Beast Of A Building In Clapham, Beds - £250k

This detached commercial building in Clapham near Bedford is up for auction next week, for the bargain price of £250k! Have a look here: http://www.auctionhouse.uk.net/bedsandbucks/auction/lot/71178

I went and had a look at this last week on one of the open days, seeing as i was in the area at the time. It's a massive building for that sort of money, so there's lots of options subject to planning consent. 

There's a few catches I could see with it:

1. It's in between a pub and another commercial type property, but i'm sure that wouldn't be too much of a problem in regards to converting to residential.
2. It's located in a flood plain, as the River Great Ouse runs along the bottom of the grassed area at the end of the plot. This could create a few problems with insurance, but again I don't think it can't be overcome. There's plenty of other residential properties in the same area, so someone will insure it. Might have to factor this in when working out an offer price for it though.
3. The side that overlooks the pub car park must have some of overlooking restriction to the neighbouring property on it because the windows are so small. This will affect the layout of any designs for developing it, see photo here:

I'm expecting this to sell for well above the £250k asking price, and if it doesn't then i might have to grab it myself. It's a lot of building for a low guide price, and December can be a good month for picking up a bargain while everyone else is thinking about Christmas.

My initial thought was to turn this into high end bedsits for working professionals. It's a bit far from Bedford town centre to walk it, but there's a bus route right near the property. I also think you could make more of the riverside location and cut the trees back to expose the view, making a feature out of it. That could be a real selling point in the summer!

Could an Ampthill & Flitwick rental property save you from a pension disaster?

Retirement is getting closer if you were born in the early 70’s or late 60’s, even if you haven’t given it much thought yet. The current pension rates are £115.95 per week for singletons, and £231.90 per week for couples (£12,118 a year), and this is providing your national insurance contributions are up to date. Would you be able to survive on those amounts..? It doesn’t fill me with joy looking at them.

So is there a way to try and help you boost this figure?

Buying an investment property in Ampthill or Flitwick could be an answer. A lot of people in their 30’s have a smaller one or two bedroom place, then sell that one and buy a bigger and bigger property as their family or needs grow. However, if these smaller properties could be kept as buy-to-let investments then they could very well be an alternative pension fund.

Let’s look at some historical property prices for Central Bedfordshire:

Flats – the average price for a flat in January 1995 was £34,025. Fast forward 20 years and the average price for a flat in January 2015 was £104,481. This is a 207% increase in value, which works out at 10.3% per year on average. So, if we were to assume the same 207% increase over the next 20 years for the latest data available (September 2015’s value of £118,890) then we have a figure of £364,992 for September 2035.

Semi-detached Houses – using the same data we can take the average price paid for a semi in January 1995 as £64,757. Whereas the same average price in January 2015 was £198,851 – the same 207% increase. So let’s take September 2015’s value of £212,951 and increase that by 207%, making a whopping £653,759 predicted for September 2035 if we follow the same path as the last 20 years.

Let’s now assume you used a 25% deposit to buy a Semi-detached House in January 1995, costing £16,189. If you had a repayment mortgage running for 20 years and that mortgage was paid off in 2015, you get an increase of £16,189 > £212,951 with no mortgage left at the end, making a massive 1215% return!

Of course nothing is plain sailing for us though, there’s maintenance and management costs to bear in mind, interest rates could rise sharply and values could also go down. We can see early 2008 was a peak in the market here (Just before the credit crunch) at £194,463, and average house prices in the region dropped by 17.74% to £159,950 in May 2009. But the latest average price data for September 2015 in our region is now £210,163, meaning an overall 8.07% increase since the 2008 peak.

What can we conclude from all this? History shows property prices have always risen over long periods, and they’re a good solid investment when viewed this way. If you’re looking to make money quickly then buy cheap, add value and sell on as fast as possible. But if you’re looking for really big gains then hold for the long term – the longer the better!

If you'd like a chat about anything property related then give me a call on 01525 838848, send me an email at graham@1st-house-lettings.co.uk, or drop in for a coffee at 1st House Lettings, The Rufus Centre, Steppingley Road, Flitwick, MK45 1AH.

(I must point out that there’s absolutely no guarantee that prices will increase by 207% from 2015 to 2035 – Solicitor told me to write this bit!)

