one is certainly worth a second glance.
I don't even have a picture to offer you on this one because the build is not complete but if you follow the link at the bottom of my post you will see virtual images of what promises to be a light and airy apartment which is located a stones throw away from Cambridge's City Centre, Grand Arcade Grafton Centre and business park.

This 2 bedroom apartment is for sale with Carter Jonas Bradshaws with an asking price of £370,000 and is local to so much that a working professional tenant will be simple to obtain, in short this property could rent itself and would reach a monthly rental fee of £1695pcm offering you a yield of 5.5%
This apartment is brand new so no expense what so ever in doing it up, so what are you waiting for?
Follow the link below to see virtue images and floor plans of this great example of an investment property within Cambridge's' city centre.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/new-homes-for-sale/property-52711691.html

Cambridge - Fewer people are moving house!

 

Well the dust has settled and the General Election seems a distant memory, we can get back to a more normal property market, or that is what the London based ‘Fleet Street’ journalists would lead you to believe.  You see I have been talking to many fellow property professionals in Cambridge (solicitors, conveyancers and one the best sources of info – the chap who puts all the estate agent and letting boards up in Cambridge, and all of them, every last one of them told me they didn’t see any change over April in business, compared to any other month on the lead up to the Election itself.

In a nutshell, the General Election in Cambridge didn’t really have any impact on people’s confidence to buy property.  As I write this article, of 567 properties that have come on to the market in Cambridge  since the 2^nd of April, 339 of them have a buyer and are sold subject to contract, that’s nearly two in three (59.79% to be precise).

I think that things are starting to change in the way people in Cambridge (in fact the whole of the country as I talk to other agents around the UK) buy and sell property.  Back in the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s, the norm was to buy a terraced house as soon as you left home and do it up.  Meanwhile, property prices had gone up, so you traded up to a 2 bed semi, then a 3 bed semi and repeated the process, until you found yourself in a large 4 bed detached house with a large mortgage. 

Looking into this a little deeper like I have said in previous articles Cambridge people’s attitude to homeownership itself has changed over the last ten years.  The pressure for youngsters to buy when young has gone as renting, not buying, is considered the norm for 20 something’s. This isn’t just a Cambridge thing, but, a national thing, as I have noticed that people buy property by trading up (or down) because they need to, not because ‘it’s what people do’.  This does means there are a lot less properties on the market compared to the last decade.

A by-product of less people moving is less people selling their property. My research shows there are a lot fewer properties each month selling in Cambridge compared to the last decade.  For example, in February 2015, only 156 properties were sold in Cambridge. Compare this to February 2002, and 168 properties sold and the same month in 2004, 188 properties.  I repeated the exercise on different sets of years, (comparing the same month to allow for seasonal variations) and the results were identical if not greater.  So what does this all mean?  Demand for Cambridge property isn’t flying away, but with fewer properties for sale, it means property prices are proving reasonably stable too. Stable, consistent and steady growth of property values in Cambridge, year on year, without the massive peaks and troughs we saw in the late 1980’s and mid/late2000’s might just be the thing that the Cambridge property market needs in the long term.

A great little investment oppertunity offering a great 6.4% yield in Cambridge

This investment opportunity that I have found for you today is a 3 bedroom, mid terraced family house which benefits from double glazed windows, gas fired central heating and a large area for off street parking and is for sale with Bush for offers in the region of £280,000.  
This property also boasts a South facing rear garden and is all set out as a low maintenance style garden making it a working professionals dream.
Many working professionals love to wind down in the evening and what better way than sipping a nice glass of red on a patio with the sun on your face? Sadly many working professionals simply do not have the time to maintain their gardens and are often put off by large areas however this little beaut offers the best of both worlds, a large easy to maintain south facing garden.

This property provides convenient access to the A14, M11 and Cambridge's busy Science park and is in close proximity of shopping facilities and education for most ages and would obtain a rental fee in the region of £1500pcm offering you a yield of 6.4%.

2 bedroom terraced house offering you a yeild of 5%

This two bedroom terraced housed is for sale with TuckerGardner for £250,000 and offers very practical and well-maintained accommodation. It boasts a sizeable plot and the useful addition of off-road parking and brick-built shed.
This coupled with the property being located in central Cambridge offers the ability to capture great tenants and an approximate rental of £1,050pcm giving you a yield of 5%

For more information on this investment opportunity please see the link below:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34858443.html

Cambridge Property Market – Post Election Blues?

With the election now over and the stability of Downing Street secure, with David Cameron and his Blue Tories as the largest party in Westminster, in Cambridge (as in the rest of the UK) average wages are beginning to grow faster than inflation. This is good news for the Cambridge 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 Cambridge giving buyers some extra negotiating power.

At the last election in May 2010, there were 389 properties for sale in Cambridge and by October 2010, this had risen to 686, an impressive rise of 76% in five months. An increase in the supply of properties coming on to the market could tip the balance in the demand and supply the 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 from the election, it is important to consider what the uncertainty in April did to the Cambridge property market. I mentioned a few weeks ago that property values (ie what properties were actually selling for) had risen by 0.2% in March 2015. Now new data has been released from Rightmove about April’s asking prices of property in Cambridge. 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 1.4% (April is normally one of the best months of the year for house price growth).

I am sure our local MP, Daniel Zeichner would agree that the biggest issue is the lack of new properties being built in Cambridge. The Conservative manifesto pledged to build 200,000 discounted starter homes for first-time buyers in the next five years. For Cambridge to gets its share, that would mean only 85 such properties being built in Cambridge each year for the next five years, not much when you consider there are 46,714 properties in Cambridge.

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 0.71% lower than they were in 2008 (good news for tenants)... with renting everyone wins!

Summer Special offering a studio with a great location and yield.

Ok so seen as today is the 1st of June so I thought I would find you something that little bit more special, now this may not look amazing from the outside but inside is decorated to a great standard and the location is the key feature here.
This studio is on with SAB with a guide price of £167,500 and is situated on Mill road leading directly into the city centre and only a short walk from the city's main train station.
I have studios situated on Mill road and they let for around £800pcm with ease so should you pay the full asking price you would obtain a yield of 5.7% and did I mention that this studio is fully decorated to a great standard too?

What are you waiting for? This could be your summer.
For more pictures and full details please see the link below:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50148031.html