£160,000 inheritance - Is buying Burley Property still the best place for my windfall?

I had an interesting email from someone in Burley a few weeks ago that I want to share with you (don’t worry I asked his permission to share this with you all). In a nutshell, the gentleman lives in Kirkstall, he is in his mid 60’s and still working. He has a decent pension, so that when he does retire in a couple of years’ time, it will give him a comfortable life. He had recently inherited £160,000 from an elderly aunt. One option he told me was put it into a savings account. The best he could find was a 2 year bond with the Post Office which paid 1.9%; meaning he would get £3,040 in interest a year. One of his other options was to buy a property in Burley to rent out and he wanted to know my thoughts on what he should buy, but he had concerns as he didn’t want to take a mortgage out at his time of life. He was also worried about all the tax changes he had read about in the papers for landlords.

Notwithstanding the war on Burley landlords being waged by George Osborne, the attraction of bricks and mortar endures for many. As our man is a cash buyer, he would not have to deal with the intricate cut to mortgage interest tax relief that will diminish, or even eradicate, the profits of many Burley landlords. It’s true he would face the extra 3% in stamp duty to buy a second property, but with some good negotiation techniques, that could soon be mitigated.

I told him that buying a Burley buy to let property is all about the total return on investment. True, he could put the money in the Post Office bond and receive his interest of £3,040 a year or, as he rightly suggested, invest in property in Burley. The average yield (yield being the equivalent of the interest rate on the property) at the moment in Burley is 4.41% per annum, meaning our potential F.T.L (First Time Landlord) should be able to, depending on what he bought in the area, earn before costs £7,056 a year. (However, I told him there are plenty of landlords in Burley earning half as much again (if not more), if he was willing to consider more specialist investment types of properties – again, if you want to know where – look at my blog or drop me an email).

The bottom line is that the success of investing in Burley buy to let property versus a savings account with the Post Office (or whatever Bank or Building Society is offering the best rate) will depend on the performance of those assets. Unlike with a savings account, with property the capital you invested can also go up (and yes, it can go down as well – more of that in second). Property values in Burley have risen in the last twelve months by 3% meaning, that if our chap had bought a year ago, not only would he have received the £7,056 in rent, but also seen an uplift of £4,800 …meaning his overall return for the year would have been £11,856 (not bad when compared to the Post Office!).

..  but the doom mongers amongst you will say, property values can go down, as they did in 2008, and in 1988 and 1979. Yes, but after 1979 prices had bounced back to their ’79 levels by 1984 and went on to grow an additional 58% in the following four years. Then again, they dropped in 1988 and did take 13 years to reach back to those ’88 figures, but the following six years (between 2001 and 2007) they then increased by an additional 66%. Now, according to the Land Registry, average property values in Leeds currently stand 12.02% below the January 2008 level, and anecdotal evidence suggests that in the nicer parts of Burley, we are well above these sorts of levels.

… and what would that £160,000 get you in Burley? A very decent 4 bed end terrace in Armley, a lovely 2 bed apartment on Victoria Road or a 3 bed apartment in an established student complex on Hyde Park Road  .. in fact, the world is your oyster. But which Oyster? Well, my blog reading friends, if you want to read similar articles like this and what I consider to be the very best of buy to let deals in Burley, irrespective of which agent is selling it, then you need to visit the Burley Property Blog  

Headingley’s ‘Generation Rent’ to grow by 1,672 households by 2021

The growth of the private rented sector, and the arrival of an investor class of buy to let landlords within it, is an issue that won’t be going away anytime soon, no matter what you read in the Daily Mail. Whether you are a landlord of mine (or not as the case maybe), I am always happy to look over any properties you are thinking of buying for buy to let purposes and more so over a coffee!

Some commentators are saying buy to let is about to die, with the new stamp duty changes and how mortgage tax relief will be calculated. Some say 500,000 rental properties will flood the market nationally in the next 12 months as landlords leave the rental market. Have you heard the phrase ‘Bad news sells newspapers’? Let me explain why buy to let in Headingley is only going in one direction – and not the direction the papers say they are going.

According to Sheffield University, buy to let landlords will continue fuelling the growth of the private rented sector in the coming decades. By their estimates (and they are considered a centre of excellence on the topic), the rate of homeownership nationally will fall to 50% whilst the rate of private sector renting will increase to 35% by 2032.  Although in Headingley and LS6 area homeownership has already dropped below that estimated 2032 national figure, with only 32% of properties being occupied by homeowners ... as one would expect because of our high density of rental properties, which interestingly, in Headingley and LS6 area, currently stands at 48.1% today.

Therefore, the demand for rental accommodation in Headingley and LS6 will grow by 1,672 households in the next five years ... and these are the reasons why, irrespective of the distractions set out in the newspapers

         

Headingley property values over the last six years have risen a lot more than average wages/salaries, meaning as homeownership and mortgage availability is dependent on your ability to pay has served to push home ownership further out of reach for many, at a time when the stock of council houses has actually withered. (Nationally, the number of council houses in the last ten years has dropped from 3.16m to 2.18m households - a drop of 31.1%).

Now it’s true the Tory’s efforts to fix the deficiency of affordable housing have focused on those who want to buy a home, ranging from Help to Buy and their much vaunted Help to Buy Isa, and Starter Homes Scheme, an initiative offering a 20% discount for first time buyers … but if you are unable to save for the deposit ... none of this means anything to the ‘20 something’s’ of Headingley ... and they still need a roof over their heads!

Currently, 25,282 people live in private rented accommodation in Headingley and LS6

These are big numbers and a sizeable chunk of the electorate. So whilst it appears Headingley “Generation Rent” youngsters will continue to rent and to not to buy for the reasons set out above, Headingley buy-to-let landlords will be lifted by the projections of greater rental demand. Headingley and the area around it still offers the prospect of strong economic growth forecasts and has a reputation as a lively and desirable place to live. You see, with the new rules on tax, more and more landlords will be looking to move away from the previous honeypot of central London, because its higher prices meant lower rental yields. With the new tax rules and central London’s cooling of house price inflation, more and more landlords will look further afield, including Headingley (interestingly, I have already been chatting to a few central London landlords after they read the Headingley Property Blog).

So, by 2021, the number of rental properties in Headingley and LS6 will rise to 11,500

This prediction in growth of the Headingley rental market is even on the back of the government clamping down on tax reliefs for landlords. The point is this, gone are the days of making guaranteed returns on BTL property. For the last 20 to 30 years, irrespective of which property you bought, making decent money on buy to let property was like shooting fish in a barrel – anyone could do it  - but not now. You must take a more considered approach to your existing and future portfolio, especially in Headingley. The balance of capital growth and yield, especially in this low interest rate world we live in, means Headingley landlords need to do more homework to ensure the investment in property gives the desired returns.