Published: 17/09/2018 By Patrick Henry
Property investment advice is always hard to give when you are not sure about the investor’s long-term goals. Most commonly people ask me about which location they should focus their attention on. My answer tends to follow roughly the same reasoning so I felt it would be best to write my opinion down and share it.
I always advise clients to look for areas where there are high levels of infrastructure investment; these can be nationalised projects such as HS2 or mostly private projects such as the redevelopment of Nine Elms, London. With massive levels of investment like those in the two examples I gave, you will see large–sometimes double-digit-annual capital growth in key locations. This method primarily relies on the small property investor riding on the coattails of the large-scale gentrification of an area. Local to me in Brixton, Croydon, Peckham, Nine Elms and Wandsworth Town we have seen huge jumps in both rental and sales prices mere months after infrastructure investment has been confirmed.
Key investments to look out for are increased transport link capacity, large-scale housing projects and shopping centres (Westfields in Sheppard’s Bush and Croydon are great examples). The change to a local area after these investments have been confirmed can be huge however it is fair to say that after an initial rush and speculative buying there is typically a slowdown or even downward turn in property prices as buyers begin to get priced out of the locations, and small and medium-sized property investors start to focus on new area.