Where's the Most Expensive Street in Morley

Location, Location, Location

When buying a property either to live in or as an investment, the location is one of the most important things to consider and is something I often get asked about.  As a nation, we’re obsessed with the prices of property, particularly on our own street!  So I thought I’d have a look at some different locations in Morley and see where the most expensive street in Morley to buy is, where properties change hands a lot and the least expensive place to buy.

Most Expensive Street in Morley

If you are familiar with Morley then you may not be surprised to know that average house prices are highest in the Dartmouth Park area, in particular St Andrews Avenue.  Here the average house price is £471,995 with the highest recorded purchase at £600,000 and that property now estimated to be worth around £739,000.  These properties also don’t come up for sale very often, with on average only 1 sale every two years.  So if this is an area you’d like to live in you’d better act quickly when a property comes up for sale!

The second most expensive street is Bradstock Gardens, a small development of 7 detached properties off Rooms Lane with an average value of £345,057 and the most expensive properties estimated value at £586,500.  In third place is Rooms Way, another small development of 4 and 5 bed detached houses, also off Rooms Lane, with an average estimated value of £339,550.

Street with Highest Turnover of Property

Now remember when I said that houses don’t change hands very often on St Andrews Avenue?  Well move slightly to the East to Fountain Street and it’s a very different story!  Ok, there are 291 properties on the street compared to 21 on St Andrews Avenue so you would naturally expect more house sales, but would you believe there has been a whopping 413 recorded transactions since 1995 – that’s around one every three weeks for just over 20 years!  The average estimated house value on Fountain street is £97,924 which makes it a popular location for first time buyers and investors and its close proximity to good schools, transport and lots of amenities plus a short walk to Dartmouth park mean that it’s a popular place to live.

In 2^nd place is New Bank Street which has an average estimated value of £105,988 and around half the number of properties to Fountain Street and half the number of transactions too, so that’s a sale a month on average.  In 3^rd place is Springfield Road, which has a much higher average value of £175,613 due to a real mix of properties from period terrace houses to modern detached houses on the site of the old Springfield Mill with estimated values from £102,000 to £350,000 and again an average of one property sold a month.

Least Expensive Street in Morley

So where can you grab a bargain?  Well the least expensive address is Alden Court which is mostly one bedroom flats with an estimated average value of £63,467.  This is closely followed by Denton Terrace which consists of 1 and 2 bed back to back terrace houses where the average estimated value is £63,821.  Although this is skewed a little by the purchase of a block of 10 of these together at auction in 2014 which sold for £426,000 bringing down the average price on the street.

In third place is Brunswick Terrace with an average estimated value of £78,600 for a 1 bedroom terrace house.

If you are considering investing in a property in the Morley area and would like to discuss the street you’re considering then feel free to give me a call on 0113 436 4360, I’m always happy to talk about Morley property.

Morley’s Own Homes Under the Hammer

Spotting a Bargain

I love spotting a bargain and this week as I was researching some property prices for a new customer, I came across a real Homes Under the Hammer story that happened recently in Morley.

I'm sure if like me you love property you probably love Homes Under the Hammer, it’s a definite favourite of mine.  It’s great watching the properties bought and then being transformed, but of course what we all really want to know is how much they spent doing it and how much profit has been made!

Churwell Hill Property

Imagine my surprise when I came across the details for 80 Elland Road in Churwell and realised it would have been more than worthy of its own slot on my favourite show.  The property is a 3 bedroom detached property situated on Churwell Hill and if you live in or around Morley, like me, you've probably passed it hundreds of times.

The property was put up for auction in March 2015 at a guide price of £125,000 and sold for £126,000 in April 2015.  From the photos on the listing it looked a little dated in areas such as the bathroom but overall in fairly reasonable condition with a neutral décor.

A Cheeky Little Profit

I then noticed the property had sold again just a few months later in November 2015 for a considerably larger figure of £151,000.  I was intrigued to see what work had been done to achieve a £25,000 increase in only a few months and here’s where I was really in awe – as I started to compare the two listings I could see that in actual fact nothing at all had changed!  See for yourself in the pictures below.  In fact, after purchasing the property in April 2015 for £126,000 the purchasers then put the property up for sale the month after in May 2015 for £159,950 and sold for £151,000 completing the sale in November.  Now that is someone with an eye for a bargain!

It just goes to show that with the right market knowledge and an eye for a good deal, property investment can be very rewarding.  If you have a potential property bargain that you are considering but would like an impartial viewpoint, please feel free to call me for a chat on 0113 436 4360, I'm always happy to talk property.

How Property Investment in Morley Stacks Up

I was at a property investors event at Weetwood Hall earlier this week and chatting to an investor who has recently moved to the area from London.  He is keen to invest up here but wondering where the best place to do so is and in what type of property, hot topics in property investment circles are HMO’s and serviced accommodation, but finding the right type of property for this in the right location can be tricky in order to ensure a good return on investment.  So we came back to the traditional single let route and discussed the merits of this.

If you can find a property at a good price to give you a reasonable yield that will withstand future interest rate hikes, and also ensure that it is in an area where it’s value will increase at least as well as the area average then single lets are still a good investment.  More importantly, you need to ensure will rent easily to tenants who will let long term so minimising voids – and if you can find all that in a single let then you could be onto a winner!

