Student house rentals fot investment

student house rentals fot investment

HOW TO BUY
First, choose a university town. Next, locate the university on the
map. Now check both prices and rents in the surrounding area,
taking care to calculate the rent on a room-by-room basis. At this
stage a simple search on the sales and rentals section of a website
like www.fish4homes.co.uk will give you all the information you
need. If average prices are not too high and rents (per room,
remember) not too low, then you might decide the potential yield
is sufficient for your purpose. If it doesn’t work, move to another
town.
Next, contact the accommodation department of the university
itself. You will find them very helpful. Tell them you are planning
to buy and ask for advice. You need to know the following:
- Is there currently enough private accommodation for students,
and does the university itself have plans for expanding its own
provision?
- What is the average rent per student, per room?
- What streets or areas do students prefer and what areas should
be avoided?
- What time of the year do students start looking for
accommodation and when are house lists handed out to them?
- Does the accommodation department have its own website for
students?
- What does the university require of landlords before adding
their property to the house lists and websites (e.g. sight of gas
safety certificates, etc.)?
If your research and calculations point to a viable student letting
scenario there are still a few more considerations to make before
looking for a suitable property.

WHEN TO BUY
Most students start looking for property in March for the autumn
term and most will have sorted themselves out by May or June.
There is no point, therefore, in completing your purchase in, say,
July or August. Although you are on time for the September
intake of students, most of these will have their accommodation
arranged already. You will be relying on stragglers to fill your
rooms. Ideally, therefore, complete your purchase by March.
WHAT TOBUY
Buy cheap terraced houses as close as possible to the university.
The important criteria are cost, number of rooms and location.
Always take the university’s advice on location and don’t choose a
house because you would like to live there yourself! If you do, it is
almost certainly the wrong choice.
OVER THE PASSAGE
In some towns and cities cheap terraced houses have a further
advantage. Although nominally, for example, three bedroom, their
layout can convert them to four. These properties are over-thepassage
terraced houses. A passage by the side of the house allows
access to the back of the house without going through the front
door. The front door, in such houses, leads directly to the front
room. This becomes a perfectly usable additional bedroom. A
four-bedroom house for the price of a three!
Sometimes one passage serves four or five houses, allowing access
to all their back doors. While the house you are interested in,
therefore, may not itself have a side passage, it may benefit from a
passage further along the terrace. Such information will not
appear on a typical website or typical agent’s handout. You will
have to ask.