Should I invest in a house or an apartment in Westgate-on-Sea?

I was having a chat with a Landlord the other day who has several properties across the Isle of Thanet and is currently looking at expanding his portfolio. It was clear that he was a bit stuck with what to buy and where to buy it. He had been keen on an apartment in Westgate but he lost out to another buyer as he wasn’t quick enough in deciding if it was going to be the best investment for him. The delay was caused by his opinion that there’s too much of a saturation of apartments in the Westgate area and therefore he should be investing in a house instead. After our brief discussion he left his conundrum with me for the evening in order to do some research and get back to him with the results. This is a brief look at what I found…

The current average rental price of a one bedroom apartment in Westgate is £487 pcm and the current average asking price is £95,538 giving an annual yield of around 6.1% - not bad! Now let’s look at the other option our Landlord’s contemplating. The current average rental price of a 2 bedroom house in Westgate is £686 pcm whilst the average asking price is £173,571, an annual yield of 4.7% - not quite as impressive. It is worth noting the capital growth too, as readers of previous articles will be aware! In Westgate, apartments on average increased in value by 9.6% in the last 12 months, whereas in comparison houses on average increased by 8% in the same timeframe.

Now if we were going on figures alone then the obvious choice of an annual return of 15.7% on an apartment opposed to the 12.7% on a house would be the clear winner. However, it’s not as easy as that and one must also consider a range of variables when it comes to being a buy to let investor, of which there are many and I’ll discuss these in greater detail another time, or if you simply can’t wait then pop in and see me!

Going back to the Landlord’s conundrum about apartment saturation in Westgate; if you gave me 20 apartments, I’d find you 20 tenants, maybe not in one day but certainly within the first month, provided they are priced sensibly so there’s no need to be concerned with voids.

As ever I can’t always fit in all the information I collate during my research so if you would like to know more or would like me to look into buy to let investments for you then please do come and see me. At Belvoir, we don’t sell property so our advice is always free and impartial, our office is on Northdown road in Cliftonville and I look forward to seeing you soon.

Data source - Net house prices - Rightmove HPI - Mouseprice - Zoopla