Quality Falkirk buy to let family home in desirable area

I was on my way back from a property inspection when I spied that this family home was for sale in Pireyhill Gardens.  Now Pireyhill Gardens is a good place to have a buy to let property of this type because it is a highly desirable area that is popular both with families and commuters.

The property is a 3 bedroom semi detached house flat in Pireyhill Gardens.  Pireyhill Gardens is just up from the High Station near Princes Park so it is handy for the town as well as the train station.

This house has a good sized lounge, a separate dining room, a fitted kitchen, three decent sized bedrooms and a bathroom with a bath and shower over it.  There is Upvc double glazing and gas central heating as well as a garage and gardens to the front and rear of the property.  The house looks in lettable condition other than for a wee bit of re-decoration as the current decoration is a bit dated.

Double click here to get more details about this property

Let’s do the maths.  The asking price for this property, which is on the market with Slater Hogg & Howison, is offers over £115,000.  The property has just come on the market so let’s say it goes for £125,000.  Taking into account £5,000 for re-decoration etc, that gets you to a total spend of £130,000.

Based on our recent experience of renting this type of properties in this area, you should get a rent of £750 pcm on this property.

So that gets you to a yield of 6.9%.

If you would like any advice on buying a property to let, please pop into our office at 29 Upper New Market Street, Falkirk for a chat.

Monopoly in Falkirk ... how would you play?

A couple of local landlords and I were having a discussion about the property market in Falkirk the other day, when the subject of risk against returns arose.

All landlords are different in the way they play the property game. Some landlords prefer to accept a modest yield/return on their investment for an increased certainty of finding a quality tenant. Other landlords are interested in high returns, with a greater risk with regards to the quality of the tenant. Before you start playing, it is a good idea to have a game plan.

For a low risk investment, you could buy property in the areas of Falkirk which are perceived as being more desirable, such as the Gartcows area, the High Station area and the Lionhorn area, where you may be able to achieve an annual yield of around 4-6%. If you don’t mind a slightly higher risk of void periods or a more varied quality of tenant, you are likely to be rewarded with a higher annual yield of 6-7%. This level of risk can be typically taken with New Carron Village and the Ewing Drive area. If you are after annual yields of 8% and over, you could take more of a risk with houses in the poorer areas of town which may attract tenants of a low quality.

If you would like to explore how we can help you with your property investments, or should you require any advice about investing in the Falkirk property market, wish to enquire about our Investment Analysis Reports, Property Sourcing, Residential Lettings or Property Management services, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01324 628332 or at robert@thekeyplace.co.uk; linda@thekeyplace.co.uk.

Alternatively please feel free to pop in and see us at our offices in 29 Upper New Market Street, Falkirk for a chat, the coffee is always on.

Easy to rent 2 bed flat in Falkirk

I was coming back from viewing a property with a landlord of mine when I spotted the ‘For Sale’ sign outside this block of flats.

The property is a 2 bedroom flat in Fairfield Place.  Fairlfield Place is a fairly modern development off Thornhill Road near Forth Valley College so it is within walking distance of the town centre and the railway station, perfect for the commuting tenant.

This apartment has a good sized lounge, a fitted kitchen, two decent sized bedrooms and a bathroom with a bath and shower over it.  There is Upvc double glazing but on electric heating.  There is ample parking and views onto Victoria Park.   

Double click here to get more details about this property

Let’s do the maths.  The asking price for this property, which is on the market with Clyde Properties, is offers over £57,000.  The property has been on the market for some time now and the price was lowered in early November 2015 so let’s say it goes for £62,000.

Based on our recent experience of renting this type of properties in this area, you should get a rent of £400 pcm on this property.

So that gets you to a yield of 7.7%.

If you would like any advice on buying a property to let, feel free to pop into our office at 29 Upper New Market Street, Falkirk for a chat, give us a call 01324 628332 or email us on (robert@thekeyplace.co.uk; linda@thekeyplace.co.uk).

Falkirk recently refurbished BTL flat opportunity

Today’s buy to let opportunity is a recently refurbished, 1 bed stone build flat on Oswald Street which is right in the heart of Falkirk.

There is plenty of accommodation in this recently refurbished property including a decent sized lounge with a new modern fitted kitchen off it, a good size double bedroom, a new well presented bathroom room and on street parking.  The property, which has upvc double glazing but electric storage heating, has bee recently redecorated throughout and it is in lettable condition.

Double click here to get more details about this property

Doing the maths. The property is being sold by Remax as is on at offers over £42,000 with a the Home Report value of £50,000 so lets say it goes for somewhere between £45,000 and £50.000.  Rent of £350 to £375 pcm should be achievable on a property like this which gets you to a yield of between 8.4% and 10% which is a cracking yield for a recently refurbished, stone build property.

