Stunning 3 bedroom terraced house for sale - great investment property.

So as it's Saturday I thought I would pop on a little Saturday special for you to ponder. Now if your an investor looking to buy something that little bit special with the thought in mind that "a great property breeds a great tenant" then potentially this is the one for you?

This little beaut is up for sale with TuckerGardner for £300,000 which I would say right now is a bargain! This property is situated close to Fenditton offering direct links to the M11 and London and its conveniently placed to Cambridge's Airport making it even more commutable without being too close. Your now thinking ok that's two plus points so what is the down fall here? Well as I stated prior this property appears to be a bargain and there is no down fall, in fact quite the opposite as this property also boasts off road parking, a garage and the interior is fantastic!

Finished to a high specification with a modern style this property would instantly rent for around the £1800pcm offering you an instant yield of 7.2% which for Cambridge at this current point in time is great. Still seems too good to be true? why not take a look for yourself? Check out the link below this picture for full details and don't hang around as I'm certain this one will go fast.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37015116.html

Cambridge House owners desert the housing market with an 8 year low

Even though the housing market is in an upbeat state in many parts of the UK, getting on the property ladder is still challenging for many and regarded as unattainable by some.  However, that goal has become even worse recently in Cambridge as the number of houses available to buy is at an 8 year all-time low.

Back in Winter 2007, there were over 1,400 properties for sale in Cambridge and since then this has steadily declined year on year, so now there are only 342 for sale in the city.  This continuing diminishing supply of housing has been happening over those years for a while and there simply aren’t enough properties in Cambridge to match demand.

According to a recent report by the National Association of Estate Agents, that said, “There are now 11 house hunters fighting after every available house which isn’t sustainable.”   What that means is Cambridge youngsters, who are looking to buy their first home, are finding themselves being squeezed out by the competition.  However, in the meantime, nobody wants to live with parents until they are in their 30’s, so that in turn creates demand for more rental properties, which means landlords have a greater demand for more rental properties so are buying more, resulting in even less smaller properties for the youngsters to buy, it’s a vicious circle.   

Talking to fellow agents, mortgage arrangers, surveyors and solicitors in the City, all of whom have extensive dealings in the Cambridge property market like myself, most of us agree the movement in the Cambridge market is taking place in the middle to upper market, higher up the property ladder and it’s second and third steppers pushing through the properties that are being bought and sold.

That has meant as people tend to move less in the middle to upper market, the number of the properties actually selling has drastically reduced over the last couple of years.

When we look at the individual areas of the city, it paints an interesting picture.

• CB1 - Cambridge (Central, South), Teversham 49 properties sold in May 2015 (with an average value of £507,951), whilst over the Summer months of 2014, the number of properties selling in this postcode reached into the mid/late 60’s.
• CB2 - Cambridge (West) 8 properties sold in May 2015 (with an average value of £737,187, whilst in the late Summer of 2014, the number of properties selling in this postcode reached into the 100’s.
• CB3 - Cambridge (North-West), Girton 9 properties sold in May 2015 (the most recent set of figures from the HM Land Registry), whilst over the Spring months of 2014, the number of properties selling in this postcode was always between 13 and 16 per month. (Interestingly the average value of those properties was £399,888).
• CB4 - Cambridge (North) 38 properties sold in May 2015 (the most recent set of figures from the HM Land Registry), whilst over the Summer months of 2014, the number of properties selling in this postcode was always between 53 and 62 per month. (Interestingly the average value of those properties was £375,943).
• CB5 - Cambridge (East) 12 properties sold in May 2015 (with an average value of £299,708), whilst over the Autumn months of 2014, the number of properties selling in this postcode reached into the early 20’s.

So what does this all mean for homeowners and landlords alike in Cambridge?  Demand for Cambridge property is good, especially at the lower end of the market.  However, with fewer properties coming up for sale, it means property prices are proving reasonably stable too.

You see I believe a more stable, consistent Cambridge property market, with less people seeing property as an easy way to make a quick buck (as many did in the early 2000’s when prices were rising at nearly 20% a year so people were buying and selling every other minute), but a property market that has a 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/late 2000’s might just be the thing that the Cambridge property market needs in the long term.

For more insights, comments and facts on the Cambridge Property market please visit the Cambridge Property Blog http://cambridgeproperty.blogspot.co.uk/ where you will find many similar articles to this.

