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Buy To Let Best Returns Table By Postcode
27/02/2010 Buy-to-let investors looking for the best returns should look outside trendy hotspots, with many less fashionable areas delivering far better returns, a study shows… A report into the Top 100 towns for buy-to-let yields, compiled by property listing website FindaProperty.com for This is Money, shows that Blackpool is the postcode delivering the best returns in the UK. The Holy Grail for property investors is a combination of low average property prices compared to rental returns and the report shows that locations not typically considered property hotspots make up a sizeable chunk of the top 25 postcodes. Investors in property in Blackpool are looking at an average home asking price of £161,722 and monthly rent of £720, according to FindaProperty.com, delivering a gross yield of 5.34%. This represents a far more accessible investment than the next best postcode, which covers Kingston on Thames, where the average house price is £420,469. While the top 20 is peppered with more fashionable locations, including Kingston, east London, Manchester, Central London and Twickenham, it is the more run of the mill locations that stand out. Blackpool is joined by Kirkcaldy, Romford, Sunderland, Wigan, Blackburn, Bolton, Luton and Cleveland, all of which offer yields above 4%, but a far lower cost of purchasing a property. FindaProperty.com calculated the gross yield by taking a property’s rent over 12 months as a percentage of its purchase price. Noticeably, while all the postcodes delivered far greater yields than the return on the average savings account of around 1.5%, none managed to breach the 6% mark that attracted investors in the early days of the buy-to-let boom. Once mortgage costs, letting fees, maintenance costs and tax are factored in, returns on the buy-to-let investments would be much lower. Nigel Lewis, of FindaProperty.com, said: “This shows that the best places for high gross yield are those with lower housing costs, a changing population and in particular if they have one or more universities.’ ‘London is strong because it’s under population pressure and has multiple universities and therefore even satellite areas such as Twickenham do well. ‘The other places where gross yields tend to be high are where there is a large inbound ethnic population getting on its economic feet and rental demand is high but house prices usually lower than the average.’ TOP 100 BUY-TO-LET POSTCODES Area Postcode Ave price Monthly rent Yield % Source: FindaProperty.com, February 2010 1 BLACKPOOL FY £161,722 £720 5.34 2 KINGSTON UPON THAMES KT £420,469 £1,843 5.26 3 KIRKCALDY KY £198,118 £856 5.19 4 LONDON (East) E £275,844 £1,147 4.99 5 MANCHESTER M £141,435 £575 4.87 6 DURHAM DH £128,730 £521 4.86 7 ROMFORD RM £230,792 £909 4.72 8 UXBRIDGE UB £266,486 £1,029 4.63 9 LONDON (south East) SE £275,267 £1,060 4.62 10 SUNDERLAND SR £131,336 £498 4.55 11 WIGAN WN £123,052 £463 4.52 12 BLACKBURN BB £123,326 £463 4.5 13 LIVERPOOL L £161,325 £598 4.45 14 GLASGOW G £154,084 £563 4.38 15 LONDON (central) WC £726,415 £2,612 4.32 16 BOLTON BL £142,150 £508 4.29 17 LUTON LU £182,388 £650 4.27 18 CARDIFF CF £158,736 £564 4.26 19 TWICKENHAM TW £328,924 £1,162 4.24 20 CLEVELAND TS £155,013 £547 4.23 21 SHEFFIELD S £141,691 £499 4.22 22 WARRINGTON WA £194,709 £682 4.21 23 MEDWAY ME £210,421 £737 4.2 24 DONCASTER DN £150,021 £523 4.18 25 DARTFORD DA £234,077 £810 4.15 26 SOUTHEND ON SEA SS £220,562 £763 4.15 27 GUILDFORD GU £374,124 £1,287 4.13 28 NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE NE £185,928 £636 4.1 29 MOTHERWELL ML £155,170 £530 4.1 30 CHESTER CH £196,250 £665 4.07 31 HULL HU £151,975 £510 4.02 32 CROYDON CR £271,135 £908 4.02 33 BIRMINGHAM B £180,558 £604 4.02 34 FALKIRK FK £185,138 £617 4 35 SUTTON SM £279,164 £927 3.98 36 WOLVERHAMPTON WV £153,470 £507 3.96 37 PRESTON PR £173,044 £566 3.93 38 WALSALL WS £162,956 £531 3.91 39 LONDON EC £581,944 £1,886 3.89 40 LEICESTER LE £202,522 £656 3.88 41 NOTTINGHAM NG £171,205 £554 3.88 42 OLDHAM OL £147,390 £471 3.84 43 LONDON SW £763,873 £2,415 3.79 44 WAKEFIELD WF £151,705 £479 3.79 45 ILFORD IG £316,562 £997 3.78 46 HARROW HA £358,059 £1,120 