Offshore Buyers and Expat UK Property Investing
For all of those who were buying in the dark days of 2009 and 2010, we are in a new world of UK property investing. News Reports for Manchester are now even talking about panic buying and price rises faster than London. What is so surprising is that we have had enquirers from interested armchair offshore investors and expats. We have had conversations with people from Hong Kong, Ukraine as well as the Middle East. Actually today I have 2 calls scheduled today with potential investors in our social housing HMOs.
We have even ended up selling some of the properties to investors from Saudi Arabia. How these people are even finding us is surprising. Yes, we have a unique niche of Social housing with 5 year guaranteed leases with no voids or management….but still, it is a big world out there.
More so, why all the interest all of the sudden when only a couple of short years ago one could not give away Manchester properties? My only thought is the low interest rates ( or better said) non existent interest rates. People are afraid of the stock market and feel that property can only go up. I would disagree and strongly believe that UK property prices can have volatility. There are many property investors on interest only mortgages. If interest rates spike as they did in 1994 ( starting to feel old)…these risk takers will probably give their properties back to the bank. This will make more opportunities for prudent investors. The offshore investors after they clear AML have been non mortgage investors. This is good for us as it speeds up conveyance….
How do you think 2016 will be for the UK property market?
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