A report has come out with a simply astonishing fact; the richest 1% of the population, owns 48% of the world’s total wealth! Staggering! The facts have been corroborated by Ricardo Fuentes-Nieva, (head of research at Oxfam GB) who discovered that the wealthiest 85 people in the world own as much wealth as the poorest half of the population!
Questions are being asked about the possibility of a price correction in London, which will stall the growth or drop the price of property. This in turn of course, will slow the growth of optimism in the rest of the country and quite possibly cause the price of housing across the UK to wobble. So is an investment in the property market a good thing right now or do you wait a little while until things become clearer? Will property prices in the capital drop and make London more affordable for the other 99% of the world’s population?
The good news is that I can tell you, but I can only do this 6 months after the event has already happened! Yes quite useless if you want a definitive answer now but unfortunately it is all that can be offered by anyone. Some will of course guess and get it right, some will guess and get it wrong, but none can tell you without risk.
Will prices go down at all in London? If the world’s richest 1% have decided that they are to invest in the London property market and make an acceptable return, the answer is probably no. The window of affordability in the capital, for anyone outside of the very wealthy, seems to be closing day by day. This in turn is forcing buyers to move away from the capital and is bumping up prices. The days of buying property for an affordable capital growth strategy rather than for an annual yield could be drawing to a close, forcing investors to look at the long road where property investments are concerned.
If any of you have a view and would like to share your strategy please let me know, we can see who guesses right!
Send me your views
The rise of the buy-to-let pensioners?
Since the last Budget many financial commentators have speculated that following the new rules – due to come into effect from April 2015 – pension savers could draw down some or all of their money to invest in options such as buy to let property.
This could seem a hugely attractive option for anyone wanting to maximise their income in retirement.
Over 1/3 of Britain’s 1.4 million private landlords already view their buy to let portfolio as the main component within their pension plan – seeing the ‘safety’ of bricks and mortar as an attractive investment.
Market demand for quality, well maintained, private rental property remains high and even before the Budget announcement many of our Belvoir offices throughout the UK were experiencing growing numbers of enquiries from people seeking advice and guidance on how to enter this sector for the first time.
Buy to let continues to offer great opportunities, but potential investors must have a clear strategy, and it should never be considered as a ‘get rich quick’ scheme.
