Wansbeck Close is unusual for Spennymoor and ideal for investors

I've decided to look in today's blog at this property in Wansbeck Close, Spennymoor as we don'r get many apartments for sale in the town and this represents a nice change-

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34979172.html

I've lived in certain parts of the country where there are as many flats or apartments as there are houses. In certain areas, there are many, many large houses converted into two or more flats as developers found they could generate more money this way and 1960's to 1990's planning departments did nothing to stand in their way. With land and space being more plentiful in the North East, this isn't a phenomenon that has ever cropped up, aside from the major cities.

This property is a 2 bedroom first-floor apartment and looks to have been designed and built as a flat rather than converted into one after being built. From the photographs and description, there doesn't look like there is an major renovation needed to get this into a position to let out again. The bathroom looks newly redecorated and does look to be in good condition, as far as can be told from the photographs. The walls look to have quite dated wallpaper on, but a lick of paint in these areas will help to improve the overall presentation and rental potential of this property. The only area that the photos highlights as a potential concern is the kitchen. Although it looks to be in a perfectly lettable condition, to enable the property to gain top rental value a new kitchen may have to be installed. But that decision is about maximising potential - I repeat that the property looks ready to let out with the kitchen in it's current condition.

The estate agent is the town's newest major estate agency - Harringtons - and they describe the property as extremely spacious. The estate agent is another that doesn't seem to grasp the basic estate agency concept of portal pricing and they offer the property at a strange combination of "offers over" and "£69,950." Portal pricing isn't just an excuse for me to have a moan - it's an important factor in marketing a property. Set, whole prices such as £70,000 (which, let's be clear is ONLY £50 more than the asking price here) means that anyone searching from £70,000 to £80,000 will find the property - whereas with the current price they just won't.

The property will attract attention from fellow investors, so you may have to move quite quickly with this one. I'd expect it to gain somewhere between £375 and £425 per month, with the top end of that estimate being more likely if the kitchen is renovated. This equates to something in between 6.4% and 7.3%, based on the asking price. It's a fair return on an investment but you may wish to try a negotiation on the price in order to get the return that you are looking for, especially with any renovation costs to be factored in.

Clyde Terrace available for rental purposes

A new property came on to the market yesterday, and it gives us a chance to look at the auction process again-

CLYDE TERRACE, SPENNYMOOR, Spennymoor District, DL16 7SG http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-36262626.html

It's a 3 bedroom terraced house on Clyde Terrace in Spennymoor. The price showing on Rightmove is Offers Over £44,950 plus a buyers premium. This property is offered via auction and the estate agent marketing it is Dowen.

The auction site is here- http://www.greatnorthpropertyauction.co.uk/

And it states that once the auction is finished, you are expected to exchange contracts within 28 days and pay a buyer's premium.

The property is described as "A spacious mid terrace property which has the benefit of THREE BEDROOMS along with TWO RECEPTION ROOMS, a first floor STUDY and a GARAGE" by the estate agent. The garage and an extra room upstairs (the study) are an advantage here as there are many terraced houses in the town without a garage.

The photographs show a property that looks structurally sound and perfectly lettable in it's current condition, although would benefit from some updating. The description doesn't suggest any works are need either but, as with all properties that you may consider to buy, you will need to visit it and have at least one viewing. This is to ensure that you can verify the condition, the location and the surroundings.

The estate agent states on the property details that they think the property would rent out for £500 per month but I think that's probably the top end if the estimate. I'd say that £450 to £500 is a realistic range, though. It's difficult to measure the income this will bring because of the fact that the property is available at auction. If we use a ronded figure of £50,00 to include the buyers premium then we are looking at a gross annual rental return of between 10.8% and 12%. These are very good returns on investment but remember that this property is available by auction and these figures can change.

Spennymoor housing market is starting to pick up again

There is a natural flow to the UK housing market, and the way that the Spennymoor housing market acts is very similar to the rest of the country. There is activity in January as people start to put their houses on the market for sale. The main reason for this is that people have spent more time at home. They either realise that their home doesn't quite do what they want it to do or that they don't want to share it with the person they currently share it with - solicitors also report a big increase in divorce enquiries in January.

The first real buying market of the year starts as the weather improves. Easter is traditionally the time that things start to pick up as people are more willing to view properties, the weather turns drier and warmer and the nights get lighter. This works well in tandem with the January moves as the properties taken on by estate agents in January are the properties that sell in and around Easter. This more vibrant market lasts until around late-June or early-July before that market sees a lull during the 6 week school summer holidays.

When the children go back to school, the market starts again for people that are looking to move again. It's similar to January as more properties come back into the market. This is coupled with another period if high demand as people who want to live decide that they want to gerbil with it ang get the sake agreed quickly with one eye on moving in before Christmas. As I've said before, the Spennymoor market beiadly follows the rest of the UK in theses peaks and troughs, these ebbs and flows.

So, we're just starting the second busy seller phase of the market, and it shows. The number of properties available has dwindled since July as there have still been a few sales but very few new properties to the market. That is now starting to change as the children go back to school and the parents start to get back to normality.

This means that my blog will be able to expand again in the run up to Christmas - where the market will drop again as people's minds move onto things other than property. I'll be taking a look at two new properties per week to let you know what is out there and what might make a decent investment return for buyers, plus there will be some ideas in there for owner-occupiers.

Stay tuned and I'll take a look at the Spennymoor property msrket and introduce things such as my Facebook and Twitter feeds for Spennymoor property alerts and other exciting additions to the blog.