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Return to buy to let Contents

Where is the cheapest property in England and Wales. 

(This page is on a white background in case you wish to select the table and print it out).

Introduction

Often the lowest cost property shows both the maximum scope for growth, but also the largest rental return as a percentage.

While isolated good buys will come up, and often be in auctions, the objective of this study was to identify, using data from the land registry, where you could expect routinely to be able to find lower cost property now. Often an area that is very cheap compared with those around it, will have a lot of people buying, and renovation and improvement going on, and over time this will become a nicer or more sought after area, with rapid increase in price when this occurs. 

The other reason of course, that  an area can be cheaper is that the property is generally poorer or the area is out of favour. In some cases you can get a better feel by looking at areas nearby.

The table below, is an adaptation of information published by the Land Registry in August 2003. It is an attempt to show the 50 cheapest postcode sectors within England and Wales. The approximate location column is all our own work, and we apologise to those people who may live in the areas if they take offence at our classification, and in many cases we had to settle for some general identifiable place, rather than a smaller or less known area. This, therefore, just explains the general area that the postcode sector is likely to be found. 

The areas identified are quite small, and in most city locations you could explore a whole sector without difficulty on foot, for example TS2, going to the next level TS2 1 is a far smaller section, still, and in some ways you may feel being too precise, but the idea is to give you a centre of opportunity to investigate out from.

Most, as you will quickly realize, are in the north, and there are only two entries that come near to the south, this is ST4 Stoke on Trent area and CF42 the upper reaches of the Rhonda Valley. Both of these areas and the areas around are particularly worth exploring. Starting with CF42, and looking around you will find that CF45 in particular offers opportunities, although not getting within our table.

The table shows the average price  and number of sales in small areas. None of the areas included had any detached houses sold within the period of the study, so areas nearby or others that also had cheaper terraced housing may have not made this top 50 list as these sales would have pushed up the average.

So why  might you be interested in low cost areas.

  • If you can't afford to get on the property ladder in your own area, a buy to let in a low cost area, may be a good first step.
  • If you don't have a good enough credit but want to get into buy to let, without using a mortgage.
  • Where you are a tenant and  you want to become a homeowner to get a better credit rating.
  • If you are looking for income rather than growth, and comparing it with interest your cash could earn in other places.
  • You want to get a large number of properties and therefore spread your risk.
  • Many more that you will find in other articles.

Why you may want to avoid low cost areas.

  • Where you are looking to buy and sell again taking a quick profit.
  • Possibly where you are looking to add value cheaply by redecorating etc.
  • Where you want to be confident of getting rapid property appreciation.

 