We hope you find our posts useful.  If you would like some advice with your potential investment, please come and see us in our offices (29 New Market Street, Falkirk), call us (01324 628332) or email either of us (robert@thekeyplace.co.uk; linda@thekeyplace.co.uk).

What type of property in Falkirk sells the best?

Knowing how saleable a property is half the battle when deciding what (or 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 Larbert 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 16,819 households in Falkirk there are 224 properties on the market for sale. Of those 224 properties, 150 properties are fully available on the open market waiting for a buyer and 74 have buyers and are sold subject to contract. That means 33% of property on the market has a buyer in Falkirk (interestingly in Grangemouth 30% of properties on the market have a buyer and in Larbert it is an impressive 52%).

However, delve deeper, and in Falkirk today, 34% of detached houses on the market have a buyer and great news for flats, as 36% of them have buyers.  Terraced houses fair even better, with 17 of the 37 on the market now having buyers (making 46%). The properties that appear to be sticking though are semi-detached houses at a comparatively lower 24%.

We are always giving advice to our existing and new landlords in Falkirk 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, come and see us in our offices (29 Upper New Market Street) for a chat, give us a call (01324 628332) or email us on (robert@thekeyplace.co.uk; linda@thekeyplace.co.uk).

Modern Falkirk flat with 6.2% return

I spotted this little one, which I think should be right up any buy to let investors street that is looking for a modern, low maintenance property, that only came on the market last Friday.

McDonald Crescent is in the modern development off Grahams Road near the canal within walking distance of the town centre and the railway station, perfect for the commuting tenant. This apartment has great accommodation, ample parking and impressive views.  2 bedroom apartments in this area are renting for in the region of £465 pcm at the moment. 

Double click here to get more details about this property

The property is being sold by O’Malley Property with an asking price on this property is offers in the region of £89,995 so let’s say it goes for £90,000.  If you do your calculations on these figures, you are looking at a potential annual return of 6.2%, which takes account of the modern, desirable, low maintenance nature for the property.

If you would like any advice on buying a property to let, feel free to pop into the office at 29 Upper New Market Street for a chat, give us a call 01324 628332 or email us on (robert@thekeyplace.co.uk; linda@thekeyplace.co.uk).

Great Falkirk family home investment property

This great family home has come on to the market with Russel + Aitken and I think it would make a perfect investment property.

The property is a spacious mid-terraced villa at 10 College Crescent in Falkirk.  College Crescent is at the back of Forth Valley College.  There is plenty of accommodation including a decent sized lounge, a fitted kitchen, 3 double bedrooms, a bath/shower room, gardens and off street parking.  In addition, the property has gas central heating and double glazing. 

Double click here to get more details about this property

There are a couple of points to note. 

The first is that some of the decor and carpets as outstanding ..... and by that I mean very loud and colourful!  A wee bit of toning down the decoration would be needed to make this property attractive to a wider audience. 

The second point to note is the bathroom situation as it is unclear exactly what type of bathroom the property has.  It would be work checking this out to make sure that it is a sensible bathroom.

Doing the maths. The price is offers over £92,000 so let’s say it goes for £99,000.  Rent of £575 pcm is achievable on a property like this which gets you to a 7% yield.

If you would like any advice on buying a property to let, feel free to pop into the office at 29 Upper New Market Street for a chat, give us a call 01324 628332 or email us on (robert@thekeyplace.co.uk; linda@thekeyplace.co.uk).

Property values in Falkirk have increased by £55.94 per week

Last week, a landlord came in to our office to discuss the rising property values in Falkirk. He owns a varied portfolio of rental properties, primarily in Falkirk, and is thinking of buying more properties so he was interested in comparing the increase in property values around the area.

Over the last 12 months the average property value in Falkirk has risen by nearly £2,909, from £124,387 to £127,296. This is a modest 2.9% increase or £55.94 per week. When you dig a bit deeper, the values for detached houses has performed the best with average increase of detached houses over the last 12 month being £11,033 or 5.12% whereas terraced houses have performed the worst as they have only seen an increase of value of £1,374 or 1.44% over this period.  The value of semi-detached houses and flats has increased by 3-4% so they are somewhere in between detached and terraced houses.

When we looked at some of the surrounding towns, what we found was very interesting as there property prices have all increased more than Falkirk.  Linlithgow has a highest average increase in property value of the surrounding towns at around £126.96 per week, followed Larbert at £101.00 per week, Bonnybridge at £82.54 per week, Bo’ness at £74.77 per week, Polmont at £69.38 per week and Grangemouth at £57.46 per week.

