London, Istanbul, Las Vegas, Dubai and Miami have been named by a leading property investment company as being the five top cities in which to invest in property for less than £500,000.
“We are seeing signs of a global recovery in property markets, however there are some cities that offer better long term potential than others,” explained Loxley McKenzie, Managing Director of Colordarcy, the company which carried out the research.
“While £500,000 is a figure you might expect to pay for a luxury property reasonably close to the centre of the world’s major cities, there are some cities where high yielding properties can be found for much less.
“On this basis, we have chosen five cities where investors can find property for less than £500,000 and benefit from a city centre location and higher than average rental yields.”
In London, the Colodarcy research reveals that although house prices have already risen by over 9.5 per cent this year, luxury tenanted apartments can still be bought in Canary Wharf for £365,000. What’s more, average private rents in London have risen by 2.2 per cent so far in 2013 and there are reports that rents have increased by more than £1,000 in a year in some parts of the UK’s capital.
In Turkey, the relaxation of property purchasing rules along with still fairly affordable – if rapidly increasing – property prices makes Istanbul a potentially profitable area, the company’s research reveals. Average property prices in the city are currently rising by more that 12 per cent year-on-year, while rental yields are up by 8 per cent.
In Dubai, the property market is currently burgeoning again following years of depression, making the emirate’s properties well worth taking a gamble on. However, the agency does point out that “Dubai has the potential for property speculators to inflate prices up dramatically only for excess supply of property to begin weighing down on prices.”
The long awaited recovery of the US property market is the main reason behind Las Vegas and Miami’s inclusion on the list. Property prices in Las Vegas are rising at nearly 25 per cent per annum in some areas of the city, although values still remain 51 per cent below their peak. And with the city’s population rising at 2.2 per cent per annum – making it one of the fastest growing US cities – there should be plenty of opportunities to make money from rental yields.
However, it is Miami that Colodarcy pinpoints as being the most promising investment market in the world when it comes to properties worth under £500,000 – of which there are many in the Floridian city. Sales of luxury condos surged by 63.9 per cent in the year to July 2013, and while this was the main factor behind property price increases of 14.2 per cent between May 2012 and May 2013, prices are still 41 per cent below their peak indicating that there is plenty of money still to be made in the city.
Article published 17th October 2013