2 bedroom semi-detached house for sale offering minimum yeild of 4.8%

This two bedroom semi is up for sale through Bush for offers in the region of £300,000 and looking at the pictures its in great condition (always go and look for yourself of course), its also a great size with masses of potential.

So I would say that if you purchased this property and then let it out straight away without lifting a finger it would let for around the £1200pcm mark meaning that you haven't broke into a sweat you are already making a yield of 4.8%

The property offers off road parking and is easily accessible to both Cambridge and boasts direct access to the M11 to London making it a commuters dream. Looking at a bigger picture there's plenty of room for a two story side extension meaning that you could have a lovely 5-6 bed HMO if you planned it right. Certainly food for thought this one.

For more pictures where you will see that this property could be instantly let and further information please see the link below:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-36846237.html

Homes under the hammer style Auction?

A bit of Monday morning madness.
Fancy a go at your very own homes under the hammer style auction? This lot is for sale by auction as lot 200 on 29th October 2015 with allsop and a guide price of £200,000.

A Leasehold Three Bedroom Self-Contained First and Second Floor Maisonette subject to an Assured Shorthold Tenancy.

The property is held on a lease for a term of 125 years from 9th September 2015 (thus having approximately 125 years unexpired) at a ground rent of £250 per annum.

The property is situated on the south side of Cherry Hinton Road, close to its junction with Rock Road. Cherry Hinton Road leads onto Clifton Road, providing access to the Leisure Park, where a range of shops and facilities are available. Cambridge city centre is two miles to the north-west and provides an extensive range of shops, facilities and the Universities of Cambridge. Cambridge's main Railway Station is a mile to the north-west and Local schools and colleges are within a mile, including Homerton College and Saint Bede's Inter-Church School. All in all putting this in a great location.

Problem is there are no pictures to view which usually means this property is a doer upper, is it worth a gamble? Its certainly worth doing your homework and taking a good look. This property could rent for £600 per room pcm if done up right and could make you a potential yield of up to 10% but do make sure you do all of your homework with this one first!

For more information please see the link below:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-51877663.html?premiumA=true

 

The perfect portfolio starting point!

Hi there fellow bloggers, so lately I have been going a little wild throwing out ideas of grandeur and potentially forgetting that not everyone has millions of pounds to spare? So I decided today to find you something that is a lot more affordable and indeed the perfect start to a portfolio, making this little gem the perfect starting point.

This Studio apartment is up for sale with a guide price of £149,950 with SAB and is situated in a great location, Its close to all the local Cherry Hinton amenities and also close to Addenbrookes hospital and Cambridge Airport making it the perfect property to capture the attention of a local working professional offering a rental of £600pcm giving you an instant yield of 4.8% and its ready to let instantly as its not in bad condition at all.

So now we pop on our thinking caps and think what could be done with this property to increase the yield?
The solution is simple, Put your hand into your pocket and turn this simple studio into a high end compact apartment - give it a high end makeover you will be amazed what 10K could do to this. Take the extra on your mortgage get the kitchen and bathroom revamped and decorate in a neutral yet stylish manor (you cant beat white walls). White walls you say, wont they just get ruined fast? Nope because there so easy to maintain, they make the property look bigger and with the right furniture totally transform a place.

So your total expenditure is now say £160,000 and you have a prestige high end compact apartment on your portfolio which is now renting for £800pcm and offering you a 6% yield not to mention that your apartment has now shot up in value!

For more pictures and information please see the link below:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-51790591.html

Could your Cambridge property save you from Pension oblivion?

 

If you were born in the early 1970’s or late 1960’s, if you haven’t started to think about it yet, retirement is closer than you think. In fact the number of years you have left to work is less than the number of years you have worked. The basic state pension is worth £115.95 a week for a single person in 2015/16 (or £6,029 a year) and £231.90 a week for a couple (£12,118 a year) as long as your partner has paid their stamp (although there are certain get of jail cards if they haven’t). 

As a household, could you live on just over £12k a year?

However, could the property you are living in in Cambridge save you from poverty when you reach retirement? You see, a regular income is vital in retirement, and the bricks and mortar you own in Cambridge could provide a way for you to finance life when you retire.