So overall average property values in the area have risen which suggests that the local property market is recovering although, as always, there are pockets that are doing better than others.

When considering this landlord’s buy to let portfolio, the rental values have been increasing over the last 12 months continuing the trend of the last few years.

So with rising property prices and rents, it could be a good time to invest in the property market in Falkirk.

We hope you find our posts useful.  If you would like some advice with your potential investment, please call us (on 01324 628332), come and see us in our offices (29 Upper New Market Street, Falkirk) or email either of us (robert@thekeyplace.co.uk; linda@thekeyplace.co.uk).

Falkirk Maisonette Buy to Let Deal

Looking for an investment property to let out in Falkirk? Well this one is certainly one to consider…

It’s a spacious, well maintained two bedroom maisonette.  It’s in a quiet street in Bantaskine near both Bantaskine Primary School and Falkirk High School.  The photographs show it to be in good condition.

Double click here to see more details of this property

It has just come to market with Your Move with an asking price of offers over £59,995.  The property has been on the market since February 2015 and the price was dropped in early November 2015.  Given this, I would have thought that you could get the property for around £62,000.  I would expect this property to achieve rent of in the region of £450pcm, so when we work out the annual yield you could be looking at a gross return of 8.7%.

This is a pretty good return for an investment property of this type in Falkirk so I suggest that if you are interested, you better give the estate agent a call… 

We hope you find our posts useful.  If you would like some advice with your potential investment, please come and see us in our offices (29 Upper New Market Street, Falkirk), call us (01324 628332) or email either of us (robert@thekeyplace.co.uk; linda@thekeyplace.co.uk).

New Year flat investment opportunity in Falkirk with 11% yield

Today’s buy to let opportunity is a 1 bed flat on St Crispins Place which is right in the heart of Falkirk.

There is plenty of accommodation including a decent sized lounge with a modern fitted kitchen off it, a good size double bedrooms, a well presented shower room and on street parking.  The property also has central heating although it has single glazed sash and case windows. 

A couple of points to note.  The decor in the property is generally in reasonable condition although there are some bold colours that you may want to tone down to make the property more appealing to a wider range of potential tenants!  Also, by the looks of it, there is a leaking gutter at the front of the property which is causing water damage to the stone work below it.  This is likely to be a communal repair.

Double click here to see more details of this property

Doing the maths. The property is on at a fixed price of £36,000.  Rent of £325 pcm should be achievable on a property like this which gets you to a 10.8 % yield.

We hope you find our posts useful.  If you would like some advice with your potential investment, please come and see us in our offices (29 New Market Street, Falkirk), call us (01324 628332) or email either of us (robert@thekeyplace.co.uk; linda@thekeyplace.co.uk).

Falkirk Property - Do you know the Facts and Figures?

Here at The Key Place, we can guide you to the right places to identify property values and yields in Falkirk and, as well as that, we can provide you with other useful property related information so you can make sure you know all you need to know before making your future investments.

I was reminded of this the other day when I was chatting to a landlord of mine and he said that I was a font of useful information about the Falkirk property market ..... at least I think he said useful! 

This got me thinking that others may be interested in some ‘useful’ property facts about our town of Falkirk ....

There are 1197 streets Falkirk with 16,819 households, and just over a quarter those houses (4,512 to be precise) have changed hands in the last 10 years.

Compared to the national average, Falkirk has 45% less detached houses, 7% less semi detached houses, 20% less terraced houses and 24% more flats. This ties in with Falkirk having significantly more single person property occupancy compared to the national average (39% vs 35%) and correspondingly more 2 person + households.

Falkirk has less owned properties than the national average (57% vs 62%) and less Council/social renting than nationally (31% vs 25%).  Overall this means that only 12% of properties in Falkirk are privately rented which is slightly lower than the national average of 13%. Given that there is a shift towards people renting rather than buying their own home, this means that there is slightly more to ‘go after’ in Falkirk.

We also have information at our fingertips on seemingly daft things which can turn out to be quite important.  For example, 80% of properties in Falkirk have gas central heating which is much higher than the national average of 74%.  This is really useful to know when refurbishing a flat and considering whether you can ‘get away’ with electrical heating ..... it is less likely that you can in Falkirk

I could go on but I better not!

If you would like more useful facts and figures pop in to see us at our offices (29 Upper New Market Street, Falkirk), call us (01324 628332) or email either of us (robert@thekeyplace.co.uk; linda@thekeyplace.co.uk).