One of the final chunks of census data has recently been released by the Government, and for those of you who like to look at data, it is a treasure trove of information. Information is so important when making decisions on what (or not) to buy when investing in property. A few weeks ago, I was discussing the roads around Broomfield and The Avenue’s. Today, I want to look at the area around the Cathedral going down to Old Moulsham on the South side of the City centre. The census data allows anyone to look at the data for housing estates or areas, but even better down to individual roads. Such information allows us to weigh up potential hotspots in the rental market and show potential landlords where there could be an opportunity.

Therefore, I looked at this area of the very centre of Chelmsford and Moulsham as a whole. There are just over 10,201 people living in 4,792 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 this area of the immediate City centre and Moulsham, of those 4,762 households, 27.5% own their property without a mortgage (compared to the 34% Chelmsford average) and additional 35.9% households own their property with a mortgage (again the Chelmsford average is only slightly higher at 39.2% and that includes all the posh villages!).

However, the thing that surprised me was the high level of private rented property. Normally, when you have high percentages of home ownership, the renting is low. Quite the opposite in this area where 26% (or be exact 1,246 households) are in the private rented sector (compared with the Chelmsford average of 10.9%). With such excellent demand from homeowners and tenants, this could be the right area to purchase your next buy to let investment, especially as some of the one bed apartments are achieving yields in the 5% to 6% region and Old Moulsham values always perform well over the long term.

Therefore, if you are considering buying a property for investment in the near future, 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 old, we’recertainly more than happy for you to pop in and see us at our office’s on Duke Street for a chat or email me direct on stephen.frost@martinco.com