If you are in your 30’s, instead of saddling yourself with bigger and bigger mortgages, going from your first time buyer flat, to a terraced, to the semi and then the large detached house, you could instead keep your terraced or small semi, turning it into buy a buy to let property, let the rent pay the mortgage and then rely on capital growth to provide you with a lump sum when you sell the property and retire.  One of the biggest plus points of buy to let is what is known as leverage. Let me explain ... say you have a deposit of 25% and the value of the property rises by 3% a year, your gains in fact multiply to 12%.  However, if property prices drop, 'leverage' can be catastrophic, as losses will also be multiplied. Property values have dropped a number of times in the last 50 years, but they always seem to bounce back ... property must be seen as a long term investment.

Let me explain how leverage could work for you. If you had bought a Cambridge house in spring of 1983 for £50,000, using a 75% mortgage and 25% deposit, (meaning your deposit would be £12,500). Today, that Cambridge property would have risen in value to £345,917, a rise of 591.8%. However, when you look at the growth on just your deposit, the rise is even better ... instead of 591.8%, we see a rise of 2667% (remembering that the mortgage would have been paid off).

However, buy to let is not all about capital growth and in retirement, income is more important than capital growth, as rent is the key to a steady income.

So surely the best strategy is to buy those Cambridge properties with the high rents (when compared to the value of the property). These are called high yield properties in the buy to let world because the monthly return is so much greater. So surely they are the best in Cambridge? Possibly, but the properties that offer these higher yields (in the order of 5% to 6% per year) tend to be in such areas as Arbury in Cambridge, historically they haven’t offered such good capital growth when compared to the city average, have a higher tendency for void periods and such properties tend to attract tenants that have a greater propensity to be high maintenance.

 

Therefore, if a high maintenance rental portfolio wasn’t for you, another strategy could be buy a property with relatively smaller rental returns of 3% to 4% per year (i.e. lower yields), but in a more up market area such as Newnham. Properties such as these tend to suffer from less void periods (i.e. when there is no tenant in the property paying you rent) and they historically have had better long term capital growth when compared to the city average.

Every landlord is different and every property is different. All I suggest to you is do your homework.

As regular readers will know, I am happy to share my knowledge and experience of the Cambridge property market, high yields, high capital growth, what to buy, what not to buy and where to buy in the Cambridge Property market can always be found on the Cambridge Property Blog http://cambridgeproperty.blogspot.co.uk/

A little something special - or not so little with a 5.1% yeild

This is not the usual investment opportunity that I put on my blog but if your looking to start a portfolio with a few properties then why not have them all together?
This attractive terrace of 4 houses which is up for sale with Bradshaw/Carter Jonas with a guide price of £2,600,000 provides 20 rooms which are situated very close to the railway station and boasts a private rear garden. This property is currently used as halls of residence for graduate students so is ready to be let instantly as all requirements are already met.

Situated in an excellent central location very close to the railway station and many city amenities, this well maintained run of four almost identical properties extending to a total of 4,908 sq ft would make a great start or boost to any property investors portfolio.

The properties were built about 12 years ago to a good specificationm with double glazing, gas fired central heating and Telephone and TV points in most rooms. To the front of the properties is a small garden area with dwarf wall and railings which leads to the front doors and entrance halls beyond making them low maintenance and perfect for working professional sharers or students meaning an abundance of potential tenants and an average market room rental of £550pcm. 

So doing my maths based upon letting this property straight away in its current condition which isn't bad at all you would potentially earn £550 x 20 = £11,000pcm giving you a yield of 5.1%

For more pictures/brochure etc please see the link below:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-55360088.html

Cambridge tenants feel the squeeze as rents continue to rise.

As my regular readers know, my passion is talking about Cambridge property. As a property agent I like to comment on the Cambridge property market, which I hope will be of interest to both homeowners and buy to let landlords alike. However, this week, I want to highlight the plight of the tenants of Cambridge as more and more of their wages are being taken up by ever increasing rents.

The cost of renting a home in Cambridge has nearly broken through the £1300 a month barrier as the average rent for a property in the city, now stands at £1288 per month, a rise of 0.7% last month, leaving rents for new lets 0.4% higher than they were 12 months ago.

