Not all Penicuik properties are right for buy to let ...... even the nice ones!

A grateful landlord was buying me coffee in Giovanni’s Cafe this morning when he asked my thoughts on this Penicuik property that has just come on the market.  I told him that I would have a look at it and get back to him in the afternoon.

The property is a 3 bedrooom, semi-detached house at 2 Mauricewood Avenue.  Mauricewood is the executive housing development at the Edinburgh end of Penicuik that regular readers of the Penicuik Property Blog will know is a very sought after part of Penicuik to live in.

The house has fairly good accommodation – a large lounge, a separate dining room, a fitted kitchen, 2 double bedrooms, 1 single bedroom, (only) a shower room, double glazing, gas central heating, a garage and gardens to the front and rear.  However, it will need a wee bit of TLC, decorating etc so let’s say you would have to spend £10,000 to get it ready for letting.

Double click here to get more details about this property

Turning to the financials.  The asking price for this property, which is on the market with Mov8 is offers over £169,995 so let’s say it goes for £180,000.  Adding in the cost of the works mentioned above gets you to a spend o £190,000.  A semi-detached house like this in this area will rent for £900 pcm.  So that gets you to a yield of 5.7%.

I am not long off the phone giving my feedback to the landlord.  I told him that I would buy the property for me and my family to live in as it is a nice house in a cracking part of Penicuik and, having older kids, we take showers not baths.  However, I also told him that I would not buy this property for renting as (i) given it’s location and size, it is costly, (ii) given the rent levels in Penicuik and the cost of this property, the returns from renting are not that great and perhaps most importantly (iii) the property only has a shower room which, by the looks of the floor plan (see above), is due to lack of size rather than the personal preference of the current owner (eg older people often swap baths for showers as they are easier to get in and out of).

However, in case he was thinking of still buying the house, I also mentioned to him that there must be a story behind this house as it was last sold only a few months ago (it was sold in July 2015 for £167,000) but it doesn’t look like it has been bought to be immediately refurbished and re-sold and said to him that finding out the story may be helpful in understanding the sellers position/mentality to selling which may give the edge in securing the house.

It goes to show that not all properties as right for buy to let ...... even the nice ones!

If you would like any advice on buying a property to let or live in, feel free to pop into our office at 6 Bank Street, Penicuik for a chat, give us a call 01968 674601 or email us on (robert@thekeyplace.co.uk; linda@thekeyplace.co.uk).