Here at Umega Lettings we help landlords source, refurbish, let and manage their investment properties throughout Edinburgh and the Lothians. It’s important we understand our clients’ long-term goals relating to their assets so we can help them achieve these goals. Here’s an example of how we worked with one of our landlords to help her achieve her investment goals.
We contacted Katy, one of our long-standing landlords to carry out a ‘health check’ of her Stockbridge flat and to understand what she wanted to achieve long-term to see if there was anything we could do to help.
Katy’s Property
- Property – Lovely 2 bedroom flat in Stockbridge
- Property value – £270,000
- Equity – £190,000
- Monthly rent – £1,050pcm
- Gross yield – 7% (monthly rental return before costs)
- Return on investment – 7% (including rental yield and capital growth. Essentially, the return Katy gets on the £190,000 equity she has invested in the property)
We understood that Katy wanted to maximise her assets over the next 20 years without exposing herself to an unnecessarily high level of risk. Very quickly it clicked with Katy that her money could be working much harder for her and she could get a far higher return on her investment if she spread the equity between several properties which could ‘work’ for her (ie instead of one property benefitting from capital growth and monthly rental income, Katy could leverage her equity, split it between 2-3 properties and have 2-3 properties benefitting from capital growth and monthly rental income for the same £190K invested. It was a no-brainer for her!
Here’s what we did
We worked with a local mortgage advisor who helped Katy arrange a new low-interest mortgage on her Stockbridge property and to get an ‘Agreement in principal’ for 2 further mortgages of £115,000 each. We then set off to source 2 properties for Katy. We worked closely with a local solicitor and within 2 weeks of our search starting we had an offer accepted on a cracking 1 bedroom property on Watson Crescent in Polwarth in ‘move in’ condition for £116,000 and then 1 week later we managed to secure a property ‘off market’ in Dalry for £109,000. This property needed a bit of a face lift so we took care of a £6,000 refurbishment of the property renewing the kitchen, upgrading the shower and decorating throughout. We added all 3 properties to our block insurance policy and tenants were secured within a matter of days. Result!
Here’s how her investments look now
- Properties
- Stockbridge – 2 bedroom flat (£270,000, 4.7% gross yield)
- Polwarth – 1 bedroom flat (£116,000, 6.7% gross yield)
- Dalry – 1 bedroom flat (£109,000 + £6,000 refurbishment, 6.5% gross yield)
- Portfolio value – £501,000 (includes the £6k for the refurbishment)
- Initial equity – £196,000 (includes the £6k for the refurbishment)
- Return on Investment after 1 year – just under 20%
- Return on Investment after 5 years – about 105%
- Return on Investment after 20 years – 8% (about £1.2m on top of her initial equity!)
The figures/model above are based on interest only mortgages, an annual capital growth of 4% and monthly costs of 20% of the rental income. Based on this, Katy’s equity will grow from £196k (her initial £190k plus the £6k used for the refurbishment) to just under £1.4m in 20 years (the light purple area) instead of £873k if she had left things as they were (the dark purple area). As you’d expect, Katy is ecstatic and we’re delighted to be working with a fantastic landlord who saw the potential to expand her portfolio and let us show her what we could do!
Umega Lettings offers an Investment Sourcing service where we will source a property for you at a cost of 1%+VAT of the purchase price. We have access to off-market properties and are extremely responsive to new properties on the open market. We use our 12 years of experience to offer a ‘joined up’ service so that you simply give us the go-ahead and we’ll do the rest. We have a network of solicitors, mortgage advisors, insurance brokers, furniture suppliers and tradesmen we use to ensure a smooth property purchase before passing on to our lettings department to secure a good quality tenant. For more information on this service, to discuss your investment needs or for us to carry out a ‘Property Health check’ to see if there is room to leverage your equity just contact me at [email protected] and I’d be happy to help.
To be included in Umega’s ‘Investment Club’ and to be informed of quality investments we find while we carry out our searches, just email [email protected], titling your email ‘Umega Investment Club’ and we’ll keep you posted of any great opportunities we come across.