Cheap Flats London

James Davis, founder of online property rental site, www.upad.co.uk, disagrees with reports that London property rental prices have decreased by 15 percent over the last year.

Davis comments: “Over recent months, the city has seen a vast increase in the number of accidental landlords, due to the fact that they have been unable to sell their property. And the rules of supply and demand apply, meaning that property rental prices have levelled off. Overall I do not believe they are falling – there remains plenty of potential for many to make long-term gains.

Davis considers that the UK (primarily London) is already seeing a shift towards a more European model of renting. As recently published in the English Housing 2007-8 report, 32% of people under 30 were buying with a mortgage against 45% who were renting. In 2001, those figures were 40% who purchased with a mortgage and who 33% rented.

Davis comments: “For Landlords wishing to increase portfolio, they should note that yields are much higher today than they were 12 months ago.

“Interest rates are at an all time low, which presents a real opportunity for residential property investors. They just need to get their proposition right, and to target the market effectively. However, it is important to remember that property is a long-term investment game – don’t go into it expecting to get rich quick.”

-Ends-

Notes to editors

upad’s website deploys bespoke state-of-the-art technology to overcome issues identified by renters such as out-of-date information and poor online experiences.  In particular upad enables online searches that are interactive and intuitive to produce relevant properties.

With over 82,000 rental properties available in London, upad will continue to add to this portfolio in order to offer the largest choice of homes to rent in the capital.  The service will be rolled out across other major UK cities in the next few months.

Free to renters, upad costs landlords £59 per listing.

For further information and interviews, please contact:

Katrina Suppiah/Kate Alexander, Publicité

Tel: + 44 (0)20 8543 6582/+44 (0)20 8543 8481/+44 (0)7809 028711

Email: k.suppiah@publicite.co.uk/k.alexander@publicite.co.uk

When investing in Real Estate, you may choose to buy and rent a property, or you may choose it flip it, buy and sell quickly. The safest way to invest is to buy wholesale properties that are in the sweet spot of the rental market i.e. they are not in the best or worst neighborhoods. The goal is to find an investment property with a good, or great positive cash flow. This is how you will create wealth.

Positive cash flow is the amount of money that is left over after all of the expenses have been paid on the property and what you can put into your pocket at the end of the month. Expenses that you deduct from the rent payments you’ve collected may include items such as operating costs, taxes, and the mortgage payment. The positive cash flow that one gets from a property will depend upon three different things: the amount of the rent being charged, the amount of the mortgage payment, and the cost of operating the building. To create wealth by investing in real estate, analyzing these three things is crucial.

Using borrowed money to finance your real estate investment is how many investors make a profit. They simply make money off borrowed money. One way to get good cash flow is to make a small down payment on the property, making certain you acquire a mortgage that is lengthy and low-interest. Basically, a lower mortgage payment means you will be getting a higher cash flow.

For example, if you purchase a four-unit apartment building for $125,000 and rent each apartment for $600 each month, you will receive $2,400 a month. Less your mortgage payment of $625 and operating expenses of $300, you should have a cash flow of $1,475. If, however, your mortgage went up to $925 per month, you would only have a positive cash flow of $1,175 each month. The key is to get the lowest payment possible and keep your operating expenses down.

Another method of keeping a positive cash flow is to take out an interest-only loan. This type of loan usually is a short-term loan, usually about a five-to-ten year length of time, in which you are paying the interest only. After the period of the loan is up, you will need to either sell the property or refinance. This, however, does give you a low payment and will help you to get a higher positive cash flow from your investment property.

With a positive cash flow coming in from your investment property, you can use this to help you acquire more investment properties. One way to do this is to refinance your current investment property, using the money you get to help you acquire another investment property and so on. In this sense, you are creating positive cash flow from several properties and you haven’t had to pay the capital gains tax on the original property as you did not sell it, but instead, refinanced it to help you purchase more properties.

The most important thing to remember is that if you want to create wealth by investing in real estate, you must maintain a positive cash flow on your properties. By making certain your mortgage payment is as low as it could be, keeping the operating expenses at a minimum, and pricing the rent amounts correctly, you will find that you will not only create a positive cash flow, you will be able to create the wealth you want for yourself.

Do you want to get involved in investing in real estate but don’t seem to have any extra money in the bank? This is a common problem, but what you may not realize, is that you can start investing with little or nothing in your bank account. Basically, if you own your own home, you can leverage this asset and find yourself investing in no time flat.
As long as you own your own home, pay your mortgage and have fairly descent credit, it will actually be easy to get started in real estate investing. There is most likely a pretty good amount of equality in your house. Even if you have only owned your house for a short time, you have been paying it off and it is most likely has been increasing in value. Just take a look at the balance of your mortgage and subtract it from its current value. Of course you may need to include a second mortgage or and other liens that may be on your property, but you should still have equality to work with. This is your green light to move forward into investing.
Here three ways to use the equity in your home to raise the capital for real estate investing.
1. Refinancing Your Home – You can refinance your house, get a better interest rate and also get some cash out from a refinance mortgage. You can use the cash to purchase an investment property outright, or you should at least have least enough money for a down payment of a property. Be sure to check with your lender or mortgage broker for any of the rules about cash-out refinancing. Keep in mind, a cash-out refinance mortgage may have higher interest rates than other types of mortgages.
2. Using a Home Equity Loan – A home equity loan uses the equity in your home as collateral, this would be a second mortgage to the one you already have. The mortgage amount is based on a percentage of the equity in your house. You may be able to borrow up to 100% of your homes value, but if you are getting a home equity loan on a second property, you may not be able to borrow as much. This type of loan allows you the option to pay the loan back early without penalty, just a nice little bonus.
3. Open a Home Equity Line of Credit – A home equity line of credit has a credit limit similar to a credit card. This is not much different from a home equity loan, the amount that you can borrow is based on your credit score and the amount of equity in your home. You can transfer funds from your home equity line of credit, or even write checks directly from the account. Interest rates are generally lower than cash-out refinance mortgages, and there are tax advantages as well. Another advantage is that you are only paying interest and making payments on the amount you owe at the time, not the entire amount of the loan. In the future, you may also be able to renegotiate for a higher credit line when the equity in your house increases, especially if you have made improvements to your house.
Real Estate Investing is not only for the rich. The average homeowner can get started in real estate investing even if you don’t have a lot of money in the bank. You can use cash-out refinance mortgages, home equity loans, and home equity lines of credit to begin your journey as a real estate investor, and continue to build more investments into the future.