UK Property

The U.K. is, and always will be a primary investment destination. This is due to many factors, the most important being that we are an island and our market operates on the simple premise of supply and demand. The bottom line is, we do not have enough housing stock to keep up with the demand fuelled by immigration, divorce, people living longer, etc. On this little island, we have over fifty years of historical precedence to suggest that U.K. property doubles in value, on average, every seven to ten years. While the market has obviously slowed down over the past few months, we firmly believe that the U.K. is still a safe investment for those with liquidity, those that focus on cash-flow, and those investors who take a mid to long term view.

Our investment strategy is one of low risk. We minimise our financial input into deals (wherever possible) only purchasing property (houses, not flats) with positive cash flow from the rent. If you adopt this business-like strategy, you can make money in any market, and survive even the toughest market conditions.

At present, the mortgage products in the U.K. make investing in this format almost impossible. As the U.K. market is also based on the availablity of funding, it is suffering, as it becomes harder and harder to finance deals. However, if you have liquidity, now is the time to pick up some fantastic property deals.

We currently consider U.K. holiday lets and multi-lets along with high end single occupancy lets - the only types of investment we believe are viable here in the U.K. at present.

We are adopting the following strategy to get through these challenging times in the U.K.:

Keep in constant contact with your U.K. mortgage broker to keep up to date with new products. They are changing on a daily basis so you need to know what's available and if it can work for you.
Network with other investors to stay motivated and informed about the market.
Invest in up-market U.K. holiday lets for cash-flow and coastal appreciation
Invest in multi-lets for cash-flow.
Keep a contingency fund.
Be price sensitive on your BTL's to get them let quickly during this transition phase where there is a lot of rental stock available. It is better to have 80% of something than 100% of nothing.
Look to the upper end of the market in everything you do, as this is likely to be more recession-proof than the lower end of the market. We favour the South East due to the lack of land for new developments, and also the population density - which is far higher than the north of England.
With decreasing LTV mortgages on new builds, we will also be looking at second hand stock in 2011.

Click here to watch a video of how Vanessa put together a multi-let deal.