Landlords getting high return from University towns

Posted under Advice by Michael

The latest University Town House Price Review by Halifax, revealed that landlords letting their properties in university towns were enjoying high returns, while others are helplessly suffering from unprecedented downslide of the property market.

The Halifax survey, which tracked movements of the house prices in university towns across the UK, pointed out that buy-to-let landlords and parents who bought properties in university towns for their student children have been benefitting handsomely from returns on investment in the last 5 years.

The study highlighted that in 35 out of 64 towns covered under the survey, the house prices were higher by £20,335 on average than those prevailing in the surrounding areas. Winchester attracted highest premium of £114,489, nearly 50% above the average price for Hampshire.

The other university towns attracting premium above £20,000 included Bath (43%), Warwick (46%), Cambridge (44%), Oxford (14%), Stirling (13%) and Newcastle (16%).

According to Halifax, students paid £96 as the average weekly rent for private accommodation. Region wise costs varied from £116 in Greater London to £64 in Northern Ireland. Manchester, with the largest student population, witnessed 63% increase in the house prices in past 5 years as compared to national average of 44%.

Guildford is reported to be the costliest university town in the UK where average house cost stood at £363,503; followed by Winchester at £343,332 and Bath at £326,403. Hull is the only university town with lowest average cost at £124,108.