Our regular Bristol and UK property reports are written by economist Chris Worthington, who is a regular speaker at our PIMs.
This month the Bristol buy to let update will focus on the positives for buy to let investors – and like everyone in our city we welcome the arrival of the vaccine and look forward to better times ahead.
A recent article in The Times newspaper with the title “Brilliant Bristol” highlighted the strength of Bristol’s economy, the lifestyle that attracts people from London and the buoyant property market.
It featured updates on new housing developments including the Brabazon at the former airfield in North Bristol, “The General” a grade two listed former hospital that is being converted to luxury apartments and the plans to convert the former headquarters of Imperial Tobacco on East Street in Bedminster to flats.
The article also refers to the popularity of the streets around Gloucester Road with its independent shops and cafes showing the way to maintaining a thriving high street.
Demand
The strong demand for property in Bristol boosts house prices and rents providing good rates of return for local landlords.
For the last three years Bristol has been in the middle of the league table of 20 cities’ house price index published by property analyst company Hometrack in association with Zoopla. Bristol consistently scores a year on year increase in house prices that is above the average compared to other cities – with an annual increase of 2.9% last year.
Rents
The statistics on rents offer more good news for BTL investors.
The latest UK Rental Market Report, also published by Hometrack, found that the average rent per calender month (pcm) in Bristol is £1008, the highest of all cities in the UK apart from London where the average rent is £1596 pcm. The average rent in the UK excluding London is 744 pcm.
The year on year growth in rents also shows that BTL in Bristol is performing very well, with a 3.1% growth last year and 4.4% the year before that. The corresponding figures for the UK as a whole are – 0.5% and 2%.
The strong growth in house prices and rents in Bristol is driven by a high wage/high productivity economy that grows from strength to strength, with a “tech cluster” of companies paying well above the median UK wage. A software engineer in Bristol can expect an annual salary of £45k and landlords should expect to provide very high quality accommodation to attract good tenants.
Our Next Property Meeting
We will all be discussing the latest position on the property market in Bristol and across the UK in the light of Covid-19 at our next PIM.
We’ll be arranging this when we consider it is safe and practical to do so.
Meanwhile, stay safe.
Property Options Bristol
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