By Some 39 per cent of UK real estate investors are planning on increasing the size of their portfolio over the coming 12 months, compared to 11 per cent who intend to reduce theirs, according to a recent survey from Experience Invest.
The remaining number of investors have no intention of buying or selling any property in 2019 (35 per cent) or plan to sell some of their assets in order to release capital for reinvesting in the UK property market (15 per cent).
Most popular locations
In terms of the most popular cities, London, Manchester and Liverpool are the most popular for buy-to-let investment in the UK in 2019. A substantial 35 per cent are considering properties in the capital while 33 per cent are considering Manchester and 25 per cent considering Liverpool as potential investment locations in the North of England, according to the survey.
Other popular cities included Nottingham, which came in fourth place at 15 per cent, Bristol with 14 per cent and Leeds with 13 per cent. The rest of the top ten consisted of Birmingham and Newcastle, both at 12 per cent, Luton at 11 per cent, and a four-way tie between Brighton, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Sheffield, all with 8 per cent of investors considering investing in these cities. .
Popularity by region
Greater London is the most popular potential area for investments in 2019, cited by 37 per cent of respondents, while 30 per cent said they would target the North West, according to the survey from Experience Invest.
Some 23 per cent said they would invest in the Midlands, 22 per cent in the South East, 21 per cent in Yorkshire, 18 per cent in the North East, 17 per cent in the South West, 8 per cent Scotland, 5 per cent Wales and 4 per cent East Anglia.
Property types
In terms of property types that investors were considering investing in this year, houses were top, with as many as 67 per cent of those surveyed registering interest, followed by flats at 54 per cent, new build residential interesting as many as 39 per cent, with 24 per cent considering student accommodation.
Jerald Solis, business development and acquisitions director at Experience Invest commented: “In light of tighter tax regulations on landlords and ongoing Brexit uncertainty, there have been some doom and gloom predictions about the future of the UK property market. But the research shows that, as an investment asset, real estate is still hugely popular, with a significant number of property investors looking to grow their portfolio further in 2019.”
Solis added that he believes it’s interesting to see that, while London remains the most popular location for property investment, other regions across the UK are very close behind. “In particular, the North West has established itself as something of a hotspot for buy-to-let investors, with cities like Liverpool and Manchester providing strong rental yields and healthy capital growth,” he added.
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