Property Investment in Morley V’s Batley & Birstall

 So I thought I would look in more detail at the rental market and property investment in Morley currently and see how it compares to neighbouring Batley & Birstall.

There are currently 102 properties available to let in the Morley area, 84 of these are new to the market in the last month and 42 have had a let agreed in the last month.  That means that turnover of properties is good with over 40% of rental property that has been let in the last month (compared to just 8% of stock in neighbouring Birstall & Batley).

In fact, the average time it takes to let a typical 2 bed property in Morley is 33 days which is half the time it takes in Batley & Birstall where it takes on average 65 days.  Therefore, you can expect to rent a property quicker in Morley and thus have fewer void periods, maximising your return.

Average Rental Values and Yield

 The average rental value in Morley is £536 PCM (£431 PCM in Batley & Birstall) and therefore you might assume that property prices in Morley must be much higher too.  They are higher but the difference isn't as much as you might think.  The average price of a 2 bed property in Batley & Birstall is £98,000 and in Morley is just a little higher at £110,000.  So based on the averge rental values that would mean an average yield of 5.27% in Batley & Birstall or 5.84% in Morley and it’s actually a 10% return on the extra £105 PCM rental income for the additional £12k purchase price.

Property prices have increased on average by 6% over the last 10 years in Morley compared to a 6% decrease in Batley and Birstall so it’s fair to anticipate that the long term capital gain is likely to be more in Morley as well as returning a better yield on your investment in the short term.  Overall, if you are in the market for a 2 bed buy to let then the figures would suggest that on average property investment in Morley will give you a better return.

So it’s easy to see that even in neighbouring areas, the potential return on investment can differ greatly and that’s why it’s important to do your research and look carefully at the figures before deciding where to buy a buy to let property.  

If you are thinking of investing and would like to discuss your proposed purchase and potential return before you go ahead, feel free to call me to discuss it on 0113 436 4360.

Morley – still a great place to invest in property!

Don’t Believe Everything You Read in the Papers

At an event in Leeds this week I was chatting to a couple of landlords and we were discussing the future of buy to let and the rental market in general.  One of our group was pretty doom and gloom about the future given recent changes in stamp duty and planned changes to tax allowances and considering selling his portfolio and heading for the hills, when asked why he felt this way it turned out it was because it was what he had read in the media.  We had to remind him that with all his experience and the network of experts he had built around him, he had far more authority on his local market and how it would perform in the future than a journalist in fleet street who only knows that bad news sell papers and so does his best to dig the dirt!

In actual fact the growth of the private rental market and the ever increasing number of investor class buy to let landlords within it is here to stay, and that’s not just my opinion, it’s fact!

Private Sector Renting will increase to 35%

Buy to let landlords will continue fuelling the growth of the private rented sector in the coming decades according to Sheffield University. They are considered a Centre of Excellence on the topic and estimate that the rate of home ownership nationally will fall to 50% (today it is 67.5% in Morley) by 2032, while the rate of private sector renting will increase to 35% (interestingly, in Morley it stands at 18.1% today).

In Morley an increase to 35% in the demand for private rented accommodation would mean an additional 2,720 households in the next 5 years!

  

Generation Rent

Nationally the number of council houses in the UK has dropped by 31.1% from 3.16m to 2.18m households.  At the same time property prices in Morley over the past few years have risen far more than wages and salaries, pushing home ownership further out of reach for many struggling to save for the deposits required these days or not meeting new affordability criteria for mortgage lending.

"Generation rent" will find it increasingly difficult to buy and are likely to be older than previous generations before they can afford their own home, almost 60% of 20 to 39 year olds in England will rent their homes by 2025, while just 26% will have got on the housing ladder, research shows.

Changes in stamp duty and tax allowances for landlords don’t mean that investing in property is no longer viable, it just means you have to invest wisely in the right properties that will still enable a good yield and return on investment as it is no longer a certainty that any investment in property will be a good one.

If you are considering investing in a property in the Morley area and would like to discuss the merits of your investment further, give me a call on 0113 436 4360.

Monopoly in Morley........How would you play?

A couple of local landlords and I had a discussion about the property market in Morley, when the subject of risk against returns arose.

All landlords are different in the way they play the property game. Some landlords prefer to accept a modest yield/return on their investment for an increased certainty of finding a quality tenant. Other landlords are interested in high returns, with a greater risk with regards to the quality of the tenant. Before you start playing, it is a good idea to have a game plan.

For a low risk investment, you could buy property in the areas of Morley which are perceived as being more desirable, such as East Park Street and Pawson Street, where you should be able to achieve an annual yield of around 4-6%. If you don’t mind a slightly higher risk of void periods or a more varied quality of tenant, you are likely to be rewarded with a higher annual yield of 6-7%. 

This level of risk can be typically taken with semi-detached houses around Morley in areas like Corporation Street. If you are after annual yields of 8% and over, you could take more of a risk with properties in areas like Peel Street and Middleton Road which may attract tenants of a lower quality but can generally be bought at a lower cost and with rents remaining stable in our area they can offer these yields.

Investing in property is a balancing act, with several factors to consider, and just like the board game a strategy is an important part of the process.

If you would like any advice on choosing properties, call me on 0113 436 4360 for a chat.