Investment home in London, anyone?

In the spirit of the Olympics that is happening in the UK right now,  the wife and I deem it fitting to talk about private property purchase in the land of our former colonial masters.

Given the number of new restrictions imposed on property buyers in Singapore, we have recently turned our attention to properties further ashore. One city that caught our eye is London.

Investing in London property is nothing new to many Singaporean -  it has been one of the more popular location for buying foreign homes in the past years. However, there seemed to be more aggressive marketing of UK homes in our local newspapers these days (just flip through The Straits/Sunday Times this weekend to see what we mean) and many more property exhibitions in Singapore that the wife and I can ever recall.

We attended one such exhibition and these are some noteworthy facts that we picked up:

·       Prices of apartment especially within and around central London have increased substantially - you can expect to pay about 900 pounds per sq foot, going up to  1,300 - 1,400 pounds per sq foot for more "sought after" projects. (* Caveat - this is based on information we got, which we cannot claim 100% accuracy. So do correct us if you know better *)

·       Many more of these new projects are 999-year leasehold.

·       You do not have to worry about ABSD or SSD and there is no withholding tax on sale of your property if you are not a UK resident.

·       Most new projects only require a 10% down-payment, with the balance 90% payable only upon completion.

·       Unlike Singapore whereby stamp duty is payable whenever an apartment changes hands, you only pay stamp duty upon project completion - this means you save on paying money to the UK Government should you decide to do a sub-sale.

·       Some of these new projects offer nett rental returns of 6% and up to 3 years of rental guarantee - not bad compared to the measly 3 to 4% that you struggle to get for rental income in Singapore

·       There are no PES, bay-window or planter box in most of these apartments and even if they exist, these do not constitute as part of your overall living area. And to add icing to the cake, the balcony space does not form part of your living area either!

·       Most of the new projects are unlike the mega ones you find in Singapore (i.e. in excess of 400 units). Here you typically find developments with less than 100 units. As such, certain unit type in these projects are rather exclusive as they are limited in number within the development. For example, there are only two 2-bedder units at Regent Canalside located in Camden Town (refer to enclosed brochure for details of this project) whereby the living room and all bedrooms get a view of the Camden Canal.

Click on link below to view brochure of Regent Canalside:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/101408024/Regent-Canalside-Brochure#fullscreen

Incidentally, The Sunday Times today has featured an article about rejuvenation of the Olympic Park area in East London. And according to analysts, demand for properties in London has been and will continue to stay strong.

So check out one of them UK property exhibition if you have some free time today and have a great week ahead!

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