Have spoken to a number of diligent youngsters (people in their twenties and early thirties) who live at home with parents in Uxbridge, Ickenham, West Drayton and Hayes and are considering buying and letting out a property.
Working in good jobs these professionals are motivated to secure property as somewhere to live at a future point. They’ve called me after reading these blog posts and want to talk it over.
I think it’s a sensible action to consider if you can afford it, acting as an insurance against future rise in property price increases which are running at over 14% at the moment in Hillingdon – which is seeing the highest price rises over the last year in London.
However it might not be so great if the market moves against you and property prices drop, but if at that stage you are looking to buy a larger property the price of the next property you want to buy would also have dropped, but moving becomes very hard in a negative equity climate. Nobody can predict the future!
Save Hard
The first piece of advice would be to save hard. Even at lower interest rates that last pound in the mortgage is going to cost you 60p in interest over the life of the mortgage so better to repay early where you can. The best way to pay early is to have the largest deposit you can afford. Suggest talking to a good mortgage advisor who can offer advice on this subject.
Buy Where You Want to Live
I would think hard about where you want to live in the future. Different areas have a different price performance so better you invest in the market where you want to buy in future. Locations in the north have a higher yield (rental return in relation to the cost of the property) but property prices rises fall behind London area rises and so you can still be priced out of London even though you are invested in property, should the last forty years of price increases continue to apply, which I think they will..
Given that if you buy a studio but really want long term to live in a one bed flat or a two bed that investment will cost you stamp duty, mortgage and solicitors costs so it’s better to buy what you want to live in yourself eventually. I appreciate that might not be possible due to cost differences.
What’s Involved in the Letting of the Property?
I have put a post on How to Get Your Property Ready for the Rental Market here that, but I am happy to go over the details such as selecting property, but if the property appeals to you as a young professional it’s likely to appeal to others as well. Stick to the popular areas which have strong transport links are are close to key destinations like the train stations but also large employers like Brunel, Hillingdon Hospital, West Drayton, Uxbridge and Hayes and Stockley Park. But happy to go over this in more depth with you talking one to one. Just give me a call.
