Increase yield by spending more..?

With house prices seeming to increase on a daily basis I am always interested when agents reduce the marketing price.  Astons have been marketing this property in Chiltern Close, West Green for months and have dropped the price on two occasions to its current level of £225,000.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-30039987.html

It has been a rental property for many years and has suffered from a lack of investment but even so, if purchased and rented in its current condition with no improvement works it would achieve £975 per month – a yield of 5.2%.

West Green is a highly sought after area close to the Town Centre and based on the similar properties I have let in the surrounding streets it would only take a new kitchen & a new bathroom and maybe a couple of new carpets upstairs to increase that rental price nearer to £1100 per month. 

I would budget a £6000 spend on new rooms to bring the property to a top rental standard.  What would interest the investor is that the total spend on the property is still much less than the £240,000 it was originally marketed for but the yield would increase to 5.7%

St Peters Church, West Green

1 Bedroom House with ready made tenants

After spotting the maisonette in Cottesmore Green on Friday that was for sale with another agents, we have just listed this little 1 bedroom house in the same area of Crawley. 

http://www.martinco.com/for-sale/property/182223

It has been tenanted with us for many years and has the benefit of being a proper house with an upstairs and downstairs.  Admittedly there isn’t a great deal of house but it is more than adequate for a single person or a couple and the current tenants are very happy living there.  One of the many advantages is not just its proximity to Buchan Country Park but this house comes with its own private garden.  To achieve its maximum values the house will require modernisation but for landlords looking for an easy investment this house will come with great tenants paying rent from the day of completion.

If you are interested in this property or any others listed on my company website please call my office on 01293 735000  

Cottesmore Green Investment 5.8% yield

I saw this little property come on the market with Astons, these are not the biggest 1 bedroom maisonettes you’ll find in Crawley but they are really popular as rental properties.  Located in Cottesmore Green they have easy access to FastWay for Gatwick Airport & great links to the M23 motorway.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-46023268.html

Cottesmore Green is on the western edge of Crawley and makes an easy commute for tenants that work in Horsham as well as Gatwick.  Being further out they need to be priced under the rates achieved in the town centre and I would suggest a rental valuation of £675 per month would get the phones ringing off the hook, especially as 1 bedroom flats in the centre of Crawley are now advertised at £800 per month.  At £675 it would realise a yield of 5.8% on the current marketing price and would have tenants queuing, giving the landlord the luxury of moving someone straight in with no void period.  

The verdant Buchan Country Park & lake is just across the road for tenants that like woodland walks.  I don’t know if the lakes & trees would be a big enough selling point but if we found a tenant that would pay a higher rent of £695 a month & the purchase price was haggled down to £137,500 we could increase the yield to over 6%.

Do the terraced houses on Ifield Drive in Crawley make good investments?

I was talking to a client who lives in a terraced house on Ifield Drive in Crawley and she asked if the properties made good investments.  Her house is close to Ifield railway station and she suspected there was a market for rental property fuelled by the commuters using the station.

I have always found a stronger demand for the property from families because of the local secondary school but to investigate the area further I checked the data listed with the online portals.  The listings show that 44 of the 3 bedroom terraced houses in Ifield Drive have been sold since the year 2000. 

Figures from the Halifax show that average property values in the South East have risen by 101.9% since the year 2000 but the terraced houses on Ifield Drive have beaten that rise.  The average sold price of 3 bedroom terraced house in 2000 was £98,830 but the land registry is showing a 3 bedroom house has sold this year for £225,000, that’s a rise of 127.6%.  There has only been one reported sale so far this year but if the others mirror that price the homeowners in the street are doing very well.

With outstanding capital growth it certainly makes the area good for families wishing to trade up to a bigger property but landlords would expect the yields to be comparatively lower.  A good quality 3 bedroom house with parking will now rent at £1100 per month or even more, that’s a yield of 5.8% based on the price of the property that has sold this year already. 

The client was pleased that the properties on Ifield Drive are good news for both owner occupiers and investors.  If you are considering a sale, a purchase, the family home or an investment you are welcome to contact me for any advice or insight into the Crawley property market.