Do properties on Rochester Road, Gravesend make good investments?

We've been chatting to a lot of investors over the last week about houses in the local area. Most of them had originally called us about our house for sale on Rochester Road – one that very swiftly went under offer. So we had a little think about how popular the road is for owner occupiers, landlords and tenants.
Rochester road, if you look a little closer, is actually a fairly great investment – whether you’ll be living there yourself, or renting it out to a lovely tenant. It’s close to the town (and the train station), on the same road as a Primary School, a Secondary school and the College and nearby to the A2 (along Old Road East, up Valley Drive and there you are). It also has ample on street parking if you’re not lucky enough to have a garage (providing you don’t want to find a space in school rush hours).

Our house on the road comes under the ‘owner occupier’ bracket, but there is seems to be a healthy mix of owned and rented. For instance, in the last six months, four properties have been rented, at an average of £722.50. Four houses have sold in the same time frame, for an average of £202,498.00. House prices in Rochester Road have increased 23.4% in the last 10 years – a steady return on any investment.

The majority of houses along Rochester Road are terraced three/four bedrooms, rented as they are to families, or split into rooms and let individually (of course, you’re looking at much higher yields for HMOs, but much more stringent legislation – something we know a fair bit about, if you have any questions). Judging on the examples used above, it takes an average of 31 days to rent our your property on Rochester Road.

So, you’d purchase (let’s say) a three bedroom house on Rochester Road for the average price of £202,498.00, and rent for the average price of £722.50, you’re looking at a yield of just 3.5%. But if you look at a specific property currently available for sale (£199,995.00), and take into account that specifically houses have rented on Rochester Road for an average of £870.00, you looking at a much healthier yield of 4.4%. So it’s always best to get your agents opinion on the rental value while you’re having a look round, rather than relying on the law of averages.

All in all, where you live/purchase to rent comes down to personal choice. Everyone has different priorities and reasons for their purchases.  We keep on top of the whole of the market and if you want to pick our brains on what would make the best buy to let investment/new home for you, email us here, visit our brand new website, call us (you must know the number by now, but if now - 01474 833050) or pop in and see us for a cuppa. 

P.S. Our next blog post will be on 20th June.