By Investing in Gillingham buy to let property is different from investing in the stock market or depositing your hard-earned cash in the building society. When you invest your money in the building society, this is considered by many as the safe option but the returns you can achieve are awfully low (the best 2-year bond rate from Nationwide is a whopping 0.75% a year). Another investment is the stock market, which can give good returns, but unless you are on the phone every day to your stockbroker, most people invest in stock market funds, making the investment quite hands offand one always has the feeling of not being in control.
However, with buy to let, things can be more hands on. One of the things many landlords like is the tactile nature of property - the fact that you can touch the bricks and mortar. It is this factor that attracts many of Gillingham’s landlords; whom are making their own decisions rather than entrusting them to city whizz kids in Canary Wharf playing roulette with their savings.
I often say that investing in property can be long-term plan. When you invest in the property market, you can earn from your investment in two ways. When a property increases in value over time, it is known as capital growth. Capital growth, also known as capital appreciation, has been strong in recent times in Gillingham. Although the value of property does go up as well as down (just like shares), the initial purchase price rarely decreases. Rental income is what the tenant pays you - hopefully this will also grow over time. If you divide the annual rent into the value (or purchase price) of the property, this is your yield, or annual return. So, over the last 5 years, an average Gillingham property has risen by £71,500 (equivalent to £39.18 a day), taking it to a current average value of £253,200. Yields range from 5% a year and can reach double digits’ percentages (although to achieve those sorts of returns, the risks are higher).
However, something I haven’t spoken of before is the more specialist area of flipping property to make money. (flipping - buying a property, carrying out some minor cosmetics and re-selling it quickly). I have seen several investors recently who have made decent returns from this strategy.
For example …
· One Gillingham Investor paid £156,000 for a 3 bed terrace on Garfield Road in October 2015. It appears some cosmetic work was done to the property and it was resold a few months ago (November 2016) for £210,000 … 34.62 % return before costs (or compound annual return equivalent of 33.05% AER) http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=63161858&sale=4575352&country=england
· Another Gillingham Investor flipped a lovely 3 bed end terrace on Mierscourt Road, paying £213,000 in March 2016 and selling it again after some doing some basic cosmetic works, sold it for £255,000 a few months ago (November 2016) … 19.72% return before costs (or equivalent 31.48% AER) http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=55599871&sale=89038299&country=england
This demonstrates how the Gillingham property market has not only provided very strong returns for the average investor over the last five years but how it has permitted a group of motivated buy to let Gillingham landlords and investors to become particularly wealthy.
As my article mentioned a few weeks ago, more and more Gillingham people may be giving up on owning their own home and are instead accepting long term renting, whilst buy to let lending continues to grow from strength to strength. If you want to know what (and what would not) make a decent buy to let property in Gillingham, then please feel free to email me.
Also, if you are looking at a Gillingham property (or anywhere in Kent for that matter), would you like a free and instant second opinion? Use my online valuation tool and you will receive an instant and upto date sales AND lettings valuation, all in under 60 seconds! Find it here.
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