If your offspring are in their first year of A levels with plans to go to University this may be a perfect time to take advantage of current investment conditions and invest in a buy to let property in a big university city. With the passing of the £9000 a year student fee bill on 10 December, there has to be a way to help fund a 3 year course.
UCAS reported a huge national shortage of student accommodation following last year's record number of applications for the 2010 entry of 2.4 million. Other research has revealed that for the year to September 2010, average rents for student accommodation in Wales and England rose by 2.2 per cent. Only 50% of all students in the UK have access to high-quality purpose-built student accommodation, and this figure includes nearly 100,000 students in London alone.
Investment in a student property saves on the rent you might have to contribute to, hopefully covers the mortgage with 2 or 3 other tenant rents a month, plus there may be a vague expectation of some capital growth by the end of the course.
The biggest difficulty is choosing the right city. It's no good owning a refurbished terrace in Sheffield if your son or daughter is not offered a course there. A deferred place and a gap year seems the only way. If you have a full year to do your research once the grades are attained and the offer accepted, it may be better to invest and develop a distressed or derelict building such as pub.
Paramount Investments Managing Director Mark Grieg said, "we have seen a marked interest from parents who are looking to be first time property developers. They are looking to relatively cheap derelict or distressed property, in need of some development or refurbishment to accommodate children while at University"
Mr Grieg said "Pubs are closing at a rate of 5 a week, and are immensely suitable for conversion to residential lets; pub property prices are at rock bottom, and the square footage of public houses and the surrounding land, such investments are proving to be the best value property investment around."
Being a student landlord may require a little more work, even when one of your tenants is your own offspring; To mark the beginning of the academic year, Paragon, the buy to let mortgage specialists asked landlords about their experience of student lettings. Nearly four out of 10 landlords (38%) have experience of letting to students, with three quarters of those stating that they have good or excellent levels of tenant demand and 63% stating that students are a profitable sector to let to. Over half (57%) said students were punctual rent payers. However, students scored low on the maintenance of the property (18%) and the state of the property at the tenancy's end(18%). They also scored poorly on behaviour during the tenancy (26%).
Paramount Investments can help you to find a property suitable for redevelopment, conversion, modernisation and refurbishment and also offer the expertise in dealing with planning and finance as well as handling redevelopment and resale. We can help you research the local area to learn about any planning restrictions orf new developments that may have an effect on the rental yields or returns or the capital growth of the commercial property investment. The due dilligence process can be one of the most critical elements in commercial property investment, especially if you lack the knowledge required to make an informed investment decision.
Lettings Property News
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment