One of the questions I get asked a lot is where should I invest?
Where should I go and buy properties to make the most money for me or the best returns for me?
Well, that’s a great question.
Depending on the distance and the time we have available to you or where your finances are, things can change a lot .
When you look at reports that are produced such as the house price index report from Halifax and from Nationwide, they will show you places where you’ve got increases in property values, such as a percentage increase over the year, over the month or over the quarter.
They may even show you the areas that are dropping in house price and purchase price.
So right now if you looked at one of those reports, you would see that perhaps the North East might be one of the best places to go and invest (all of this is an example not advice).
So you might then start focusing in on purchasing properties in those areas or you might see later on in the year that Wales is possibly a better place.
You may see at some point that South East is a better place to go.
It changes and it changes regularly. You will need to monitor the reports regularly.
One of the areas I looked at investing in many years ago was a place called Margate.
Back then there were a lot of properties that were selling very cheap due to a badly organised government initiative for asylum seekers that went horribly wrong. As a result there were a lot of empty properties that people had bought to meet the government demand and promises of guaranteed rents. To cut a long story short it went wrong and people needed to sell quickly or had been repossessed by the banks who were selling them to recover the money. It was a perfect opportunity for me.
The prices where very low and with a very minimum of work they would be good to rent to the general public. I decided not to invest in the area even though I was looking at 50-60% ROI minimum.
Why? – I hear you ask! Well it took me over 7 hours to travel to the area. I just couldn’t commit to doing that every week for the next year or 2.
So what you’ve got to do is:
Do your research,
Do your due diligence,
Make sure that the area that you’re investing in is going to be a great area for you over the next 12 months, maybe even 24 months while you’re building your portfolio.
This allows you to get the right prices at the right time and they work well for you.
So the answer to the question “Where should I invest?”
Any area is a good area if it suits your strategy.
One of the best places you can go and find out the information for your strategy or what is the best fit for your strategy and circumstances you are looking at is those house price index, and research area reports.