Thinking of Investing in Property? Read This First

Investing your hard-earned savings in property is no easy decision. You want to make sure your money is secure by purchasing the right property in the right location.

There's many different options when you decide to invest in property: you could buy a property, renovate it, and sell it for a profit, or you could rent out a property, or even invest in commercial property.

Whichever route you think may be best for you, check out our benefits and risks below. You'll likely want to research a variety of sources before making any decisions.

What are the positives to investing in property?

When it comes to investing, there's many other options other than property. Here we're going to focus on why property is a popular choice.

One of the highlights is that property investment provides long-term financial security. If you buy-to-let, you can feel secure that your property should appreciate in value, though this isn't always the case. Just research and select your property and location carefully.

If you're renting out a property, or purchasing houses and selling for a profit repetitively, you'll be gaining an income. This will be regular if you're renting out and gaining the rental cost monthly, or if you're purchasing and selling on it will be more sporadic.

Some areas for renting will easily pay off your house repayments plus more each month. Student property can be a great investment, especially in cities with large Universities, as you can be paid by each student in the house and even convert any extra rooms into bedrooms. Student cities demand housing higher than most others, so you're unlikely to have a house sat empty for long.

If you're able to make property investment your full time job, you get to be your own boss, which is many people's dream! Control your own projects of renovating houses, or decide which tenants you'd like in your property and ensure you (or a letting agent) fix any issues which may arise to fixtures or fittings.

Is property investment risky?

As with most things, there's positives and negatives to property investment. Each side of the coin needs to be considered carefully before any decisions are made.

There are absolutely a few risks in property investment. There's no guarantee what will happen with the property market in the future. Supply and demand for purchasing or renting is always fluctuating, as are prices. The fluctuations depend on a variety of factors, such as politics (especially with Brexit coming up), location, interest rates, stamp duty rates, and more.

If you're comfortable enough to not have total control over your money when it's in a property, property investment could be for you.

As well as being risky, property investment is definitely not easy! Owning a portfolio of properties can be very stressful at times, and you never know when a hefty cost may come your way if you need to fix something, especially in rental property.

Once you've decided to invest

If you've weighed up the positives and negatives and decided to go ahead and put your money in property, the next step is choosing which property to buy. Again, this requires extensive research.

Firstly, which location is best for your needs? If you're buying-to-let, do you want to purchase a property near your home so it's easy to pop over and fix anything? If you're buying to sell on, is the property near any good schools, or transport links?