Melton Mowbray Buy to Let sees returns of 6.14% in 2015

Well, as a New Year begins I remembered that a few days before Christmas, I got chatting with one of my out of town landlords who was back in Melton Mowbray visiting his family. Brought up in Melton Mowbray, he went to Ratcliffe College back in the 1970’s and is now a University Lecturer in central London.  To enhance his retirement, he has a small portfolio of four properties in the town and wanted my advice on where to buy the next property in Melton Mowbray (as he lives in a college owned flat and anyway, would never dream of buying where he lives in Kensington  - where the average value of a flat is £1.62m and a town house £4.1m.  Eye-watering to say the least!!).

Before I could advise him, I reminded him that the most important thing when considering investing in property is finding a Melton Mowbray property with decent rental yields for income returns, yet at the same time, it must have the potential for capital growth from rising house prices over time. Going into 2016, Melton Mowbray landlords will be under more pressure to find the best permutation of yields and capital growth, as extra stamp duty charges for buying properties and a squeeze on mortgage interest relief will raise their costs.

Before we look at yield and capital growth, one important consideration that often many landlords tend to overlook, is the propensity of how likely the rent will increase. 

Interestingly, the average rent of a Melton Mowbray property currently stands at £570 per month, which is a rise of 6.2% compared to twelve months ago (although it must be noted this rise in rents is for new tenancies and not existing tenants).

Back to yield and capital growth, the average value of a Melton Mowbray property currently stands at £232,400, meaning the average yield stands at 2.94% per annum, which on the face of it, many landlords would find disappointing.  That is the problem with averages, so if I were to look at say 2 bed flats in Melton Mowbray which are the sort of properties a lot of landlords buy, the average value is £119,500, whilst the average rent for a 2 bed flat is £592 per month, giving a yield of 5.94%.   

Ultimately investors want to be making gains from both rent and house price growth.   When combined, the rental yield and capital growth gives you the return on investment, and that is what I told our University friend from Kensington.   Return on investment is everything.   So, looking at property values in Melton Mowbray, they have risen in the last year by 0.2% …. which means the current annual return on investment in Melton Mowbray for a typical 2 bed flat is 6.14% a year .... not bad.