Ashtead – the place to buy an investment property?

Information is so important when making decisions on what (or not) to buy when investing in the Epsom property market. The demand for rental properties is much greater that the supply and in some circumstances, we have four to five prospective tenants for each quality property. As always the demand is much greater for properties that are in good areas. Also, we are noticing that tenants are staying longer in their chosen property with some tenants signing for the third and fourth years. This is obviously causing problems from the supply side, so we are relying on new investment Landlords to bring in some new properties.

Today, I want to look at Ashtead to the South Western edge of Epsom. By knowing the different areas of Epsom and the surrounding areas, I can weigh up potential hotspots in the rental market and show potential landlords where there could be an opportunity. The majority of properties sold in Ashtead during the last 12 months were detached properties which on average sold for £741,400. Semi-detached properties had an average sold price of £479,800 and apartments averaged at £255,000.

The overall average property in Ashtead is worth £529,600, which as one would expect is higher than the Leatherhead overall average at £444,000, but was cheaper than next door Fetcham at £575,700.
In Ashtead, there are 13,656 people living in 5,520 properties. It is the home ownership percentages that really got me interested, as it is this information, tied in with our intimate knowledge of the market, where we can match tenant demand to an under supply of rental properties. In Ashtead, of those 5,520 households, 83.0% own their property (compared to the Epsom average of 78.5%).

There are only 376 rented properties in Ashtead in the private rented sector (6.8% of Ashtead properties are privately rented compared with the Epsom average of 10.4%). The reason the private rental sector is much lower is that Ashtead has a high proportion of homeowners and a low percentage of local authority housing. The properties do sell well in fact, 554 properties have changed hands in the last two years. However, with such excellent demand from homeowners and tenants, this could be the right area to purchase your next buy to let investment.

Therefore, if you are considering buying a property for investment in the near future, as our company does not sell property, I am always happy to give you my considered opinion on which property to buy (or not as the case may be) to give you what you want from your investment. If you are a landlord, new or experienced, I am certainly more than happy for you to pick up the phone or to keep checking this blog.