Investment near Bristol University

[Optiplex330]

Hi.

Basically, I know nothing about UK property because I haven't been in UK since the 1980's.

Reading about the falling price of houses in the newspaper, I have been thinking of doing some property investment near the Bristol university area and would really appreciate some advice from you people. My requirement would be:

1. Looking at an investment time period of say….5 or 6 years.
2. Price must be at large discount from previous high. Would appreciate some ball park figure to give me a rough idea as to how much money we are talking about here.
3. Good capital appreciation potential
4. Must be near Bristol University for easy letting out to students.

And should I be looking at Detached, Semi-detached, Terrace or Flat?

As you can see, I am a complete novice in this matter but am eager to learn if someone would show me the right direction.

Much appreciated

[mind the gap]

Hi.

Basically, I know nothing about UK property because I haven't been in UK since the 1980's.

Reading about the falling price of houses in the newspaper, I have been thinking of doing some property investment near the Bristol university area and would really appreciate some advice from you people. My requirement would be:

1. Looking at an investment time period of say….5 or 6 years.
2. Price must be at large discount from previous high. Would appreciate some ball park figure to give me a rough idea as to how much money we are talking about here.
3. Good capital appreciation potential
4. Must be near Bristol University for easy letting out to students.

And should I be looking at Detached, Semi-detached, Terrace or Flat?

As you can see, I am a complete novice in this matter but am eager to learn if someone would show me the right direction.

Much appreciated

I do not know anything about Bristol, but I do know about letting to students.

Be aware that if you let to 5 or more tenants, you & the property will probably need a House of Multiple Occupation licence - the council will send you details and an application form. Failure to apply can result in a fine of up to £20,000. To get the licence, you need to ensure the property meets quite stringent specifications re fire safety, extra toilets, number of showers, size of kitchen, etc. Some properties are of course already licensed, but if they are successful rental props their owebers are probably going to be hanging on to them, not letting them go BMV!

If you buy a smaller property, you don't necessarily need a licence, but some councils impose additional restrictions & it is always best to check. Houses seem more popular than flats with groups of students, in my experience. Houses with gardens even better. Houses with car parking even better still.

To help you decide where to look for the property, ask the Uni Accommodation Office to send you their landlords' guide - it will show you the areas most poular with students & give you lots of other good advice as well. It is also worth checking with local letting agents what the demand is, as some universities are building lots of their own blocks of student flats and you will be in competition with them.

To ensure your property is viable, it needs to be finished to a high spec and full of extras - broadband internet, dishwasher, LCD TV, double beds & TV points in each room. Students nowadays are much more discerning than they were in the 1980s and LLs cannot get away with putting them into the sort of rat-holes which they did in those days! (Not suggesting that you were intending to, but you've been out of the country and things have changed!).

In a nutshell, letting to students is higher revenue, but also higher maintenance, than letting to families, on the whole.

'Good capital appreciation potential' is pretty meaningless at the moment, by the way. Prices have fallen by up to 20% in some areas over the last year and are still falling - even if you buy at BMV, there is no guarantee that you will make money on it in 5-6 years. Much better to budget for rental income only and if you do make any capital profit, see it as a bonus.

Good luck.

[Terri]

Former student in Bristol here, so:

You not only have Bristol University now but you also have UWE (University of the West of England) so there are double the amounts of students.

Bristol University is located in the Clifton area (which is fairly expensive). UWE has a number of campuses spread over Bristol, the main one being in Frenchay. You have sizeable student populations in Clifton, Fishponds, Horfield (known locally as student-town) and Bishopston, and smaller populations in Redland, Frenchay. You can't go wrong with a property off Gloucester Road / Filton Avenue area as they both have great links to both town and the UWE. Clifton is the more expensive area and tends to be flats with bad parking, but you have the prestige of the area and it's close to town, whereas say Horfield is cheaper, tends to be houses with okay parking. As I used to live in Horfield I can offer the best advice on that. Most houses tend to have three reception rooms on the ground floor (two of which are converted into bedrooms) and a kitchen, and the properties tend to be a good size. You then usually have two large upstairs bedrooms, a box bedroom and a bathroom. I was a student from 2004 to 2007 and paid £280 a month for a large bedroom, including all bills.

