In considering commercial and residential developments with a railway connection, it is soon apparent that there is a wide range of railway connected developments that have taken place, and are still taking place. A small development can be just a new build house, or old railway station conversion to either a home/s or a business building. Such small developments can be, and have been progressed on closed (disused) railway branch lines, or even on an existing operational active railway line where a railway building, or small or large sized plot of land is sold, or it could be a redundant level crossing keeper’s house which is no longer required for railway purposes because the level crossing is now an unmanned automated level crossing.
A medium sized development with a railway connection can be a residential development such as the one built at York on the site of the former railway Carriage Works (Train Building Factory).
A very major building/railway development can be something like St. Pancras Railway Station in North London. This was a major development when the station was first built, as it is said to have taken 60 million bricks to build before the first ever train could leave in October, 1868, let alone the recent extremely large development making St.Pancras a major international travel facility of which more is referred to below.
The relatively recent major conversion of St. Pancras to “International” status is very good news for the Midlands and Yorkshire as not only does this railway station continue to serve Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, and Sheffield, and other intermediate locations with its inter-city services, and with local passenger trains providing various connections to many other locations, but also now provides a fast Eurostar train service to Europe. This makes those locations mentioned above, and surrounding locations, extremely attractive areas to live and work and conduct business from which consequentially is likely to cause increasing demand on housing and business developments in the Midlands.
February 13, 2010
Property developments stay on track!
February 7, 2010
January 28, 2010
Buy to let landlords making money from Houses in multiple occupation
The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) expresses positivity at the news of the governments concerns over the increases in the number of Houses in Multiple Occupation in some residential areas.
Houses in Multiple Occupation or HMO’s as they are known in the property sector have been the subject of licensing in recent years after the HMO license scheme was piloted in areas including Derby.
There is particular concerns for areas prone to high demand form Students in university towns with some quarters voicing concerns that HMO’s can lead to the lowering of community spirit in some residential areas. The nature of HMO’s does favor students and more transient short term residents which is sure to affect the feeling of community in areas of high HMO’s. It will be interesting to see what is included in any planning policy guidelines and how this may affect values and the availability of share households.
January 26, 2010
Cheap houses midlands
Property investment companies are quietly raising funds from investors to allow them to invest in depressed property values in some areas of the midlands. The key strategies for many companies is to focus on high yielding property investments typically with low capital values per unit. The key to turn a profit from these types of properties is to negotiate preferable rates with main contractors and go for high volume purchases.
This give you more leverage with negotiating purchase prices and all the suppliers that assist in the future refurbishment programs which are key to increasing capital values of property investments.
The other plus to a refurbishment of existing property portfolios, is the opportunity for increases in rental yields again this has the knock on effect of increasing capital values of investment property.
January 21, 2010
Cheap houses, rush of mortgage lending
The Council of Mortgage Lending has released its figures for gross mortgage lending for December 09 and they have taken many in the property sector by surprise. The figures showed an incredible 14% rise in mortgage lending for December, which is at best normally a poor month.
Many believe that property buyers, property traders, and buy to let investors have decided to buy in 09 to take advantage of the reduced stamp duty. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find anyone in the mortgage market who believes that 2010 will not out perform 2009. So it will be very interesting to see January’s figures and the future path of interest rates.
January 18, 2010
Will the private rented sector make up for the funding issues of Housing associations?
There is ever increasing concern that the number of available properties for households on lower incomes will be reduced as the funding crisis for Housing associations continued to cause concern.
Many Housing associations are using their limited resources to create shared ownership schemes but this leaves the most vulnerable families forced to look to the private rented sector for their housing requirements. Many Housing associations and private rented Landlords are facing funding challenges after surveyors have “written down”, the value of their property portfolios.
January 14, 2010
House prices Midlands
There is further evidence that the house price recovery is still to reach certain parts of the country. Reports from surveyors suggest that the west Midlands is one area that has still to see the real impact of a house price recovery. London as usual seems to have lead the recovery while areas in the North and particularly Northern Ireland seem the slowest to recover.
There is also interesting evidence of further potential investment gains as large institutional investors are now looking to high end residential buy to let to yield good returns from both rental income and increases in capital values. Some investment fund managers are confident that prime London stock will return to pre credit crunch levels before the year end.
January 12, 2010
Cash for council houses
The money available form the government to build new council homes has been dramatically increased, the government has pledged to make enough cash available to give the sector the most cash for least two decades.
The housing minister has announced that they will allocate a further 122 million bringing the funding for this sector to just short of 250 million pounds. Many councils have bid for a share of the funding estimated to be enough to build around 4,000 new homes.
January 10, 2010
How to make money from property in 2010
The question that many amateur and professional property developers will be asking themselves during January 2010. Well as many predict that 2010 will be a flat year for property prices it is a great year to start your first property development or start to build your investment property portfolio.
The beauty of operating in these market conditions is that most sellers are sensible, estate agents are focused on both buyers and sellers. The banks are looking to loosen their purse strings slightly as lending gradually moves towards more sensible levels. There are still some bargains in the property auction rooms or the estate agents windows and these come without the crazed crowd of buyers that were hunting back in the “glory days of 2007”.
So if you are looking for a nice mid-terrace as your first foot steps into property investment or you have seen a rundown semi that holds a nice £10,000 profit locked behind the flaking paint of the front door, now is an ideal time. Architects and contractors are available and you can often find that the big DIY sheds have various discounts and reductions on Kitchens and bathrooms which can be a big help to any property development project budget.
The building product suppliers are also much more flexible and there are deals on everything from plants and pots for the garden through to positive pressure units to stop condensation.
January 9, 2010
Cash rich investors and top end home buyers responsible for positive UK house price figures?
There are many surveys and reports that clearly show the recent surprisingly high increases in the capital values of “the average house price”. When well read and well thought of reports start to agree with the first more industry bias reports more and more economists start taking note. The Royal Institute of Charter Surveys have rarely been far from the mark and many agree that they have a great record in predicting short term housing market trends. There are commentators who say the top end and London prices are giving a jaded perspective and that less affluent areas are still suffering greatly from the housing market downturn. There is some historic evidence to suggest that the UK housing market prices rises do follow a loose top down model, so we wait to see in a truly interesting and exciting year for the UK property sector.