With the UK property market booming you may think that now is not the best time to invest in property, unless you’re a commercial buy-to-let investor that is. However, there are a few areas in the country that are still affordable and will certainly see growth in property prices in the coming years.
Ipswich, the county town of Suffolk, is one such location. Currently a flat in the town costs just £121,700, below the stamp duty threshold of £125,000 and £10,000 less than the UK average. The town is also going through a major regeneration at the moment. The docklands, once home to thriving industry is now being redeveloped with over three thousand new luxury apartments being built; the area now looks indistinguishable from it’s heyday as a busy trade port.
Many now consider Ipswich as a commutable distance from London (only an hour and twenty minutes away by train and the A12 will take you straight into London by road), whilst many who live in London now see the town as an ideal weekend get-away destination with some taking out secured loans or re-mortgaging to buy a second home. A new University Campus is also being opened in 2007 which will be a boon to the already flourishing local economy.
Fifteen minutes down the road, and over the border in Essex, the historic town of Colchester is also seeing a similar development to that of Ipswich. 17,000 new homes and 14,000 new jobs are in the pipeline over the next fifteen years. Making it, like Ipswich, a great place for the novice property investor to get his or her teeth stuck into.
But be quick whilst prices are still affordable. Countless home owners are taking advantage of the equity on their properties and obtaining a new mortgage to buy a property as an investment, with many seeing it as a ‘pension fund’.
