Property Investment: Student Property Investment Explained

Property investors are becoming increasingly interested in student property investment, with many investors rushing to buy up the property when it comes on the market. But why is it such a good property investment? Here’s seven reasons to get you thinking.

- The primary reason for buying an investment property to rent out was to generate an income. With student houses, this is easily achievable as the tenants pay a deposit and do not expect a rent-free period or other incentive like many commercial tenants.

-It has been found that the increase in tuition fees won’t affect the numbers of students going to University, but what it will do is force the students to be more savvy about where they choose to stay. University owned accommodation charge upwards of ?100 per week for a room, so if you offer rents that are cheaper than this, you will see a high rental demand.

- There is a shortage of student property accommodation. Universities only provide enough rooms for first year undergraduates but over the past couple of years, even first years have been left without a room. This September, students at Edge Hill University in Lancashire were offered accommodation in holiday camp Pontin’s, after the campus halls filled up. Aberystwyth University has even asked international students to defer a year and officials have been trying to persuade others to live in rooms with bunk beds.

- Rental yields for student housing which are HMOs are often higher for student housing than for a standard buy-to-let property investments.

- Student numbers are on the rise. The UK’s Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) said there were about 700,000 university applications in 2010, a rise of 34 per cent over the previous five years providing the basis for rising demand for property in many student cities. The number of overseas students in the UK is also rising each year and in the future could make up a large percentage of the market.

- It’s often possible to let a student property several months in advance for a whole year, minimising voids.

- Investment in a private hall means that on site management teams will handle all maintenance and management issues leaving the landlord to just pick up the management charges and ground rent.

For more information on property investment visit the FreshStart Living website: http://www.freshstartliving.com/

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