3.75 47 ABERDEEN AB £296,788 £928 3.75 48 DUNDEE DD £236,304 £735 3.73 49 CANTERBURY CT £210,284 £652 3.72 50 MILTON KEYNES MK £243,106 £754 3.72 51 NORTHAMPTON NN £195,595 £603 3.7 52 BRIGHTON BN £270,454 £834 3.7 53 BRISTOL BS £238,133 £732 3.69 54 COVENTRY CV £215,250 £661 3.68 55 BRADFORD BD £159,527 £489 3.68 56 PORTSMOUTH PO £243,599 £744 3.66 57 HALIFAX HX £159,201 £482 3.63 58 CAMBRIDGE CB £299,459 £903 3.62 59 CREWE CW £217,792 £655 3.61 60 CARLISLE CA £175,168 £526 3.61 61 READING RG £329,551 £990 3.61 62 ENFIELD EN £339,492 £1,010 3.57 63 STOKE ON TRENT ST £181,652 £539 3.56 64 STEVENAGE SG £286,730 £851 3.56 65 STOCKPORT SK £195,535 £579 3.55 66 WATFORD WD £362,059 £1,070 3.55 67 LEEDS LS £198,555 £585 3.54 68 DARLINGTON DL £181,717 £535 3.53 69 SWINDON SN £255,832 £743 3.49 70 KILMARNOCK KA £163,562 £475 3.48 71 DERBY DE £179,080 £517 3.46 72 COLCHESTER CO £228,779 £655 3.44 73 BROMLEY BR £349,775 £1,001 3.43 74 PETERBOROUGH PE £205,970 £589 3.43 75 CHELMSFORD CM £305,268 £873 3.43 76 LONDON NW £566,176 £1,616 3.43 77 BATH BA £241,395 £686 3.41 78 SOUTHAMPTON SO £315,063 £895 3.41 79 SALISBURY SP £294,765 £835 3.4 80 TONBRIDGE TN £318,006 £898 3.39 81 OXFORD OX £339,426 £951 3.36 82 NEWPORT NP £189,680 £529 3.34 83 NORWICH NR £237,902 £661 3.33 84 GLOUCESTER GL £272,069 £753 3.32 85 HUDDERSFIELD HD £175,771 £486 3.32 86 SLOUGH £ £453,701 £1,254 3.32 87 INVERNESS IV £233,018 £643 3.31 88 LANCASTER LA £238,246 £655 3.3 89 LINCOLN LN £191,717 £524 3.28 90 REDHILL RH £354,207 £962 3.26 91 HEMEL HEMPSTEAD HP £372,837 £1,009 3.25 92 BOURNEMOUTH BH £304,095 £817 3.22 93 DORCHESTER DT £268,855 £721 3.22 94 LLANDUDNO LL £232,060 £622 3.21 95 PERTH PH £302,464 £792 3.14 96 LONDON N £493,492 £1,276 3.1 97 DUDLEY DY £228,510 £587 3.08 98 LONDON W £996,894 £2,531 3.05 99 SWANSEA SA £214,500 £533 2.98 100 EXETER EX £278,522 £691 2.98 Read more: http://www.thisismon…6#ixzz0gmD8nSLj Continue reading
Property To Stabilise As Monetary Policy Normalises – UBS
22 August 2013 Property values are set to stabilise in many Eurozone markets this year and next as European monetary policy normalises, resulting in rising financing costs and risk-free rates, says UBS Global Asset Management. Retail should outperform. In its 2H13 Eurozone market outlook, signed by Head of Research Gunnar Herm, UBS said: “In 2013 and 2014, real estate investors will operate in a slightly improving but still subdued economic environment. UBS does not believe the European Central Bank’s monetary easing policy will continue further, which will result in higher risk-free rates and financing costs. debt availability will remain scarce for assets beyond core property. However, additional lending sources for value-add or opportunistic assets will emerge in the core Eurozone countries as well as for the prime segment in southern Europe. The retail sector will outperform office and logistics due to high income levels and stable capital value and rental growth in most markets from 2014. In the countries hit hardest by the financial crisis, stabilisation is expected for 2015. Best performers, on a total return basis, will be France and Ireland, worst Spain, Portugal and The Netherlands. Logistics remains attractive due to the high, relatively stable income returns in the current low interest rate environment. “We anticipate a broadening range of both returns and opportunities in the sector, with growing retail and manufacturing sector interest for new, tailored space in selective locations across Europe,” said the report. Occupiers will focus on regions and countries with a strong economic outlook. UBS sees Ireland and Norway as the most attractive options for a core portfolio over the next three years. In the office sector, cost-cutting continues as the main driver of leasing activity. Due to low development activities, vacancy levels in the prime segment have been falling, resulting in a supply shortage in CBD locations and rising prime rents. Outside the prime segment, UBS expects continued pressure on capital values. France and Finland are set to outperform on a total return basis, while Germany, The Netherlands, Spain and Italy are likely to underperform. “Even though we do not believe in improving occupier market conditions in the Dutch office market, counter-cyclical opportunities may arise in the prime office segment,” said the report. pie Continue reading
