Nottingham Letting

[daveforshaw]

First time on the site and about to buy to let in Nottingham. I am just trying to gauge what the market is like as I am aware of a few new developments. I don't expect to cover my costs for a while and an looking for a long term investment.

Dave

[GPEL]

Have you called local agents? Check the adverts and web sites to roughly guage how quickly properties move. What is your target tenant type for the area of interest? Ask private landlords and agents but do own research as well. Nottingham had been a good area but like many may be saturated with newbuild 2 bed apartments.

[Matthew]

Nottingham is a very good area for cheap housing, I would advise you buy a big house 4 bed or so, when I looked you could pick one up for around £80K. There are loads of Universities there, so I would find one near a uni, and rent out 5 rooms for around £200 each a month and you'd get £1000 a month and the mortgage (100% mortgage) would only cost approx £365 a month interest only.

The only worry I would have is, can you get £200 per month and it is currently not student season.

Also I saw one house for sale, a 3 bedder, up for £55K and was currently let to tenants for £265 a month! For a three bed house!!!

The first one, you could do some research and see what the adverts are asking for (houseshares section) in the local rag.

You could also put an advert on Spareroom.co.uk to see what response you get and just say it's gone when people enquire. A bit naughty leading poeple up the garden path, but it is a good gauge as to the interest you will get.

[Melboy]

I can concur with GPEL's reply.

I was reading an article only last week that stated Nottingham (and Leeds) was saturated with 2 bed and 1 bed Apartments and the fact that those people who had purchased for a fixed price off-plan where going to take a large hit money-wise because developers were offering Apartments much cheaper to clear the back-log and to hurry up completion of the actual building program.

It was also reported that there is a shortage of Tenants and an oversupply of available properties so expect void periods of no rental income to cover your costs.

So do your homework before committing to absolutely anything and don't forget it is odds on that a rate rise will happen in the New Year and you will need to factor that into your planning.

Mel.

[GPEL]

University cities may on the face of it seem a good place to invest but due diligence is necessary. For example, there may be an oversupply of student property. Also need to try and identify what the colleges long term plans are. In some areas, former student homes are standing empty because the campus has increased the number of its own halls of residence and so on.