Blog Post
Inheritance - Is buying Levenshulme and Burnage Property still the best place for my windfall?
I had an interesting email from a potential landlord a few days ago that I want to share with you. In a nutshell, the gentleman lives in Burnage, is in his mid 60’s and still working. He has a good pension, so that when he does retire in a couple of years’ time, it will give him a comfortable lifestyle. He also recently inherited £250,000.
One option he told me was to put the money 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 £4,750 in interest a year. One of his other options was to buy a property in Levenshulme and Burnage to rent out and he wanted to know my thoughts on what he should buy, but he did not 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.
Things any new landlord should consider
In spite of the war on Levenshulme and Burnage landlords currently 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 concern himself with the cut to mortgage interest tax relief that will diminish (or even eradicate) the profits of many Levenshulme and Burnage landlords. It is 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.
How is buying property better than a savings account?
I told him that buying a Levenshulme and Burnage 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 £4,750 a year or, as he rightly suggested, invest in property.
The average yield at the moment in Levenshulme and Burnage is 7.4% per annum, meaning our potential First Time Landlord should be able to earn, before costs, £18,500 a year.
(However, I told him there are plenty of landlords in Levenshulme and Burnage earning more if he was willing to consider more specialist investment types of properties).
The bottom line is that the success of investing in Levenshulme and Burnage 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 a savings account, with property the capital you invested can also go up. Property values in Levenshulme and Burnage have risen in the last twelve months by 4.9%. So, if our chap had bought a year ago, not only would he have received the £18,500 in rent, but also seen an uplift of £12,250 in the value of his asset… meaning his overall return for the year would have been £30,750 (not bad when compared to the Post Office!).
What about values dropping?
The doom mongers among you will say property values can go down, as they did in 2008, and in 1988 and 1979.
But, after 1979 prices 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%.
What would that £250,000 buy you in Levenshulme and Burnage? Three terrace houses in Levenshulme? A couple of ex local authority houses in Burnage or a 3 bed semi?
In fact, the world is your oyster. But you need to decide what property is right to maximize your returns. If you are a landlord or thinking of becoming one for the first time and would like some advice then feel free to pop in to the Levenshulme Branch for a chat or drop me an email [email protected]
Leave a comment