Again, putting my money where my mouth is, I wanted to show you a series of three more articles. Again, I have never been to Hemel Hempstead or Watford (I am sure they are very nice places) .. but it goes to show what information is out there. This letting agent emailed them out to his landlord database and put them in the paper as editorial.. after 8 months his turnover had gone from £36k per month to £43k per month.... enjoy
Hemel Hempstead
terraced houses to rent - Bunyan Road or Ickleford Road - what's the best?
I was walking back from a viewing the other day, from one of
those terraced houses on Ickleford Road, when one of my long established
landlords from Gosmore, who had come into Hemel Hempstead to tax his car. We
got talking about property and he asked where I had been. The conversation
carried on and it got to a point where we were discussing the various merits of
streets on the northern side of off Fishponds Road. This got me thinking and I
carried out some investigating on the streets, which I shared with him later
that day, and now would like to share with you.
Ickleford Road, at the southern end is predominantly made up
of terraced hoses, whilst nearer the Periwinkle Lane end, they turn more into
semi detached houses. According to my
research, there are over 117 residential properties on the road and the average
price of a property on Ickleford Road is £244,400. Quite interestingly, since
2006, nearly half of the properties have changed hands, 54 in all, which is
quite a lot over a short period of time. The average rent achieved over the 3
years, has been £839 per month, giving a yield of 4.1%.
On the other hand,
property on Bunyan Road, which is nearly all terraced, has an average
value of £219,300. There are only 66 properties on the Road and even more
people have moved since 2006, with nearly two thirds of properties changing
hands, 42 in all. The average rent, over the last 3 years has been £802 per
month, which gives a yield of 4.4% (nearly 7% more than Ickleford .. or does
it?)
This is where it's important to compare like for like. You
see, if you just look at the terraced
houses on Ickleford, then a different story emerges. The average price of a
terraced on Ickleford Road is much lower than the street average, at £229,000.
If you compare the yields on this new figure, the yield is almost identical to
Bunyan Road, at 4.4%.
Therefore, it really comes down to what is available on the
day, and how much a hard bargain you drive on the purchase price. My answer to landlords is to get the best advice
and opinion you can. Speak to me, speak to others, do your homework and drive a
hard bargain when buying, as it that figure which will determine
your yield and return.
The York Road,
Dukes Lane, Ickleford Road Square
The last chunk of census data has recently been released by
the Government, and for those of you that like to look at the data, it is a
treasure trove of information. Information is so important when making
decisions on what (or not) to buy when investing in property.
Last week, I was discussing the roads around Bunyan Road and
Ickleford Road. The census data, allows anyone to look at the data for
individual roads (or sets of roads if they aren't big enough). Therefore, I
looked into the block, surrounded by York Road, Dukes Lane, Ickleford Road with
Periwinkle Road to the North. There are 120 properties in that small
block, 106 of them have gas central
heating and 5 have electric storage heaters. It just goes to show, if you have
a rented property without central heating, you might find it difficult to let.
Of the 120 properties, 8 only have one beds, 29 two beds, 67
three beds and 16 four and five beds; again, in line with the rest of Hemel
Hempstead, this shows that 2 and 3 bed properties are the properties people
want and hence get built, even in Victorian times.
However, it is the home ownership percentages that really
get me interested, as it is this information, tied in with our intimate
knowledge of the market, where we can match tenant demand to an under supply of
rental properties. In this area, 34 households own their property without a
mortgage, and 63 households with a mortgage. Only 16 households, or 13% are in
the private rented sector. With such excellent demand from tenants but a below
average percentage of available rental properties, this could be the right area
to purchase your next buy to let investment.
Therefore, if you are considering buying a property for
investment in the near future, as I don't sell property, I am always happy to
give you my considered opinion on which property to buy (or not as the case may
be) to give you what you want from your investment. Pop in and see me or my
team at our offices in High Street for chat.
The Hemel
Hempstead Property Market - compared to Luton's and Watford's
Knowledge is half the battle when deciding what (or not) to buy
for your next property investment, because if you know something about the
past, or what's happening now, today, it
may help you to anticipate the future. Bearing this in mind, last week, I spoke to one of my landlords and he
asked me what all the different property markets were doing in the surrounding
towns to Hemel Hempstead. I did some research and followed up his query – I was
actually quite surprised with the results.
A good
guide to judge a property is the number of properties for sale, compared to the
number that are sold, subject to contract. Now I carried this out a few weeks,
but the numbers are that different today, but in Hemel Hempstead, there are
around 290 properties available for sale and an additional 194 sold subject to
contract. That means 43.7% of property on the market has a buyer in Hemel
Hempstead.
In Watford,
there are 430 properties available with an additional 375 properties having
sales agreed on them, meaning a similar
46.5% of property in Watford has a buyer. However, in Luton, its completely
different story. Of the 1720 properties
on the market, only 470 have buyers, meaning only 21.9% are sold subject to
contract.
Delving
deeper into the Hemel Hempstead market, some sectors are doing better than
others. Of the 160 flats on the market, just over a third (57) have buyers. Of
the 277 houses on the market, nearly half (48%) 134 have buyers. Deeper still,
4 bed houses in Hemel Hempstead, over two thirds (68% to be precise) have
buyers, which I was quite surprised at of the three beds 45% of 3 beds have a
buyer and 52% of 2bed houses also have a buyer.
It
just goes to show that the property market isn't as flat as the press portrays.
I am always giving advice and opinion to my existing and new landlords in Watford,
Hemel Hempstead and High Wycombe on what to buy (or not as the case may be).
Having this detail of information at my finger tips, allows me to spot trends
in the local market, that enables to me to give the very best advice and
opinion to my clients. I don't charge for that advice as I have plenty of
opportunity to earn money by finding the best tenants for my landlords in the
years to come on the investment I advised on.
