Belfast Property Investment

J

joan*

Guest
I would like to invest in a residental property in Belfast as prices seem to have done well recently. Could someone please provide some guidance on what the rental market is like and which area would be best. Is the Malone Road the most sought after area ?
 
Anywhere in the south belfast is usually well sought after with a few exceptions.. North Belfast and West Belfast have some very cheap property but for a reason.

Malone rd is definitely some of the most expensive property in Northern Ireland, so if you're buying there expect to pay £300k+ for a small half decent house or large apt but rental potential is good with lots of young professionals wanting the right address on their post and CV's.

A real example of this is that 10 years ago around Stranmillis was all student accommodation with the main streets full of small shops, cafes and the odd cheap and cheeful restaurant. Now its all tendy cafe's, art shops, expensive boutiques and restaurants, well out of students price ranges. So needless to say, young well to do professionals are all living there and this is the result.

My brother has a place just off the ormeau rd, the house prices there have rocketed, also 40% in 3 years since he bought, yet houses 2 roads over are identical and selling for almost £40k less. I find in the city, its a strange market.

Go outside the city in the south and almost everywhere is good to buy. You would wanna move fast though as prices are rocketing with all the new investment coming into the city, the money is being pumped into property by investors.

I.C
 
Market has moved a lot recently. In West Belfast just off the falls road I looked at 3 bed house for 170,000 sterling. Rental income is in the region of 500 to 500 sterling per month so there's a big shortfall in paying the mortgage. It's going to take a while before rental increases by any significant amount.
 
Hi Joan,
I agree with Doberden. I read the recent stories in the papers about belfast, newry, etc going up and contacted a property finder up there who is in the business of finding houses. She seemed to think that the return to expect would be s low as 2-3%

An article I read recently based on a report from an economist in the university of ulster suggested north belfast should see first time buyers rushing in seeing as east and south are out of their limit but its high risk
 
Hi,

Looked at Belfast recently as an investment potential and found the rents are not great at all.
A city centre apartment that is reall well furnished will make max.£650 stg. Also prices are now getting over inflated.
 
podd said:
Considering that the average house price to income ratio in the UK from the end of the 2nd world war to the year 2000 averaged out at 4 times, yes they are well over inflated.
Click to expand...

Using that formula Irish house prices are also well over inflated, or at least the many people working on the shop floor, in restaurants, service jobs, factories etc would think so.
 
In my humble opinion, the time to invest in Belfast was about 5 years ago. Not much margin left in it now I reckon.
I never did anything much in Belfast; could never get my head around the local nuances as to orange and green areas. The indicators that you can use elsewhere to make judgement calls make no sense there at all. The place depressed me then, and still does!
 
The Belfast boom is rising much quicker than the one that developed in Dublin and this can only lead to a pop. The yields are poor as the rents are low, so demand cannot be that great for rental accommodation. What will it be like in say 4 years time when thousands more houses / apartments are built and the likelihood of global interest rates being higher. IMHO the Belfast property boom is on a fast track for a crash
 
Joan

I rent a house in Stranmillis to young Profs. The area has gone down in the past few years as students are moving in from the other student areas. This has resulted in the area becoming less desirable and families selling up. Noise, parties etc mean that young profs are moving to other areas. Rent hasn't really increased over 10 years in line with house prices. Tenants are harder to get as there is so much property available for letting. At 250k plus for a house then its not really a good punt anymore unless you have lots of spare money.

T
 

When I was last in belfast a few months back, it seemed that Stanmillis has really gone up market. All the little pokey shops and cafes
have all been converted to trendy cafes etc.. A lot more expensive to eat out now, although the student fave, the pot noodle hasnt
gone up that
much

Strange to hear that the professionals are moving out. A lot of the guys my brother went to college with up there who are all working
in fairly decent jobs are all living in around or not far from that area now.

Maybe they arent still in student mode, as I know my bro is!!!

I.C
 
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