Property Investments

As a company, we began investing in property in 1995, with an initial capital outlay of £600,000. By using our knowledge and experience within the property industry, our property portfolio is now valued at just over £15m. We manage and let thousands of properties for our clients, many of whom have successfully used our Pace Investment Property Solutions, and seen capital gains of up to 50%, over the last few years.

Private rental sector

Within the UK, the private rental sector currently provides around 10% of all homes. This has grown substantially since ARLA (the Association of Residential Letting Agents) successfully branded investment in residential properties for letting purposes as 'buy-to-let', whilst at the same time persuading mortgage lenders to offer buy-to-let mortgage terms in line with prime consumer rather than commercial mortgage rates.
Ease of access to competitive funding, coupled with a buoyant housing market, has changed this sector, probably forever. It may take some time before the UK private rental sector compares with many of our European counterparts, for whom up to 60% of housing stock is provided by the private rental sector. However, some would say we are heading in that direction. People under the age of 30 are already struggling to get onto the housing ladder because they simply don't earn enough to qualify for a sufficient mortgage. In other parts of Europe & Germany and Switzerland for example this has been the accepted norm for several decades. The Government estimates that the need for rental property will grow by up to 40% over the next decade and it's not just short term driven factors that will drive this forward. Immigration from Europe, people living longer, increasing student numbers, flexible working patterns with the need for job mobility, the desire to live in high quality housing in and around good areas that otherwise could not be afforded, an increase in divorce and also single person households all mean that there is a serious increase in tenant demand for affordable and flexible accommodation and, as ever, it will be the private rented sector that fills this gap.

The property market

History has also shown us the value of UK properties doubles every 10 to 12 years. (Source: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.) The market is underpinned by demand because new property development is insufficient to keep pace with ever increasing housing demand. Government figures suggest that 250,000 new homes are required every year. However, the reality is that only 150,000 new homes are actually built. The government has also predicted that twice as many homes will be required in the UK by 2016. Therefore it will be the private rental sector that will have to provide sufficient homes to accommodate the demand.
Added to that that recent economic reports predict that house prices are set to double over the next ten years there has never been a better time to invest in the UK property market and in particular within the Essex Thames Gateway which as you can see from the graph is increasing above the national average on a yearly basis.

Rise in property prices

Rise in property prices...

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