From Factory Floor To The Decks Of Megayachts
http://www.heraldtri…xW=445&border=0 Jon Barker guides a 40-foot teak deck panel as it comes out of a sander at Teakdecking Systems Inc. in Sarasota. STAFF PHOTO / MIKE LANG By Michael Pollick Published: Sunday, August 25, 2013 SOUTH MANATEE COUNTY – Teakdecking Systems Inc. never knows what kinds of orders will come in to its 100,000-square-foot factory, so it keeps about three years worth of inventory around at all times. That’s no easy — or inexpensive — task, though. At wholesale prices of between $25 and $30 per foot, teak is one of the world’s more expensive woods. But for the 30-year-old company, the cost is worth it to have an ample supply of the wood that is prized by boat builders and buyers alike for its moisture-resistant properties and its aesthetic qualities. Having the supply of wood on hand is a departure from standard industry practice — even though it can take six months or more to have teak shipped from forests in Myanmar — but Teakdecking is accustomed to bucking the trends. Several years ago, the company pioneered the concept of building teak yacht decks in a factory. When finished, the deck is shipped to a yacht, uncrated and fastened in place with epoxy, rather than screws. The system had its skeptics, at first, but has gradually become the preferred method for shipyards and boat builders worldwide — from Sarasota’s Chris-Craft to mega-yacht builders such as England’s Pendennis Shipyard. “We kind of revolutionized the industry,” said Alan Brosilow, Teakdecking’s manager of yacht services and one of the company’s earliest U.S. employees. “This invention was not heard of, where you could make a set of patterns and make a teak deck from it and then deliver it,” he said. “People would just not believe you could do this.” The old way Before Teakdecking introduced its new method, if you wanted a teak deck for a yacht, the job required a specialized carpenter who could allow for hatches, hardware, a cabin and a cockpit. Boards would be molded to fit the curves of the deck, then screwed down to the hull. It could take two to three months to deck a large yacht, keeping it in port. But as fiberglass and epoxy started coming into widespread use in the 1970s, a group in Sweden pioneered building teak decks — curves and all — in a factory, and then shipping them to where the boat was being made or refitted, to be installed. The advantages were many: There were no wooden plugs hiding screw heads to fall out, no screws to come loose or metal that could create leaks in the cabin. Instead, buyers got perfectly grained teak decks custom-designed to fit snugly. Today, working from exact digital blueprints made on site, Teakdecking builds decks upside down on its factory floor, using a proprietary raised floor system made up of slots and wedges that helps shape the wood. When finished, the upside-down deck is frozen into its correct position by using a sheet of fiberglass and specially concocted epoxy, or glue. Once cured, the deck panels are sanded, trimmed and fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle. Then they are separated again and packed into custom wooden crates up to 40 feet long for shipping. ‘Sourcing’ the raw material Paul Crist is a big guy who favors blue company T-shirts. He spends his days cutting thick slabs of teak into smaller pieces. But his real job, he says, is “wood sourcing.” He and another worker, Dan Paver, work as a team. Sourcing involves traveling to Myanmar, which has abundant teak forests, to visit mills to scope out which wood to buy and which to reject. “Our standards are real, real high,” Crist said. “Stuff I reject, other boat builders would gladly accept.” Teak tree harvesting kicked into high gear during the British colonial period, which in Burma — now known as Myanmar — lasted from 1824 to 1948. The wood’s resistance to moisture and bugs made it a perfect material for ship-building. Teak can be left unvarnished and exposed to sun and salt water without degrading into splints. It also weathers to a silver-gray color and provides a natural