When talking to investors I always advise trying to add value straight away, that may involve anything from an extra room to a new bathrrom and kitchen or perhaps just a few tins of paint.
I recently let a property in Beresford Gardens which is a cul-de-sac behind Enfield Town station. It’s a nice family area close to the station, Tesco’s and the main Enfield Palace Garden shopping Centre but it does suffer from the odd discarded supermarket trolley and the occasional bit of fly tipping (!).
While researching the area I spotted a two bedroom flat actually in Beresford Gardens that had been advertised to let in May this year for £1,250pcm. I looked into the background of this flat and found that it was bought in March 2015 for £246,500. Assuming that it let for the asking price that would be a gross yield of 6.1% which is very respectable.
However digging deeper, I found that in February 2014 the same property sold for £180,000. That’s a £66,000 (or 37%) increase in value in just 13 months! How did the owner achieve this?
Well as a flat there’s no new conservatory or extension that’s automatically added value, in fact from the images online it looks like the property has simply received a facelift – new flooring, new kitchen cupboard doors, new kitchen wall tiles, new bath panel and screen, and a lick of paint seem to be all that was necessary. Maybe other potential purchasers couldn’t see through the original aesthetics, who knows, but that is a very successful ‘flip’ as I doubt the owner spent more than £5,000.
Now imagine if instead of selling the owner had decided to let the flat, they would be achieving an impressive gross yield of 8.1%!!
The after images are shown on this page to acces the before images please see link below:
At Belvoir Lettings Enfield we don’t sell property, we are lettings specialists. Contact the office if you would like help and advice on identifying the right investment opportunity for you.
