I was perusing the property section of the Telegraph today and I came across this little piece from their “property sleuth” on his pick of good student investments: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/propertypicturegalleries/9393045/Ten-of-the-best-buy-to-let-investment-properties-for-children-going-to-university.html#?frame=2274157 . Picture no. 10 is of a property in Exeter, on the market for £410,000 with Knight Frank. A short amount of searching brings this up on any decent property portal and shows its location as Friars Walk, in the very elegant and sought-after location of St Leonards. So far all well and good…
Apart from the fact that this is an ill-informed suggestion! I’d be very intrigued as to who told the folks at the Telegraph that this was a good student investment. They’re encouraging parents who might not know better to spend £150,000 more than they need to (plus any cost of changing the property around) to buy a house in an area that, while a very pleasant one to live in, is miles away from where their children will want to live. It will make a comparatively poor return on investment and, if used as a student property, it will then make it very hard to sell on in future.
Having spent some time looking at the Exeter Student Let market and having been a student in Exeter myself, the places to look for student properties are St James, Newtown and Mount Pleasant. There are a whole range of ready-to-go student properties priced anywhere between £200,000 and £350,000 which are much better situated and need no work doing to the property. We have some on the market ourselves and there are many others out there as well.
So what do we learn from this? It’s always best to check with a trustworthy local agent before buying in an area you don’t know. Recommendations are always the best way to go so ask around and see who gets recommended all the time. Don’t just trust the national newspaper analysts, they’re unlikely to know the ins and outs of any local market.
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