If You Want To Buy Property London Is Still A Sound Investment!
Sunday, March 16th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
When it comes to property, UK house prices are starting to slow down and some experts are saying they have reached their peak. However for investors who still want to buy property London has always had the highest growth rates and best returns, so how has the capital faired in the slowdown? Surprisingly for those investors still looking to purchase property London still has many excellent opportunities.
This article will seek to show that in spite of a slowdown in property prices in the UK, the London flat and housing market still represents a solid investment and should continue to do so for many years.
The first factor to consider is that there is a large difference in prices and growth in different areas of London. While the growth in some areas are considered to be flattening out, many others have still a long way to go before reaching their full potential. In fact on the contrary, due to regeneration, many areas of London are going to see a lot of growth over the next decade. So if you are looking to purchase property, London has a lot of potential.
Take Notting Hill as an example. This represents one of best investment opportunities due to it’s high growth rate. Prices recently dropped in this area even though it is a very trendy place to live. Property prices are on the rise again which has created an investment opportunity to buy property to let.
Stratford in East London is another prime location. It is benefiting from huge investment and regeneration due to the 2012 London Olympics. The whole area is going to be transformed in the next few years. Buying property for sale in this area could prove to be a very lucrative investment. Peckham is another area to consider. In the past this was considered one of the most run down areas in England. However this has now changed with the area recently receiving an award for tourism. This is due to a huge three hundred million pound regeneration scheme. So even for those looking to buy cheap property, London still holds some excellent opportunities.
What you may find surprising is that the price of property has been and continues to be affected by investors from overseas. To put this into perspective more than sixty per cent of all houses, apartments and flats and other property for sale costing more than four million pounds were bought by overseas investors. These are typically people taking up high paid jobs in the city.
In the past they would purchase a property on moving to London then sell it when they left their job. This has now changed because of the increasing value of London property, which has changed the perception of these properties from a simple abode to a capital investment. This has resulted in these properties being retained while income is earned from property rental. This along with other factors has continued to create the shortage of properties on the market which has further pushed up prices.
This is a contributing factor which makes London such an amazing opportunity for property investment. There is already a lack of housing and the population of the capital is set to increase by over 800,000 in the next decade. At this projected growth, even with the high rate of new properties being built there will be insufficient properties available to meet the demand. This means that there is going to be a housing shortage in London for many years to come.
In spite of the incredible speed at which additional properties are being constructed, they still won’t being able to match the housing requirements … finding people looking for rental accommodation will always be easy as long as housing demand exceeds the supply of available property to rent.
So there are still very lucrative investment opportunities in London for buying property to let.
The huge variation in house prices in different boroughs, combined with regeneration investment, overseas buying, the demand for new housing and property for rent, will ensure that for those who want to buy property London will remain a sound investment for many years to come.
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