A Beginner’s Guide to Property Investing

Recent figures released by the government revealed that there are an estimated 750,000 empty homes in the UK, many in dire need of development before they can be lived in. This vast amount of empty homes represents a great opportunity for an intelligent and disciplined property investor, even in the current difficult climate.

If you’re considering getting involved in property development, here’s a quick list of five things you’ll need to look into:

Financing

Getting the right financing behind you is absolutely vital to successful property investing. Unless you’re fortunate enough to be able to buy your first property outright, you’ll need a bank backing you up. A good tip is to check out a calculator for mortgage deals to help you get started, and to talk directly to a bank like Santander with a good record for providing domestic finance.

Craftsmen

After the money, the most important thing to know is who’s going to do your work for you. Good, reliable craftsmen are vital, so it helps to have them lined up before you start a project (and maybe even get them to come along and look at any prospective properties with you).

Knowing Your Figures

There’s no point embarking on a development project unless you know what’s going to happen at the far end. So even if you think you’ve got a great bargain when you first buy the house, there needs to be potential sell on value, or rental value, once all the work is finished. Buy-to-let mortgages generally operate with a target of 6% yield, so you should be looking for upwards from 8.

Planning and Regulations

Building regulations can be complicated and add a lot of extra cost onto a building project. Similarly, planning permission is vital, so before you even think about embarking on a project, get down to the local planning office and find out what the planning regulations are like in a certain area and, if you want to do external work, how easy it will be to get approval.

Extra Help

There are lots of schemes around at the moment to help home-owners be more energy efficient or to generate their own money. These vary from completely free, to partial financial support, so they’re worth looking into, after all, even though the cost of such additions can be quite low, they can make a big difference to the value or marketability of a house. Check out the Energy Saving Trust for extra ideas.

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