Flipping’ Heck - Sunny Staines' Property Values Rise by £63.56 a day

 

 

Investing in Staines buy to let property is different from investing in the stock market or depositing your hard-earned cash in the Building Society. When you invest your money in the Building Society, this is considered by many as the safe option but the returns you can achieve are awfully low (the best 2-year bond rate from Nationwide is a whopping 0.75% a year!). Another investment is the Stock Market, which can give good returns, but unless you are on the phone every day to your Stockbroker, most people invest in stock market funds, making the investment quite hands off and one always has the feeling of not being in control.

However, with buy to let, things can be more hands on. One of the things many landlords like is the tactile nature of property - the fact that you can touch the bricks and mortar. It is this factor that attracts many of Staines’s landlords – they are making their own decisions rather than entrusting them to city whizz kids in Canary Wharf playing roulette with their savings.

I always say investing in property is a long-term game. When you invest in the property market, you can earn from your investment in two ways. When a property increases in value over time, it is known as 'capital growth'. Capital growth, also known as capital appreciation, has been strong in recent times in Staines, but the value of property does go up as well as down just like shares do but the initial purchase price rarely decreases.  Rental income is what the tenant pays you - hopefully this will also grow over time. If you divide the annual rent into the value (or purchase price) of the property, this is your yield, or annual return. So, over the last 5 years, an average Staines property has risen by £116,000 (equivalent to £63.56 a day), taking it to a current average value of £431,400. Yields range from 3% a year and can reach double digits’ percentages (although to achieve those sorts of returns, the risks are higher).

However, something I haven’t spoken of before is the more specialist area of flipping property to make money. (flipping - buying a property, carrying out some minor cosmetics and re selling it quickly).  I have seen several investors recently who have made decent returns from this strategy. For example …

·         One Staines Investor paid £359,950 for a 3 bed end terrace on Broadacre in June 2015. It appears some cosmetic work was done to the property and it was resold a few months ago (October 2016) for £415,500 … 15.43% return before costs (or compound annual return equivalent of 11.21% AER) http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=55062529&sale=4698124&country=england

 

 

 

This demonstrates how the Staines property market has not only provided very strong returns for the average investor over the last five years but how it has permitted a group of motivated buy to let Staines landlords and investors to become particularly wealthy.

As my article mentioned a few weeks ago, more and more Staines people may be giving up on owning their own home and are instead accepting long term renting whilst buy to let lending continues to grow from strength to strength.

 

Nearly 3 million People use Staines Train Station a Year -

 

How does that affect the Staines Property Market?

 

 

 

It might surprise you to know that it isn’t always the poshest villages around Staines or the swankiest Staines streets where properties sell and let the quickest. Quite often, it’s the ones that have the best transport links. There is a reason why one of the most popular property programmes on television is called Location, Location, Location!

 

 As an agent in Staines, I am frequently confronted with queries about the Staines property market, and most days I am asked, “What is the best part of Staines and its villages to buy in these days?”, chiefly from newcomers.  Now the answer is different for each person – a lot depends on the demographics of their family, their age, schooling requirements and interests etc. Nonetheless, one of the principal necessities for most tenants and buyers is ease of access to transport links, including public transport – of which the railways are very important.

 

Official figures recently released state that, in total, 3,815 people jump on a train each and every day from Staines Train station. Of those, 1,889 are season ticket holders. That’s a lot of money being spent when a season ticket, standard class, to London is £3,240 a year.

 

So, if up to £6.12m is being spent on rail season tickets each year from Staines, those commuters must have some impressive jobs and incomes to allow them to afford that season ticket in the first place. That means demand for middle to upper market properties remains strong in Staines and the surrounding area and so, in turn, these are the type of people whom are happy to invest in the Staines buy to let market – providing homes for the tenants of Staines…

 

 

The bottom line is that property values in Staines would be much lower if it wasn’t for the proximity of the railway station

 

And this isn’t just a passing phase. Rail is becoming increasingly important as the costs associated with car travel continue to rise and roads are becoming more and more congested. This has resulted in a huge surge in rail travel.  

 

Overall usage of the station at Staines has increased over the last 20 years. In 1997, a total of 1,391,802 people went through the barriers or connected with another train at the station in that 12-month period. However, in 2016, that figure had risen to 2,777,174 people using the station (that’s 7,630 people a day).

 

The juxtaposition of the property and the train station has an important effect on the value and saleability of a Staines property. It is also significant for tenants - so if you are a Staines buy to let investor looking for a property - the distance to and from the railway station can be extremely significant.

 

One of the first things house buyers and tenants do when surfing the web for somewhere to live is find out the proximity of a property to the train station. That is why Rightmove displays the distance to the railway station alongside each and every property on their website.