Property investors are always on the lookout for the new hotspots that are good for investment and will offer them great returns and renting opportunities. 

In recent years, the North has been garnering attention as a good place for investment thanks to low prices and continuing development and gentrification in cities like Manchester and Liverpool.

At the same time, house prices in London have been plummeting for the first time in over a decade, causing many to question whether the capital is still a prime location for those ready to hop on the buy-to-let ladder.

While property demand in London has certainly taken a nosedive, there are still boroughs that are worthy of property investment.

Mitcham

This south London suburb has undergone some serious gentrification over the last couple of year so naturally, the area is alive and kicking, perfect for investors ready to snap up affordable flats and houses. The town centre has undergone a fairly extensive makeover and nearby neighbourhoods Tooting and Colliers Wood also have improved high streets, boosting the surrounding areas and ensuring residents have a great selection of shops, restaurants and bars.

Ilford

Ilford is set to become a hotspot for city workers thanks to the opening of the Elizabeth line, set to take place at the end of 2019, which will offer services to Bond Street in just 24 minutes. The area is also benefiting from improved green spaces and cycle paths, perfect for attracting eco-friendly millennials.

South Norwood

Situated south of Crystal Palace, South Norwood is hailed by those that live there for having an exceptional sense of community, something that is often hard to stumble upon in bustling London. The local council has also recently been investing in parts of Portland Road and Station Road that includes landscaping and improved footways. There will also be better parking access for local shops.

Walworth

While most working professionals in London would of course live in the centre of the city if they could, there are plenty of great places nearly that make commuting easier than ever, with Walworth being high on that list. It is barely 2 miles from Trafalgar Square and also boasts quirky markets and plenty of history.

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Migration within the UK is something that is always on the public agenda. While some are opposed to it, others believe that it is something which is necessary in order for businesses and certain sectors to flourish.

In London in particular, migration is of great importance to a number of industries including the financial sector and the Flat White Economy. It is also of prevalence and importance to construction, hospitality and health and social care.

With the impending doom of Brexit set to change the face of migration and make free movement harder for those hoping to move to the UK for work, could some of the benefits that businesses see as a result of migration be set to diminish?

How migration benefits UK businesses

It helps to alleviate skill bottlenecks and removes barriers

For businesses to grow and prosper effectively, it’s important that there are enough people with the right skills available to do the job. It’s no secret that within the UK, there are certain industries that are suffering as a result of skills shortages.

In construction for example, it has been reported by The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) has reported that the industry will need to find 157,000 new recruits by 2021 in order to keep up with demand.  

Migration opens the doors to more talent and helps industries such as construction thrive.

It boosts diversity and creativity

This can especially be witnessed within the Flat White Economy, which relies on creativity in order to flourish. The Flat White Economy refers to a millennial generation of business people and entrepreneurial types that are focused on both technology and creativity. This is particularly prevalent in London, where the spending habits of millennials, who are less inclined to save money and prefer to spend their disposable income in cafes and restaurants.

These types of people also tend to live and work in close proximity of each other, which in term helps to bolster creativity as they are constantly bouncing ideas off each other.

It helps businesses to become more profitable

Every business is looking for ways that they can boost they profit margins, and migration is a sure fire way to do that. While initially it will result in downward pressure on wages through the enhanced supply of labour, the secondary affect is that it will boost wages through faster growth. 

It’s no secret that there is a chronic housing shortage in the UK at the moment. The average estate agent typically has 42 homes on their books per branch but currently in London, where the housing shortage is at its most severe and concentrated, there are just 33.

The Prime Minister recently indicated that developers are to blame for the lack of housing in the UK, which is impeding millennials from stepping foot on the property ladder, but just how much truth is there behind her statements?

A vicious cycle

At present, land with planning permission for housing costs around £6 million per hectare. These steep rates are perhaps the reason why the Prime Minister feels that developers are to blame for the housing shortage in the UK. There is a lot of speculation that developers hoard land once they have purchased it, sit on it for a while until they obtain planning permission and then sell the land on for significantly more than what was originally paid.

There are also issued being raised regarding the bonus structures that many construction firms use, which mean that development bosses are cashing in on commission not on the number of houses that they build, but on their profits or share price. This could go some way to explain why many construction firms lack the incentive that is needed to build more houses and address the UK shortage.

This problem isn’t anything new either. An investigation by The Guardian in 2015 revealed that a staggering 600,000 plots with planning permission were owned by some of the largest property builders in the UK, but weren’t being built on.

Steps to change

In an attempt to deliver the homes that the UK needs, the Prime Minister has implemented reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework, which will see the use of land being maximised, protections for the Green Belt being strengthened and a greater emphasis being put on transforming planning permission into new homes.

But just how much of an impact will these changes have? They seem to have been met by stiff opposition by some interested parties, who feel that involving and empowering councils is a better course of action to take, but only time will tell whether the Prime Minister’s decisions will mend the draught that is currently stifling the UK property market.

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