House price inflation has certainly eased in Cambridge from the heady days of 2014, but still with retail price inflation (for goods and services) reducing to 0% any increase in property values, no matter how small, means in real terms property is still getting more expensive. Meanwhile, many tenants have given up saving for a mortgage deposit as rents continue to take more and more of their wage packets leaving nothing to save for a deposit. That means, more and more tenants are deciding to rent for the long term and therefore the desire for decent high quality rental properties continues to exceed the available rental stock.

I would go as far as to suggest that rents are an ideal barometer to the state of the local economy as a whole and strongly believe that the recent increase in Cambridge rents are a sign that the Cambridge economy is picking up. 

This means Cambridge landlords are continuing to capitalise on the Cambridge property market. The most recent Land Registry data suggests the annual property price rises in the city have eased over 2015, leaving property values 7.11% higher than 12 months ago, so as property price growth is easing off, with the increased rents, rental yields are strengthening for the first time in years to compensate. The mortgage market has become more stable after the mad months of May and June after the Tory’s got back into No.10, and so, everything is set to be good news for landlords; even with the Chancellors change of tax rules in the coming years for buy to let mortgages.

You can get some amazingly low mortgage rate deals at the moment, so with mortgage rates so low and returns still extraordinarily attractive, there’s rarely been a better time to invest in rental properties.

However, (you knew there would be a however!), it’s all about buying the right property at the right price. Not all property types are seeing equal rises in rents and capital growth.  Different parts of the city, different types of properties are experiencing quite different changes.  For example, the average length of time the 156 Cambridge properties up for rent between £500 to £1000 per month is 61 days, whilst the average length of time the 244 properties at £1000 to £2000 per month is 52 days and 60 properties that fall into the £2000 to £5000 per month price bracket is an eye watering 101 days.

When you start comparing different parts of Cambridge, the numbers are even stranger!  The bottom line is that you must take advice and opinion. One source of advice and opinion is the Cambridge Property Blog. In the Cambridge Property Blog, you will see many more articles like this, discussions and even what I consider to be the best buy to let deals around, irrespective of which agent is selling it.

Whether you are a landlord, ‘Homes Under the Hammer’ addict or just a homeowner who is interested in what is happening to the local property market, then please visit the Cambridge property Blog http://cambridgeproperty.blogspot.co.uk/

5 bedroom terraced house with sitting tenants and an amazing 7.2% Yield.

This one is the ideal investment opportunity and available to purchase as a ready-made licensed HMO. Located in Orchard Park on Circus Drive and up for sale with Belvoir for £440,000 This property is a 5 bedroom unit which is currently achieving £2,640pcm.

It has a 5 year license which was renewed in April 2013 and It is fully furnished and equipped to HMO standards making it the perfect investment opportunity offering an amazing 7.2% yield which for the current time in Cambridge is fantastic.

For more pictures and information please see the link below, Don't wait around as this one will sell fast:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-51336061.html

Cambridge Property Market - Asking Prices Drop but Values rise

Those of you who regularly read my weekly articles in the Cambridge Property Blog will know I like to keep abreast of the Cambridge property market. Something attracted my attention this week about the local property market, something I wanted to share with my many readers.

 Over the last month, there appears to have been an anomaly in the local property market, whereby asking prices in the city have dropped, yet property values have increased.  The average asking price of a Cambridge property, according to Rightmove, fell 1.2% this month yet the average value of a Cambridge property rose by 0.9%.

So how does this relate in monetary terms?  This anomaly has driven the average asking price of a Cambridge property down slightly to £548,300 whilst the average value is now £394,300.

So why the difference? Technically an ‘asking price’ can be any price that a homeowner wants to place his or her property on the market for. Unfortunately, many times this is done without research and can result in overpriced properties that don't sell. As the summer months are normally slightly quieter those left on the market wanting to sell often temper their asking prices in these months to try and generate interest in their property.

On the other side of the coin, the property ‘value’ is the price that a willing buyer is prepared to pay and a willing seller is prepared to sell at.   Therefore, in a nutshell, Cambridge property values are continuing to rise and those homeowners in Cambridge who have properties on the market, last month on average, reduced their asking prices.. Great news for property owners and buyers alike!

In previous articles, I have spoken about the continued fundamental shortage of property coming on to the market compared to buyer demand. That is especially true for homeowners wanting to upgrade to a better house/better location.  I can appreciate Cambridge home owners are reluctant to put their own property on the market speculatively and wait for the right property to become available and some high demand locations can suffer from a property stalemate.

