Most landlords and investors plan to buy more in 2019 with London set to be top location
London, Manchester and Liverpool are the most popular cities for buy to let investment in the UK going into 2019 and most landlords are planning to increase their portfolio, new research has found.
London is the top city for buy to let with a survey of buy to let landlords and property investors showing that 35% are considering the capital, while 33% will look to Manchester and 25% to Liverpool.
They survey commissioned by Experience Invest also found that 15% would look to Nottingham 13% to Leeds, 12% to Birmingham and Newcastle, 11% to Luton and 8% to Brighton, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Sheffield.
On a regional basis Greater London is the most popular, cited by 37%, while 30% said the North West, 23% the Midlands, 22% the South East, 21% Yorkshire, 18% the North East, 17% the South West, 8% Scotland, 5% Wales and 4% East Anglia.
When looking at the types of property that investors were considering investing in this year, houses were top at 67%, followed by flats at 54%, new build residential for 39% and 24% student accommodation.
Overall, just 11% of those surveyed said that they plan to reduce their portfolios in 2019. Some 39% are planning on increasing the size of their portfolio over the coming 12 months, while 35% have no intention of buying or selling any property in 2019 and 15% will be selling some assets to then reinvest in new properties.
‘In light of tighter tax regulations on landlords and on-going Brexit uncertainty, there have been some doom and gloom predictions about the future of the UK property market,’ said Jerald Solis, Business Development and Acquisitions Director at Experience Invest,.
‘But the research shows that, as an investment asset, real estate is still hugely popular, with a significant number of property investors looking to grow their portfolio further in 2019,’ he pointed out.
‘It’s interesting to see that, while London remains the most popular location for property investment, other regions across the UK are very close behind. In particular, the North West has established itself as something of a hotspot for buy to let investors, with cities like Liverpool and Manchester providing strong rental yields and healthy capital growth,’ he added.