non-slip surface. British demand for ships made of the durable wood consumed most of the teak in India, Thailand and Cambodia. The forests in which teak grows in Myanmar are gradually disappearing, as well. “Natural teak has now almost become an endangered species,” according to a 2012 report by the Ministry of Forestry of Myanmar, which has the last large stands of teak forest in the world. The ministry contends it is keeping the supply sustainable through its current system of forest management. Rules and regulations determine how many trees can be felled, and where. “These are managed forests, very managed forests,” Brosilow said. Brosilow predicted the company will still be buying and using teak 15 to 20 years from now. The Sarasota connection Teakdecking owes its methods to formulations from Sweden, but the company’s process has been used in the U.S. since 1983, ever since Lars Lewander established a factory in Sarasota. The company chose Southwest Florida because it provided access to production boat builders like Wellcraft, which has since moved away, as well as big yacht builders in Tampa and along the east coast. Gulfstar Yachts was an early customer, recalls Joe Zammataro, who was vice president of sales there and is now a yacht broker at Denison Yacht Sales in St. Petersburg. “To use their teak decks was like a fraction of the expense of making our own, and I think the overall dependability was better,” Zammataro said. Smaller pleasure craft rarely come with teak these days, he said. “But when you get into boats in the 60-, 70-, 80-foot range and larger, the teak decks are always a more elegant solution.” Lewander eventually bought out his original partners and became Teakdecking’s owner as well as its president. The company now does $15 million to $20 million a year in sales and has 129 employees. Four years ago, Lewander started an employee stock ownership plan. So now the employees are becoming its owners, with the proceeds from a profit-sharing plan being poured into an employee stock ownership trust. That’s on top of a 401(k) retirement savings plan. “You can come in here and build a career,” said Michael Havey, the company’s director of quality assurance and employee development. Half custom jobs now Teakdecking now derives half of its business from custom jobs and half from production work, with Chris-Craft being a notable and nearby customer. The Sarasota-based builder of luxury run-abouts and yachts has been buying pre-fabricated teak from Teakdecking since 2001. “It has been a marriage that we have had with Teakdecking under the current ownership, a little over 12 years,” said Steve Callahan, vice president of materials at Chris-Craft. “Yes, every single one has teak on it,” he said. Brosilow spends his time coordinating teak projects with a who’s who of shipyards and mega-yacht builders: Lürssen Werft of Germany; Trinity Yachts of Gulfport, Miss.; Christensen Shipyards of Washington; and many others. Teakdecking doesn’t shy away from large jobs, either. It’s built the decks for some of the largest yachts ever constructed, including “Rising Sun,” a 454-foot motor yacht built in 2004 for Oracle founder Larry Ellison and now owned by media mogul David Geffen. The $200 million yacht, with passenger accommodations on five stories, has 8,000 square feet of living space. The planning that goes into big deck projects is just as intricate as the construction method itself. Teakdecking digital designer Mike Baker displayed that complexity recently when he worked on a deck that requires 2,226 square feet of teak for a 120-foot aluminum sailing yacht. The boat was made by Pendennis 15 years ago and is now being refitted at the same British shipyard. Baker and Brosilow have been going back and forth with those overseeing the work in England, and now, Brosilow thinks Teakdecking has finally figured out the exact width of the planks that will be needed — averting skinny pieces of wood around hatches or the need for other significant hardware. That one deck will bring in $350,000, but require the company to go through a lot of its inventory in the process — meaning Crist and Paver will likely be on airplanes soon, heading to Myanmar for continued “sourcing.” Continue reading
