How can anyone afford anything?

(Belvoir Advertorial – Enfield Independent Newspaper 03/11/2015)

 

This is a question I’m asked regularly by buyers, investors and renters, and there’s no getting away from it – property in London is expensive!

In September the average property price in Enfield was £353,451. That actually made us the 7th cheapest borough in London, and only around £60,000 more expensive than Barking & Dagenham – the cheapest. But that’s not much consolation to anyone trying to find 5% for a deposit.

Prices are also increasing. Year on year growth in Enfield to September 2015 was 12.2%, the third highest rate for a London Borough. So for now it’s definitely worth holding onto your property if you can, and if you need to move for work etc, thinking about the possibility of renting it out. For existing landlords more good news in that rents in London have gone up by 4.1% in the year as well. Improvements to both yield and capital growth!

That doesn’t help renters of course particularly those trying to get on the ladder. A one bedroom flat locally can cost anything from £800 to £1,500pcm plus bills, that’s quite a chunk of anyone’s salary making it very difficult to save for a deposit.

For this reason more and more people are looking to share with others, either as a group of friends or by taking a room in a shared house. Rooms in the borough currently range from around £400 – £650pcm and generally include bills. Reducing your rent by around 50% could make all the difference to the speed at which you put your deposit together.

At Belvoir Lettings Enfield  we don’t sell property, we simply use our experience to advise people as to what might make a good buy to let property investment in the Enfield, Haringey and Barnet areas, and how to successfully let their property.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net