George Osborne Announces 3% Stamp Duty Increase For BTL Or Second Home Purchases, Starting April 2016!

Goerge Osborne has delivered a bombshell for landlords and investors today in his Autumn Statement And Spending Review, starting April 2016:

"So I am introducing new rates of Stamp Duty that will be 3 per cent higher on the purchase of additional properties like buy-to-lets and second homes.

It will be introduced from April next year and we’ll consult on the details so that corporate property development isn’t affected.

This extra stamp duty raises almost a billion pounds by 2021 – and we’ll reinvest some of that money in local communities in London and places like Cornwall which are being priced out of home ownership."

Self Cert Mortgages To Make A Comeback In 2016...?

Do you remember self-cert mortgages? Well they could be making a comeback from a lender based in Eastern Europe to get around the UK's finance laws:

http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/banned-self-cert-loans-set-for-return/

A new lender is looking to bring back self-certified mortgages at the start of next year.

The FCA banned so-called ‘liar loans’ in the Mortgage Market Review.

However, Graeme Wingate, the founder of unsecured lender Quick Loans, is looking to bypass UK regulation by setting up in an Eastern European country, the identity of which he would not disclose.

While the new lender, selfcert.co.uk, will not have to abide by UK regulation, it will have to adhere to the incoming Mortgage Credit Directive, although it is less strict on rules around creditworthiness and income verification.

The directive merely states that the borrower’s income must be “appropriately verified, including through reference to independently verifiable documentation when necessary”, whereas the MMR explicitly states “a firm must not accept self-certification of income”.

Wingate says: “We’re setting up a new company [in Eastern Europe]. The regulator out there has been very friendly and helpful to us, walking us through the process of getting a licence. It is quite a straightforward process.”

Wingate plans to passport into the UK under the Electronic Commerce Directive.

An FCA spokeswoman says: “A firm located in an EEA Member State can provide a lending service under the Electronic Commerce Directive to UK consumers, but the service has to be provided solely at a distance and online.

“This service, however, would not be regulated by the FCA and if something went wrong, the FCA is not generally able to intervene. Additionally there would be no recourse to the compulsory jurisdiction of the UK’s Financial Ombudsman Service.”

Wingate says he expects to obtain a lending licence within the next week.

Self-cert loans were initially meant to be for self-employed borrowers or those with irregular income but in 2007 they accounted for over 50 per cent of new lending, according to the FCA.

Trinity Financial product and communications manager Aaron Strutt says: “Self-cert mortgages are a real blast from the past and many brokers will be surprised that there is even a chance they will be available again.

“It is hard to see how self-cert can play a part in a modern financial market, even if a lender can get around the rules by operating online and via another country.”

The lender expects to launch in mid-January.

Two Bedroom Maisonette In Flitwick - 5.25% Gross Yield

This is a nice example of a two bedroom maisonette to buy in in Flitwick:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-38040309.html

It's on the market for £160,000 and I think it would rent for a minimum of £700 per month, making it a 5.25% gross yield. 

However I would check the Leasehold carefully as it states there's only 57 years to run, and it usually costs £1000's to increase this with the Freeholder. You'll also find it nigh on impossible to get a mortgage on it with that amount of Lease left to run.

I'd be using this fact to negotiate a substantial discount on the asking price!

Chalet Bungalow & Building Plot In Bedford - £155k

This is looking like a massive bargain if it can be picked up for the guide price of £155,000. Looking at it on google maps the plot definitely seems big enough for another property:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37898718.html

I really think there's good money to be made here, will be interesting to see what it goes for at auction. A quick search reveals it's been on the market for £190k (https://www.onthemarket.com/details/1306068/) and hasn't sold, so now it's up for auction with a guide price of £155k.

Warren Farm Development, Ampthill - Public Exhibition Dates

Warren Farm Development - Public Exhibition - The Council Chamber Ampthill Town Council Office, 66 Dunstable Street, Ampthill - Friday 4th December - 1.30pm and 8.30pm

Unfortunately the developers community engagement site has not been updated for some time: www.warrenfarmampthill.com

Above info was taken from https://www.facebook.com/Ampthill.Info/?fref=ts