Most homeowners don’t want to sell and have nothing to buy.

But that’s the beauty of the much maligned English and Welsh house buying process. You can find a purchaser for your property, and then ask them to wait. By agreeing a sale (subject to contract) before you try to buy sounds concerning to many, but with fewer properties for sale you need to have a buyer for your property or you will be treated as a less serious buyer yourself. If you cannot find the right home for you, you can slow the deal with your purchaser until it comes along. If nothing suitable does comes along and you lose your buyer then the worst outcome is that you have to find another purchaser or take your property off the market and stay put for now, and as long as you mention this at the start they must not commit to any costs until you have agreed your onward purchase.

However, for the landlord/buy to let investors, these potential problems are nothing further from the truth. As I write this article, there are over 100 flats for sale, 81 terraced houses and over 50 semis for sale in Cambridge.  Landlord/Buy to let investors can normally pick up some bargains in the Autumn months, as sellers who are selling their homes often have a pressing need to sell by this time.

The types of houses a Cambridge landlord typically buys, are not the same types as the homeowners wanting to move to a posher area of the city as they are attracted by larger semis and detached properties. The best types of properties for buy to let are the smaller flats, terraced and semis (not the big detached ones). There are in fact too many of these smaller properties for sale .. Just look at the numbers of properties for sale (mentioned in the previous paragraph).

If you are a landlord or thinking of become one for the first time, and you want to read more articles like this about the Cambridge Property Market together with regular postings on what I consider the best buy to let deals in Cambridge, out of the many properties on the market, irrespective of which agent is selling it, then you might like to visit the Cambridge Property Blog http://cambridgeproperty.blogspot.co.uk/

The Spinney catchment area properties outperform Cambridgeshire average by 55.04%

 

I was having a chat with a Cambridge property investor the other day, when he asked if schools, especially primary schools, affected the local property market in terms of demand from buyers and tenants to a property.  Anecdotally, I have always known this to be true, a good school creates good demand and good demand does affect house prices.  So, I asked my colleagues on the front line, who take the phone calls from people putting themselves on our mailing list and they confirmed that most people cite location as their number one factor.

After looking through our mailing list, it confirms there is a close correlation between the high demand areas of Cambridge and the close proximity to a good primary school.  Talking to my team in a recent morning meeting, they agreed many people would look to increase their budget quite significantly, whilst others would consider downgrading their property requirements to be close to a good primary school.

Those of you who regularly read this blog will know I like a challenge, so I decided to look at the science behind these assumptions.  According to the SchoolGuide website, The Spinney Primary School is one of the best primary schools in Cambridge.  Its figures are certainly impressive. Their last Ofsted Report classified it as Outstanding, 97% of 11 year pupils achieving Level 4 or above in maths, reading and writing whilst 63% of them achieved level 5.  Finally, the schools’ KS2 rating was classed as Excellent.

Looking at property sales within one mile of The Spinney, property values have risen in value since 1999 by 230.62%, whilst according to recent figures, Cambridge average as a whole has risen in the same time frame by 148.75%.

That means the parents of The Spinney have seen the values of their properties rise proportionally 55.04% more than the Cambridge average ... interesting don’t you think?

However, whilst a good primary school significantly contributes more to house prices, the same can’t be said for secondary schools. There are two reasons for this, firstly, as secondary schools are much larger, so their catchment areas are correspondingly much larger, meaning parents don’t need to live so close to the school. Secondly, in the UK, whilst the difference between the top 25% and bottom 25% of secondary schools is not insignificant, in the primary school sector, the difference between the top 25% and bottom 25%, according to the London School of Economics, is considerably and significantly more.

Many other Cambridge landlords, both who are with us and many who are with other Cambridge agents, like to pop in for a coffee or ring/email us to discuss the Cambridge property market, to consider how Cambridge compares with its closest rivals and hopefully we can answer all their questions. You must take lots of advice and seek out the best opinion. One good source of opinion, specific to the Cambridge property market is the Cambridge Property Blog http://cambridgeproperty.blogspot.co.uk/  I don’t bite, I don’t do hard sell, I will just give you my honest and straight talking opinion.