You’ve heard the saying buy low, sell high, right? It applies to pretty much any endeavor you can think of, including property investing. However, to buy low and sell high, you need to understand where the opportunities are and how to make a well-informed decision. With that in mind, here are five ways to find UK properties for sale that are below market value and make great UK investment opportunities.
1. Know the local estate agents and advertising platforms
When a property is listed for sale, local estate agents will often directly contact their list of potentially interested clients, before they list the property on Rightmove or Zoopla.
Getting to know the estate agents in your area can help you beat the rush and provide you with valuable breathing space to assess the property opportunity fully. It's worth getting yourself on a couple of property mailing lists via any local agencies or property sourcing companies, even if you don’t want to buy anything right now.
Similarly, keep an eye out for newly listed properties in the local newspaper (digital and/or paper versions) and online forums and groups too. For example, your town or city might have a public Facebook group for estate agents or even individual property owners to advertise properties for sale. This way, when a good investment opportunity comes up in the area you're interested in buying within, you’ll be one of the first people to know about it.
2. Know the local property market
Having a good understanding of the local property market helps you gauge what's a great deal or not. If it's an investment property, then the aim is to often buy the property at below market value and resell it later for a tidy profit, once local prices have increased nicely.
To get strong insights in the local area for property prices (currently for sale and previously sold) set up email alerts on sites such as Rightmove, Zoopla and Hometrack. Equally, run some searches and reports to dig into the weeds of the numbers - they'll have heaps of excellent data points to reference.
Not only will this help you keep track of the latest trends in the local property market, but it can also give you an advantage in negotiations as well as a better grasp of how much you should offer based on current market conditions.
3. Prioritize high-growth markets
Investing in UK property can be a great long-term strategy, and it's more straightforward to realize profits when focusing on high-growth areas.
Explore cities and counties with fast-growing populations and strong job markets. For example, five UK cities that have experienced strong property supply and demand during the last decade are Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, London (East London), and Cambridge.
That's not to say these locations will experience the same growth rates over the following 10 years. They could, but there will likely be other up-and-coming areas that experience greater growth from a percentage perspective.
4. Carry out your due diligence
A big mistake many first-time property investors make is buying without performing the appropriate levels of due diligence. As a result, this can very easily lead to buying a property that has issues and therefore needs further financial investment, or simply buying at a price that turns out to be far from attractive - certainly not below market value!
Due diligence refers to your careful and thorough research of any potential property. To do it well, you need to scrutinize everything, from market conditions and maintenance costs to occupancy rates and tenant turnover rate. That way, you'll know what you're getting into, and how likely it is your investment will pay off.
Once you've figured out which properties are worth investigating in greater detail, speak with local experts about each one (e.g. property agents and tradespeople). Possibly stretch to prospective tenants too if you're planning to rent it out since this will help you gauge the desirability from a different angle.
5. Work with a property sourcing expert
Here's a common challenge: You know the location you want to buy a property in, but you don't know how to properly evaluate any properties, or you simply don't have the time to do so. Needless to say, if you don't buy a "good" UK property at a price that's below market value, then making a profit will be tricky, and you could lose money in the long run.
Working with a professional property sourcing expert can help ensure you pick UK properties for sale at prices that increase the likelihood of giving you great returns in the future. Whether you have very clear or broad search criteria, a property sourcer will act on your behalf (i.e. the "buyer") to present you with packaged deals to fit your requirements.
At PropSourcer we strive to list only professional and compliant UK property sourcers, all of who are open to receiving verified reviews from the people they've provided their services to. If you find a sourcing agent here that specializes in your area and in the type of property you want, get in touch with them to get expert help. Your below market value property purchase could be just around the corner!
