How to Check an Area has the Potential for Property Capital Growth
Video Transcript
Which parts of Greater Manchester have the potential for achieving the most capital growth, in the future?
That's a question we were asked by a client, for today's Question of the Day.
And I'd love to be able to say, it's this town or it's this street or it's this postcode but the reality is, nobody knows what's going to happen in the future.
That's crystal ball stuff, to try and predict that.
It's gonna be very difficult, for anybody to say, that this location is going to be the best, for this reason, and try to outline the specific outcomes, that are likely to be achieved.
All we can do is try and look at the historic data and the current fundamentals and then try and make an educated guess on what locations we think are going to be favourable, over the coming years and at the reasons and the data, to say why that might be.
Now, personally, we look for a host of things.
There are about seven different criteria that we use to assess a given property in our portfolio.
But in addition to that, there are other things that we look for.
These include making sure there is strong homeownership in a given location and making sure population growth is going up. We make sure that the location has investment going into it, not just from companies, but also infrastructure investment from local councils, as well.
These are all good signs but it's the combination of data that we're really looking for.
Rather than trying to say this location, this postcode, this street is absolutely going to get this percentage of growth - very difficult to do - we are looking at a range of different datasets, to try and really assess what the potential is, for any given area.
So, the client that asked us that question, was looking at Bury, Stockport and Preston, as comparable locations.
And what they wanted to know, was out those three locations, which are going to have the highest capital growth.
And I just said, it's impossible to predict. All I can do is put you in the right direction of a tool, that can hopefully assist, giving you some insights into each, individual area, that you're looking at.
And hopefully, you can kind of explore those locations further and see which postcodes and locations, might be most relevant for you, based upon the data that you're seeing and what is specific, to you.
So, if your preference is growth, great. If your preference is yield or if your preference is for something that is going to sell quickly; so, maybe you want to make sure there's good local demand and demand from property buyers in the area, that's great too.
Everybody has different criteria that they're looking at.
This tool (I mentioned) is designed to give you insights into all of that and it's called Advanced Property Insights.
You can get it from the Google Chrome Store and it works on a range of different property portals.
So, when you are searching your property portal of choice and you have the Chrome extension downloaded, what you will see, on the listings, is extra data for the location pulled into the local listing.
You'll start to see things like capital growth, over the last five years. So, you can see, historically, what has happened in that location.
You'll also see potential yield values for that area and then also demand; so, what the market is like, in that local area, at the moment.
Is it a buyer's market? Is it a seller's market? Are there lots of sales happening? Are they happening fast? How long does a property take to sell in that area?
So, there are a couple of different datasets, there, to really help give you more context, when you're considering a potential location.
We'll put a link below this video to the Advanced Property Insights tool as well.
But just as a final round-up, I would love to say, these particular streets, these particular postcodes, these particular areas of Manchester and Greater Manchester are going to get the most capital growth.
But unfortunately, it is very difficult to predict.
So, I would just say, focus on the data, look at historic data and current fundamentals and then you can make an assumption and the best guess, really, based on what you're seeing, as to which location might be the best fit for you.
Hope that helps, all the best!