With the continued development of Jennetts Park in Bracknell and Montague Park in Wokingham it won’t be long before the urban areas of these two towns are almost connected, so I thought it might be a good idea to compare the property market of the two against each other.
Last year most property sales in Bracknell involved terraced properties which sold for on average £264,378. Detached properties sold for an average price of £491,823, while flats fetched £185,301.
Wokingham on the other hand had most sales from detached properties which sold for an average £531,019. Terraced properties sold for an average price of £305,015, while semi-detached properties fetched £364,458.
Bracknell, with an overall average price of £313,148 was cheaper than Wokingham’s average price of £398,718 giving Wokingham an average premium of over 21%.
During the last year, sold prices in Bracknell were 15% up on the previous year and 23% up on 2012 when the average house price was £254,195. In Wokingham, sold prices were up 10% and 17% on the same years when the average house price was £340,795. This shows a healthy rebound from the recession following the banking crisis for both towns.
I find these figures interesting but is the 21% premium in purchase price reflected in rental prices?? As investors we like know how hard our money is working and where we can get the best returns. So are Wokingham rents 21% higher than Bracknell?
If we take a 2 Bed terraced house as an example. In Wokingham the typical rent would be about £1100 pcm but a similar property in Bracknell would rent for around £1000 pcm, giving Wokingham a rental premium of only 10%, much lower than the 21% premium for buying the property. The difference between the purchase and rental premiums that Wokingham has will reflect hugely in the yield that us investors receive. With both towns enjoying strong house price growth and buoyant rental demand I believe that both towns offer excellent opportunities for the Buy to Let investor.
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