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Buy To Let Property Investors Spend Over £3k Per Year On Investments

Buy to let property investors in the UK spend over £3,000 per year on their properties on average according to new research by LV General Insurance.

The insurance company found that landlords collectively spend a total of almost £4.7 billion over the year, equating to £3,134 each.

The spend was found to include renovations and refurbishments (£370), replacing/repairing (£370), fixing structural damage (£313), decorating (£265) and garden maintenance (£203).

Extra spend also came from damage caused by tenants, with carpets the most likely thing that landlords had to spend out for to replace, repair or clean, as reported by 66 per cent of landlords asked.

Damage to walls was next at 45 per cent, white goods (27 per cent) and doors (24 per cent).

Landlords therefore spend the most money replacing/repairing flooring (£322), white goods (£298), other items (£256), cleaning at the end of a tenancy (£178) and removing forgotten items (£149).

The amount of spend required varied across the UK. The South West saw the most money spent on repairing damage made by tenants (£3,461), whereas landlords in the North West spend the least on repairing damage (£2,738).

Tenant disputes were another thing that landlords often had to spend out on. Although 46 per cent have never experienced a tenant dispute, almost a quarter (23 per cent) have disputes at least once a year, with 6 per cent even quoting once a month.

The most common causes for tenant disputes are delayed rent (43 per cent), damage to property (41 per cent), cleanliness (33 per cent), disputes over bills or deposits (10 per cent), pets (9 per cent) and sub-letting (7 per cent).

Managing director of LV General Insurance, Heather Smith, said: ‘Finding the right tenant is crucial. Although the majority rarely experience tenant disputes, it’s clear that, when they do, the disputes are challenging and potentially costly.

‘Our research found that 13 per cent currently don’t have landlord insurance, meaning they are missing out on things such as cover for accidental damage by tenants, loss of rent if the property becomes uninhabitable, and contents cover.’

Source: Residential Landlord

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Investing in student property doesn’t stack up

Don’t be fooled by the attractive yields from investing in student property: the market doesn’t live up to the hype.

Type “invest in student accommodation” into Google and the search results seem compelling. Advertisements claim that in return for a relatively modest sum you can achieve guaranteed returns of anything from 7%-10% a year on a fully tenanted, fully managed buy-to-let investment. But investors should do their homework before parting with their money. Behind the glossy advertisements for purpose-built student accommodation lie high-risk, illiquid investments.

The student “pods” advertised to “savvy” investors are usually top-end, en-suite studios in buildings offering residents services such as high-speed broadband, gyms, cafes, and cycle storage. Buildings tend to be in city-centre locations with units appearing cheap compared with other properties in the same area. But the first problem investors might encounter if they want to buy one is that most mortgage lenders won’t lend on pods. “If a bank doesn’t think it’s a safe bet, then you should stay well clear,” says Robert Bence of the Property Hub forum. “The reason they won’t lend is that if they had to repossess a student pod they wouldn’t be able to sell it.”

Rental guarantees may sound reassuring, but they’re not

Assuming you can muster the cash to buy a student property outright, the rental guarantees offered by developers might sound reassuring – and lucrative: studentproperty.org offers returns of up to 10% fixed for up to five years; Urbane Brix advertises average annual yields of 9%; Sterling Woodrow mentions 10% assured income for three or more years. But if these yields sound too good to be true, it’s because they often are. Once the guaranteed period has expired, investors often find the real market rate for rents is much lower than they were initially told. In other cases the guaranteed rents and returns fail to materialise or last as long as they should.

“A quick bit of research will show you that many pods are advertised at a rent much higher than what the market dictates and that’s because the guaranteed rent is baked into the price you pay,” says Bence. Management charges are another factor to take into account. Unfortunately, managing agents of blocks of flats have a reputation for overcharging and under-delivering.

Assuming none of this puts you off and you buy a student unit, you could then run into problems if you want to sell later on. With a traditional buy-to-let property you can sell to the whole of the market. But your options are much more limited if you want to sell a student pod: you’ll need to find another cash-rich investor. The lack of exit options also affect pods’ prospects for capital growth.

Student property is high-performing, but only for some

If student units are such a risky investment, why is this type of accommodation often described as one of the best-performing asset classes? These claims often fail to mention that they’re talking about institutional investment, where pension funds and similar institutions buy whole blocks of units, or lease buildings from a university. They have a lot more control over their investment, enough capital to survive void periods or rent arrears, and an exit strategy that involves selling the block as a whole. The risks to individual investors buying single units are much higher. Especially keen investors might be better off researching the specialist trusts in the sector, such as Empiric Student Property (LSE: ESP), GCP Student Living (LSE: DIGS) or Unite Group (LSE: UTG).

By: Emma Lunn

Source: Money Week

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Manchester And Liverpool Top Cities For Property Investments

Manchester and Liverpool have been marked out as key northern cities to invest in when building up a property portfolio.

Manchester topped the list of best UK cities within which to be a landlord.

GoCompare recently launched an interactive tool which tells you the best areas to invest in. It includes data on average property prices, average yields and rental price growth. It also assesses the number of people in the city below the age of 35 as this group are considered prime tenants for landlords to focus on.

Following closely behind Manchester was London. Although rents are higher in the capital, yields may be slightly lower because of the initial purchase cost of properties in the capital, which is a factor to consider. Nottingham and Liverpool came in third and fourth place respectively in the list of cities in which to invest.

Manchester offered the highest average yield in the UK of 5.55 per cent with an annual rental growth of 5.76 per cent and a total of 5,545 properties available to rent.

London boasts 50,728 properties to rent, but has a somewhat smaller average yield of 3.05 per cent and annual rental price ‘growth’ is actually in decline at -1.12 per cent.

Stoke-on-Trent was discovered to be the least expensive area to buy with an average property purchase price of just £106,000. In contrast, Oxford offered much higher average property prices of £411,000. In the capital, the average price is £484,000.

In terms of annual rental growth, Manchester also came top at 5.76 per cent, followed by Leicester at 5.3 per cent and Cardiff at 5 per cent. Manchester also offered yields of 5.55 per cent, whilst Sunderland came in second place offering 5.37 per cent in yields. Liverpool also boasted sizable yields of 5.05 per cent per annum.

Source: Residential Landlord