It’s difficult to recall a time since probably the early 2000’s when UK property was so widely sought after by house buyers, investors and landlords.
With prices and demand soaring thanks, in part, to rocky and bumpy equity markets and pancake flat bonds and yields, it seems that many from inside and outside of the UK our ploughing into property whilst the market is so buoyant.
It has some, if tenuous, reminiscence of the California gold rush of the 19th century, hence the title of the article. Its tenuous connection is that it appears as though interest in UK property is set to reach a fever pitch this year with the continuation of government incentives and support meaning purchase prices are much lower at least through into the summer.
For existing investors and landlords, it’s great news as it’s driving the price of their assets up, and it is indeed a great time to look to either expand in the market or invest. However, the signs are there that you’ll be one of many looking to invest into quite literal hot property.
Investors ready to go
There is now mounting evidence that there is a large group of investors with a lot of money behind them ready to invest heavily into all types of UK property once restrictions are fully lifted in June if all goes to plan.
The government’s roadmap currently has June 21st as the earliest date for all restrictions being lifted. This is, of course, subject to potential change if the course of the pandemic changes, however, at this point it must be said things appear to be going well and the vaccine rollout has been a major success for the UK government.
New research published by Property Wire has illustrated the extent to which investors are ready to move. According to research of 126 investors, they are “sitting on an average of more than £37,000 each in investment capital that they are poised to inject into property.
Asked how much money they had “allocated to invest into property via platforms or direct”, the average response was £37,345.”
This is a fairly astonishing amount and if that level of appetite is met across the country then we could be in for a very interesting summer and end of year.
2021 property
It must be said that this is a small sample and that may not bear out across the average investor across the country and abroad, however, it’s difficult to escape the feeling that we may be on the precipice of a bit of a feeding frenzy.
That means that investors and landlords that have the means to expand their portfolio before that time could be well poised to make hay whilst the sun shines and reap the rewards of an early investment into the market.
Certainly, judging by the performance of 2020, which the ONS has recently confirmed was a price increase of 7.5% year-on-year, then this year could top even that.
We also know that demand for Private Rental Sector (PRS) properties is surging with the lifting of lockdown restrictions. So, the advice seems clear – get in early.