Buy-to-let investment: Focus moves to regional areas.
As featured in The Express
THE UK’s property hotspots since the end of the recession have been London and Manchester, with Liverpool and Birmingham closely followed. But it could be all change in 2018, particularly for buy-to-let investors.
In a recent article in The Express, Ray Withers, chief executive officer of Property Frontiers, said: “So many secondary cities like Manchester, are lurching into oversupply, with developers responding to demand from investor buyers rather than the renters that actually drive the market”.
Focus for investors will remain in the North, though, according to Withers.
“What is likely is that dominant hotspots in the country (including Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, even London) cede ground to less well-known but equally promising and enterprising regional areas.
“Such places benefit from low entry points, an availability of strategically located development sites, weak competition from existing rented stock and the promise of catch-up growth.
“Of course, they must always exhibit the classic market drivers as well: an uptick in jobs and population and new regeneration or infrastructure projects.”
Four Yorkshire areas – Halifax, Wakefield, Bradford and Doncaster are tipped for success by Withers.
Halifax is enjoying a “once-in-a-lifetime regeneration funding” and has plenty of young professionals working in the area, says Withers.
Bradford has the youngest population in the UK and one of the fastest-improving universities in the country. Wakefield benefits from “various overlapping enterprise zones”, he says, with the local economy “going at an enviable clip”.
Doncaster is becoming the UK’s logistical hub, which has boosted employment there and demand for rental accommodation.
This continued focus on northern towns is largely thanks to the Government’s Northern Powerhouse investment, prompting Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond to say: “If the Northern Powerhouse were a country, it would be among the biggest economies in Europe.”