With regards to what a student needs : usual bedroom set with a desk, but be flexible as some people like to bring in their own furniture/bed so it's good if you can put some stuff in storage. Don't just go for cheap beds like some landlords do as they get ruined. Students expect internet access, but as with all bills some students like to pay all-inclusive, others like to just pay rent and sort the bills out themselves.

Prices vary a lot in Bristol for the purchase of the house, but rent is relatively stable at £260 - £300 a month, depending on what you offer, and there is a lot of choice available. You rely need to decide on which area you want to go for - make sure it is one with a good student population, good transport links, a decent reputation (St Pauls/Easton are very cheap areas but have huge crime problems and a lot of students come to see houses with their parents who will not like the area and probably will remember the race riots from the 80's), staples like a corner shop closer by and a supermarket in walking distance are preferable, car parking if you can have it, a local pub, all the usual student things. Try not to have too busy a road, or else make sure the house is not affected too much by noise, as whilst most students like a good time, they do sometimes study and need quiet for that and do shop around for the perfect house.

ETA : the council have a scheme here for accreditation - the universities make a huge deal of it, and if your house is not at least three stars (which realistically is a decent standard) then most people will not touch the house. The more stars you have, the better, as it means you will get listed higher on the university housing website, which means more people contacting you.




If you want more local ex-student advice on the area just send me a message.

Hope that helps.

[Optiplex330]

Thank you both for those invaluable advices. Thank you.

My situation is a bit more complicated. The reason as to why I mentioned 5 – 6 years is because I have a son who is studying in Bristol University. So I was thinking, maybe I will buy a house/flat for him to stay and rent out the extra rooms for the duration of his course. He gets a place to stay and the extra rental income from the other students could be used to offset the mortgage. And at the end of his study, there is hopefully, some capital appreciation. So do you people reckon this is a feasible idea or should I drop it?

If it is feasible, could someone please tell me roughly how much money we talking about here? GBP100K? 150K? 200K? Should I be looking at flat/house? What is the house price, pre and post credit crunch? How much is the mortgage rate/period/repayment amount?

Once again, many thanks in advance.

[mind the gap]

Thank you both for those invaluable advices. Thank you.

My situation is a bit more complicated. The reason as to why I mentioned 5 – 6 years is because I have a son who is studying in Bristol University. So I was thinking, maybe I will buy a house/flat for him to stay and rent out the extra rooms for the duration of his course. He gets a place to stay and the extra rental income from the other students could be used to offset the mortgage. And at the end of his study, there is hopefully, some capital appreciation. So do you people reckon this is a feasible idea or should I drop it? As long as the rental income exceeds the mortgage payment so that you have enough for annual insurance, maintenance, admin, cost of using a letting agent if you need to and anything else I've forgotten, then no, there is no reason why it should not be viable except that:

some mortgage providers do not allow you to rent to your own family
you must be sure of 100% occupancy or factor in some void periods

If it is feasible, could someone please tell me roughly how much money we talking about here? GBP100K? 150K? 200K? Should I be looking at flat/house? What is the house price, pre and post credit crunch? How much is the mortgage rate/period/repayment amount?

Once again, many thanks in advance.

google Bristol estate agents for prices in different areas
see # 2
If we knew the prices of houses post credit crunch, we wouldn't be sitting sadly at our computers tapping away at LLZ! We would be out there dusting off our crystal balls and making a fortune!:D

[Terri]

If it is feasible, could someone please tell me roughly how much money we talking about here? GBP100K? 150K? 200K? Should I be looking at flat/house? What is the house price, pre and post credit crunch? How much is the mortgage rate/period/repayment amount?

Once again, many thanks in advance.


You really need to choose the area first, and the size of the property you want. If you want somewhere in Clifton, close to Bristol Uni you will probably have a flat in one of the old Victorian houses (they are the big grand 5-storey houses). Prices in Clifton alone can rang from 100k for a tiny place to millions, so you really need to work out what you can afford, what area you want - is it better to have a place a short bus ride away from the uni, and so have more rooms and a larger size? Once you have worked out that you then need to look at how much rental income you would need to cover your expenses and see if the amount of rooms and the projected rent would cover that. Then you can narrow down your search by looking at local estate agents etc...