Knowing how saleable a property is is half the battle
when deciding what (or what not) to buy for your next property investment.
Why? Well because one day, you may need
to sell that property. If you go into the purchase with open eyes, you know
most of the risks and can barter the price accordingly if you have to.
Bearing this in mind, last week, a couple from Trinity
popped into our offices to ask about investing in property. Their concern was
if we have another property slump (and we will because that is what has
happened to the British property market ever since the 1950’s), if they did
need to sell, what type of property would be easier to sell. Now everything
sells, even during a slump, but I did some research and followed up their query
– I was actually quite surprised with the results.
A good guide to judge the saleability of property is the
number of properties for sale, compared to the numbers that are sold, subject
to contract. Now I carried out this comparison last week, so the numbers will
be marginally different today, but of the 215,822 households in Edinburgh there
are 2,575 properties on the market for sale. Of those 2,575 properties, 1,013
properties are fully available on the open market waiting for a buyer and 1,562
have buyers and are sold subject to contract. That means 61% of property on the
market has a buyer in Edinburgh.
Analysis
by type of property
However, delve deeper, and in Edinburgh today, 62% of flats
on the market have a buyer and great news for semi-detached property owners, as
64% of them have buyers. The properties
that appear to be selling less well though are terraced and detached houses at
a comparatively lower 56% and 55% respectively.
Analysis
by number of bedrooms
Doing a similar analysis but this time by number of
bedroom is even more interesting. A
whapping 65% of one bed properties on the market already have a buyer. Not far behind are two and three bed
properties where 61% and 60% respectively have a buyer. However, life is not so good for 4+ bed
properties as ‘only’ 53% of these properties have a buyer yet.
Taking the above together suggests that, at the moment, 1
bed flats or possibly 2/3 bed semi-detached houses look like the way to go.
We are always giving advice to our existing and new
landlords in Edinburgh on what to buy (or not as the case may be). Having this detail of information at our
finger tips, allows us to spot trends in the local market, which then enables
us to give the very best advice to our clients. We don't charge for that advice
as we have plenty of opportunity to earn money by finding the best tenants for
our landlords in the years to come on the investments we have advised on. If you want some advice, call me on 0131 603 4570 or email me
(news@thekeyplace.co.uk).
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