Our view on London
If you’ve been following the press recently, you may have seen coverage of London house prices slowing. If you are already a Bricklane.com customer, you may also have noticed that the London fund has returned +6.7% since its launch in July 2017.*
We wanted to put pen to paper to explain why we’re bullish, and why our fund has generated such strong returns.
We target the best properties in the right sections of the market
We buy mainstream property, the sorts of homes that most people would aspire to rent and live in, and avoid prime property (the most expensive section of the market). We view the fundamentals of mainstream property as strong, and are able to pick the best homes in the most promising areas.
We target properties which meet our criteria in terms of rental yield, quality and historical pricing performance — demonstrating resilience in a downturn, and low volatility as prices increase. All properties selected for the funds are places that we would aspire to live in ourselves, with good transport links, and are typically priced between £400k and £850k.
Prime property is often defined as the top 5% of the market by value, and so only affects a small minority of people. However, it makes up 40% of the total London house price figures you see in the press. Recently, prime property has fallen in value which has impacted overall market figures.
Our experience shows that well connected areas, with planned regeneration and infrastructure upgrades and strong rental demand tend to generate consistently strong returns.
For instance, our Clapham property has risen £20,000 or +4.9% in value since we bought it. Clapham is an established and well connected area, destined to improve further as part of Crossrail 2.
It’s a buyers’ market
Despite the fundamentals of the housing market remaining strong, some buyers are currently cautious, which means it’s a buyers’ market. To source the best prices, we bid on many properties, and as cash buyers who can move quickly, offer an attractive proposition to many vendors in the current environment.
You can take advantage of this buyers’ market with Bricklane.com, without investing the huge sums of money or effort involved with buying property in London. In turn, you’ll benefit from our ability to source good value deals on opportunistic purchases, and diversification across multiple properties to reduce your risk. Choose from two funds to invest in: London and Regional Capitals (with properties in the cities of Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds). In its first year, the Regional Capitals fund made investors +8.7%, the newer London fund has returned +6.4% since late July.*
Of course, property is a long-term asset class, and whilst current market conditions look favourable for our strategy, you should base your investment decisions on your view of the long-term fundamentals of London property. Affordability is more stretched in the London property market, however London is also one of the true global megacities, a cosmopolitan place with a rapidly growing population and huge desirability as a place to live and work.
You can easily invest with Bricklane.com from £100, from your desktop or smartphone
Go to Bricklane.com to learn more and get started
Unlike with a Cash ISA, with all investing, your capital is at risk. Tax rules apply and may be subject to change.
*Past performance and forecasts are not a reliable indicator of future returns
Bricklane.com provides a smart, tax-efficient and low-cost way to get exposure to the property market, through a simple and secure platform.
If you have any questions about returns, or anything else, you can email us at support@bricklane.com, talk to us through online chat, or give us a call on 0203 1111 432.
Capital at risk. As with all investments, the value of your Bricklane.com investments can decrease as well as increase. It could take the time it takes to sell a property, or longer, to get your money back at an acceptable price.
This is a financial promotion by Bricklane Investment Services Ltd, which is an appointed representative of Gallium Fund Solutions Limited, which is regulated by Financial Conduct Authority, FRN: 487176
