Overseas Property Investment Consultancy & UK Property Investment Consultancy

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At home the new government has started to detail how it plans to tackle the UK’s deficit and this has been well received around the world with G20 leaders strongly backing the plans at the recent summit in South Korea.

House prices have continued to show their resilience to economic difficulties during the last month. The Nationwide survey of house prices reveals a May increase of 0.5% bringing the average property price to £169,162. The report shows a 12.2% increase since the February 2009 trough with prices currently sitting just 10% below the 2007 peak. Based on this, a £150,000 property purchased in February last year would have made a capital growth of £18,300. Not a bad return for a recession!!!

Hometrack have also reported an increase in their survey of 0.2% whilst surprisingly the Halifax survey shows a drop of -0.4% bringing their indicator of average property prices broadly in line with the Nationwide at £167, 570.

Looking at asking prices Rightmove say they have seen a monthly increase of 0.7% in the asking prices of newly listed properties. Overall the general direction remains upwards which is encouraging.

Government figures show annual house price inflation back in double digits.

New figures from The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) showed April house prices were 10.1% higher than a year ago.

This represents the strongest rate of inflation since October 2007. The report indicates growth of 0.4% during April, broadly in line with other market reports.

Wales has recorded the highest annual growth at 11.3%, whilst England trailed slightly behind at 10.9%. Scottish house price growth was considerably lower at 2.2% but Northern Ireland saw average prices falling by 8.9%. The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) says that lending is 15% higher than a year ago.

RICS

Meanwhile, the most recent survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) shows a “sharp increase” in the amount of property reaching the sales market.

The report says that 22% more surveyors reported a rise in prices than reported a fall in the three months to May. RICS spokesperson Ian Perry said: “Surveyors are generally confident that sales will continue to pick up over the summer months. The increase in supply as a result of the abolition of Hips is helping to support this optimism.”

• Full name – United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• Location – North Western Europe
• Capital city – London
• Government – Parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy
• Currency – Pound sterling (£)
  
• Economy – 6th by GDP (Nominal) (IMF)
• Population – 61.6 million (UN 2009)
• Language – English, Irish, Ulster Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Welsh and Cornish

The world’s first industrialised nation, the UK was the foremost world power during the 19th and early 20th centuries with an empire that extended to every corner of the planet. The economic cost of 2 world wars and the decline of the empire somewhat reduced the country’s global influence, however, the UK remains a major power with the 6th largest economy and 3rd highest defence spending in the world.

A land of great diversity, from areas of mountainous wilderness in the north to long sandy beaches in the south, from modern dynamic cities to sleepy country villages, the UK is the 6th largest tourist destination in the world and tourism makes up a substantial sector of the economy along with manufacturing, agriculture, pharmaceuticals and oil and gas extraction. However, almost three quarters of the UK’s GDP is now made up of the service sector (dominated by financial services). Leader of the 3 ‘command centres’ for the global economy (along with New York City and Tokyo) is London. The world’s most visited city and home to the largest number of foreign bank branches in the world (including the headquarters of world’s largest bank HSBC), London is the giant of international business, finance and insurance.

A highly advanced and multicultural nation, the UK has brought and continues to bring a great deal to the wider world including culture, music, literature, invention….the list goes on.

Why invest in the UK?

During the 20th century property ownership took hold in the UK and today the population enjoys one of the highest rates of ownership in the world. However, in more recent years there has been a swing towards a more continental style rental culture. Driven by the need to be more mobile and flexible, and a change in beliefs, the rental market in the UK is growing. Add to this an increasing shortfall in housing stock, growing demand and an upturn in property prices indicating a return to strong capital growth over the coming years and you have the recipe for an un-missable opportunity.

Property investment in the UK extends well beyond residential buy to let. Commercial property, land, Holiday rentals, Hotel room investments, even garages and parking spaces all offer exciting opportunities for excellent return on investment. Costs of buying property in the UK are relatively low, straight forward and safe. Legal systems and financial systems are mature and provide great security for buyers and owners of property. If history teaches us anything it is that the UK property market provides excellent long term growth and there is no reason for this not to continue.

In a nutshell, the UK offers relative safety and stability for property investors along with excellent capital growth potential, varied opportunities and low purchase costs. UK property should form the backbone of a strong property portfolio.

We are fast becoming the UK’s leading supplier of repossessed property with several hundred new properties coming on very soon. What ever you’re looking for, we will have it. If you would like to be one for the first to hear of these new properties give us a call on 01235 553569 and register your interest.

Almost immediately it was announced that Home Information Packs (HIPS) would be abolished. It is widely believed that these packs have achieved little more than reducing the number of properties coming to the market as well as the time taken to bring a property to market. The Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) will however remain. I believe this is the ideal compromise as although HIPS were undoubtedly a bad idea, a whole industry has built up around the EPC’s and it would have been wrong to destroy peoples businesses, especially given that EPC’s are actually a good idea.

Of course, with compromise in the air some manifesto pledges had to be forgotten and one of these was the conservative’s plans to increase the inheritance tax threshold. With huge increases in property values over the last decade or so, the current threshold is a great deal lower than it should be if it were to have kept pace with the increases. Shelving the Conservative’s plans unfortunately means that property owners in particular will not be able to pass on as much as perhaps they would like to, free of tax.

Also of impact to property investors is the announcement that Capital Gains Tax (CGT) will be increased to 28% for higher rate tax payers. There has been a lot of uncertainly and fear surrounding this in recent weeks but in reality the increase was nowhere near as high as was expected.

The new government then turned its attention to new developments. Firstly they reversed a Labour decision to classify gardens as brown field sites, giving local authorities greater powers to block proposed developments based on local objections.

Next they looked at housing density and abolished the ‘minimum density targets’ for new developments set by the previous government. The policy which dictates that at least 30 homes are built on every hectare of development land has been blamed for a profusion of apartments as well as threatening the existing character of towns and cities in addition to more traditionally green and open areas. There have also been signs that an existing policy which details that new developments must contain a set amount of social housing may also be reformed or scrapped.

Most recently has been the announcement that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is to be scrapped and more power given to the Bank of England. Many will see this as a good move given FSA failures during the recent credit crunch and subsequent recession.

So there we have it, one month down and some major changes already in place. As property investors will we be affected? In a word, yes.

The new government has certainly hit the ground running and without doubt some of these announcements are good news, unfortunately some are not so good for us, but time will tell whether the positives will out way the negatives. One thing is always certain though; property investment is a great route to wealth and financial independence and right now offers some incredibly exciting opportunities and we have some of the best. Grab them while you can, with economic recovery in the air they may not exist for long.

To your success

Kevin Wilkes

The Worldwide Property Group is a marketing agent for developers and whilst we endeavour to ensure the accuracy of information contained in this site, including figures and forecasts at the time of publication, the Worldwide Property Group does not guarantee or take responsibility for their accuracy. Images are representative of the types of property we offer and may not be of actual opportunities offered by us. Some images may be computer generated.