Potential investment opportunity - EN3

Up for auction with Savilles on 28th July is this 2 bedroom terraced house in Ordnance Road, EN3. 

There’s a guide price of £210,000, which initially sounds amazing!! Where can you get a two bed house for under £250,000 nowadays?

Over the past couple of years nearby properties in great condition have been sold for a few thousand more (up to £225,000). So at £210,000 this really could be a bargain, however there could be a big difference between guide price and selling price!

As the photos show this property needs some work – complete redecoration, new bathroom and kitchen, repairs to the roof, new boiler and potentailly some electrical and plumbing work. There’s also a lot of mould present particularly in the bathroom and toilet where the ceilings are black, indeed the smell of damp hits you as you enter the property.

The stairs are shallow and very steep, and in my opinion would be worth moving to opposite the front door – another expense. The bathroom is downstairs and there’s no option for bringing it upstairs or for extending the 1st floor at all.

On the plus side though the house has double glazing which is generally in good condition, gas central heating and a good size garden. The two bedrooms are both doubles and the reception room has been knocked through to make a very decent size room.

Similar properties are currently rented out for around £1,150pcm which could provide a return of around 6% once the work has been done and if bought at the guide price. That’s not a bad return.

A sale at the guide price is unlikely though. I spoke to another viewer at the property and he was confident the house would go for around £270,000 which with even moderate works of £10,000 would lead to a gross yield of 4.9%, which would be a little disappointing.

I suspect the sale price will be around £250,000, include works and would provide a gross yield of 5.3%, which is not bad.

So at the right price, yield-wise, this property could give decent returns.

Now its worth remembering that any investment should make financial sense in the here and now but its worth bearing in mind that this property has special potential for capital growth if the proposed route of Crossrail 2 gets the go ahead. At just a short walk from Enfield Lock Station, the value of this property and others close to the station, will increase dramatically compared to those slightly further away.

It will be interesting to see what happens with this one later in the month.

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.