    Total Semi's Terraced Flats

Postcode Sector

Approximate location

Price £

Sales

Price £

Sales

Price £

Sales

Price £

Sales

TS2 1

Middlesborough

12687

8

0

0

12687

8

0

0

M9 1

NE Manchester

13416

3

0

0

13416

3

0

0

HU3 5

W Kingston upon Hull

13535

32

0

0

13535

32

0

0

TS17 7

Thornaby on tees, Middlesborough

14333

3

0

0

14333

3

0

0

L7 4

Liverpool

15289

12

0

0

15289

12

0

0

BB11 3

SW Burnley

17963

48

0

0

17963

48

0

0

TS1 2

Middlesborough

18337

8

0

0

18337

8

0

0

L6 3

Liverpool

19154

5

0

0

19154

5

0

0

HD1 6

Huddersfield

19200

5

0

0

19200

5

0

0

L4 1

Liverpool

19750

4

0

0

19750

4

0

0

M11 4

E Manchester

20033

46

20850

7

19886

39

0

0

HU3 3

W Kingston upon Hull

20179

32

0

0

20179

32

0

0

L5 1

Liverpool

20455

9

0

0

20455

9

0

0

M6 6

Salford, Manchester

21017

25

0

0

22315

22

11500

3

M9 5

NE Manchester

21144

24

38390

5

16605

19

0

0

L5 6

Liverpool

21149

11

0

0

21149

11

0

0

M6 5

Salford, Manchester

21229

37

43250

4

18560

33

0

0

L8 8

Liverpool

21500

3

0

0

21500

3

0

0

M11 2

E Manchester

21733

23

0

0

21733

23

0

0

HX1 5

Halifax

21865

16

0

0

21865

16

0

0

BB9 7

Nelson

21910

26

0

0

21910

26

0

0

S9 3

E Sheffield

21990

5

0

0

21990

5

0

0

TS3 6

Middlesborough

22144

34

0

0

22144

34

0

0

M40 9

?, Manchester

22290

41

52720

4

19000

37

0

0

BB5 0

Accrington

22936

51

35488

9

20246

42

0

0

L6 6

Liverpool

22951

29

0

0

22951

29

0

0

L19 8

SE Liverpool

22985

24

0

0

22985

24

0

0

L20 2

Bootle, Liverpool

23318

11

0

0

23318

11

0

0

TS1 4

Middlesborough

23902

130

0

0

23902

130

0

0

M11 3

E Manchester

23916

6

0

0

23916

6

0

0

ST4 1

Stoke on Trent

24142

7

0

0

24142

7

0

0

L7 2

Liverpool

24277

9

0

0

24277

9

0

0

L4 0

Liverpool

24280

34

0

0

24280

34

0

0

M7 1

N Manchester

24325

6

0

0

24325

6

0

0

L4 4

Liverpool

24366

13

0

0

24366

13

0

0

BD5 7

NW Leeds

24414

20

41998

4

20018

16

0

0

L20 4

Bootle, Liverpool

24713

19

0

0

24713

19

0

0

L8 4

Liverpool

24790

11

0

0

24790

11

0

0

BB5 1

Accrington

25158

18

0

0

25158

18

0

0

OL8 1

S Oldham

25212

45

0

0

25212

45

0

0

M13 9

SW Manchester

25300

5

0

0

25300

5

0

0

CF42 5

Treorchy, Rhonda

25420

32

0

0

25420

32

0

0

DN33 1

SW Grimsby

25438

23

28223

14

21105

9

0

0

CH41 3

E Birkenhead

25474

10

0

0

25474

10

0

0

L6 5

Liverpool

25484

16

0

0

25484

16

0

0

BB10 1

Burnley

25570

59

58750

6

21813

53

0

0

BB9 9

Nelson

25861

38

50362

4

22979

34

0

0

CA23 3

SE Cleator Moor, Whitehaven

25866

12

0

0

25866

12

0

0

M9 4

NE Manchester

25890

110

44814

20

21684

90

0

0

BB9 5

Nelson

26047

24

43556

5

21439

19

0

0

What to do next if you want to find low cost property yourself, without help.

Look at listing services, online, newspapers covering the areas etc, identify estate agents covering the area and see what they have online or if they have lists they can send you. Remember at all times you are looking at prices of property in comparison to the area it is in, not in comparison to your home area.

Visit the area, get to understand why the area is cheap at the moment, look at areas around and what has happened recently in those areas. You need to be able to see what is likely to happen in the near and future.

Check the rentals being obtained in the area and that the occupancy rate is likely to be high enough. In some cases the return may be lower than when looking at the next band of property in price or at lower cost property in more sought after locations.

Decide on how you propose to get involved, if using a mortgage check the minimum value that the source you propose to use will fund the properties you are considering.

Remember agents represent the sellers and make commission by selling to you, so don't offer what you feel is reasonable based on factors outside the area, that are not likely to affect this investment. Consider if you brought in a expert buyer if they could get two properties for the same price as you will get one, they will nearly always save far more than the cost of using them. Don't ever become emotionally involved in a property, buy only of it represents the deal that is ideal for you. 

These prices may be low compared to your home area, but you may be able to do better, getting a greater return and more scope still by looking at other options, particularly outside the UK.

Return to buy to let Contents

 

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