Investment opportunity with potential 11% yield in Burley

This 5 bed property on St Ann's Avenue in Burley has got fantastic potential to generate a very healthy return and if done right could easily be rented as a professional houseshare, but you'd need to check with the agents that it has existing HMO status.

It's located in the prime area for professionals in Burley which is close to local shops, bars & cafes and it's very close to Burley Park train station and main bus routes.

It's on with Castlehill for just under £165,000 and they've suggested that it could achieve a potential income of £16,000 (which suggests it does already have HMO status, because it wouldn't achieve that level of rent as a single let). On the face of it that's a good return but looking at the dimensions of the rooms on the floor plan you'll see that one of the rooms on the first floor is pretty small, massively reducing the chance of letting that room out. If you were to re-jig things around it's definitely got potential to make all the rooms lettable and to achieve an even better return.

I would suggest removing that small bedroom and making one big bathroom. You wouldn't need to lose a bedroom however, just utilise the large storage space and bathroom in the basement better and create another bedroom and give each of those basement bedrooms en suites (making them the most desirable in the house!). That way you've created 5 good size bedrooms maximising your chances of all the rooms being let.

I would finish it off by putting in a new kitchen, redecorating and re-carpeting and that way you'd be able to achieve a rent of £75pppw or £19,500 per annum. If you managed to get the house for around £155,000 and spent £20,000 on the refurb works you'd then be looking at a fantastic return of 11% plus with such a great property you wouldn't have to worry about void periods.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-35663442.html

Fantastic investment opportunity in Burley with a potential 10% yield

This 5 bed property on Haddon Avenue has fantastic potential as a professional houseshare. Located in Burley between Kirkstall Lane and Burley Road it is ideally positioned close to all main transport routes and Leeds City centre is less than 2 miles away. 

It's currently on with Castlehill for £139,950 (although I'm sure you wouldn't end up paying that!) with an advised potential rental income of £13,500 which if that was achieved would earn a 9% yield. 

On the face of it that sounds like a pretty good deal but looking more closely at the floor plan the bedrooms look fairly small and cramped. This would prove tricky to rent out so that 9% yield might be a struggle to achieve. 

There is massive potential, however, to reduce the number of bedrooms and utilise the space and create a three bed all en-suite property. If the whole house was refurbished to a high standard you should be able to achieve around £95pppw for each room, so that's £14,820 per annum and it would rent out all day long!

The work would likely cost around £15,000 so if bought for around £130,000 once the calculations are all done that would give you a yield of just over 10% and you're also safe in the knowledge that your property would let very easily indeed and likelihood of any void periods greatly reduced! 

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50945386.html

If you're a landlord or a possible investor and would like any tips or advise on either this property or any others then by all means just give me a call on 0113 2304690 or 0113 2743488.

4 bed house in Hyde Park with great potential for over 10% return

This four bed house located on Thornville Road will appeal to both professional and student renters which would widen your potential market. Located in the heart of Hyde Park it's only a few short minutes walk away from all that Hyde Park has to offer and also has plenty of public transport systems that take you straight into Leeds City centre in less than 10 minutes. 

On the face of things, this house doesn't look like anything special but for the most part a lot of that it is purely cosmetic. In order to bring it up to spec you would need to redecorate, re-carpet and replace all the furniture. There's also no pictures of the kitchen but if the rest of the house is anything to go by it's likely to need a new kitchen. In addition to the cosmetic work I would also suggest making the small bedroom on the first floor larger by taking some of the space from the bathroom and creating a smaller shower room in it's place. There's also scope for creating a jack-and-jill bathroom on the top floor. 

By doing all of this you'll then be able to achieve an annual rent of around £16,640. You would probably need to spend around £20,000 to do all of this but if you managed to get the house for around £130,000 that would give you a very healthy return of 11%. 

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50513512.html

Perfect for young professional - 1 Bed house with 10% yield

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50728738.html

Positioned right between Kirkstall Road and Burley Road is this one bedroomed house in Woodside View. It's not far away from the leisure park complex and it's just a couple of miles into the city centre, with frequent buses and is close to Burley Park train station so is ideally located for professional tenants. 

It needs a little TLC (well quite a lot actually!) but nothing structural from the look of it. A new bathroom, kitchen, new carpet throughout and redecoration will bring this property up to a good spec. 

As the advert states, you should be able to rent it out for between £550 and £600pcm once done up, so you're looking at about 10% return, and in the position it's in, it should never be empty.

Will more bedrooms mean more rent in your Headingley Buy To Let?

Last week, a landlord from Headingley emailed me to ask, after reading this blog, if he should extend his terraced house making an extra bedroom in the loft. He had a builder friend who owed him a favour, and thought a good way would be get an ‘inexpensive’ extension.

Having more useable space is generally thought to be consistent with better quality accommodation and homeowners and tenants are prepared to pay for it. If you added a bedroom to a two bed terraced to make a three bed terraced, it will add 10% to the value of the property.  Turn a three bed terraced into a four bed terraced and 9% will be added to the value. Looking at semi detached properties, and turn a two into a three bed and 12% will be added to the value, whilst making a three bed semi into four bed will add 9% in value.

However, before you rush off to the planning department there are some important considerations, whether you are a homeowner or landlord.  What would be the cost of making that extra bedroom? The average value of a terraced house in Headingley is currently £207,400 whilst the average value of a semi detached house is £201,000, meaning to make money the cost of the extension would need to be less than £19,703 on the terraced property and £21,105 on the semi detached house. Talking to a number of trades people in the City, most are booking up into the New Year. Also, no matter how good a friend he was, I know of no builders that would charge as little as that. Maybe the builder was just thinking of a bit of pointing work on the chimney!

Well, that got me thinking about how bedrooms affected rental prices and rent-ability as well.   Interestingly below, you will see that whilst bedrooms do have an effect on the rent that can be achieved and the rent-ability of the property – the difference does not warrant the expense, hassle and trouble of extending.

·         21.05% of the one bed properties on the market to rent in Headingley have a tenant with an average rent of £480 per month

·         20% of the two bed properties on the market to rent in Headingley have a tenant with an average rent of £651 per month

·         17.6% of the three bed properties on the market to rent in Headingley have a tenant with an average rent of £915 per month

·         9.2% of the four bed properties on the market to rent in Headingley have a tenant with an average rent of £1,198 per month

No, if you want to increase the value of your property, be you a Headingley landlord or homeowner, there are things that cost a lot less than building extra bedrooms. Spruce up the exterior, emulsion all the rooms, install fresh carpets and curtains. For homeowners, a matter of a few hundred pounds will add thousands whilst for landlords, these things can add an extra 10% to the rent that you can achieve.