I have been undertaking a series of surveys recently, and the overwhelming response from Swansea Landlords has been that the most important thing for them when letting a property is finding long term tenants. 

Finding long term tenants is more important than finding tenants quickly, or even achieving the highest possible rent.

This got me thinking about the locations and the types of property that attract long term tenants, and reviewing our portfolio the longest tenancies are all in the SA4 region – Gorseinon, Penllergaer, and Pontarddulais. 

Who are long term tenants?
At McCartan Lettings, we find that families with young children, and more mature individuals have the longest running tenancies. They want security, a place to make their home, and they usually have family living nearby, so aren’t looking to move out of the area. 

Location
House prices are lower in Gorseinon and Penllergaer, so are more affordable. There isn’t too much of a rental market in SA4 as it is not necessarily an obvious choice for landlords who might prefer instead to invest in higher yielding locations such as SA6, or the student market in SA1. 

I had a look for 3 bedroom family homes in SA4 up to a price of &140,000, but came across this: click here to view the brochure on Zoopla.

Would a Bungalow be a good investment?
We discussed as a team how rare it is to see a bungalow for let (generally speaking, across the whole of Swansea and not just in SA4), so the supply and demand is weighted favourably towards bungalows. 

Another plus point for this property would be that housing developers aren’t building any more bungalows, so the demand for them in the future will be greater, especially given our ageing population.

In our experience, bungalows can take a little longer to find the right tenant for, but once a tenant is found, they tend to be very long term. So although they can also be priced higher for sale, if the right one came along it may suit your investment requirements.

This property needs minimal work doing to get it ready for let, and is already in such a nice, decorative order that it should easily let for around &550pcm, possibly even &600pcm with the garage. We quite like the kitchen, too! 

At that price, it would bring in a healthy yield of 7.5% based on a potential purchase price of &95,000. 

Properties of Non Standard Construction
Straight away, it became obvious from the brochure that the reason this bungalow is so reasonably priced is that it is a property of non standard construction (NSC). 

The main issue with NSC properties is that lenders are wary and tend not to accept them for mortgages, so it’s really only cash buyers that would be in a position to proceed with buying this kind of property. With the market limited, NSC properties do invariably sell below market value – which might make this bungalow of interest to property investors looking for a new project. 

If you are considering a NSC property for investment, be aware that the same restrictions will apply if you were to sell the property in the future, so this will need to be factored into your investment exit plan. 

Even if this property isn’t what quite what you are looking for, this should give you some insight into the questions you need to be thinking about when looking to invest in buy-to-let property in Swansea.

Have you already got some investment properties in mind? Why not drop me an email with the brochure attached, and I’d be more than happy to look over them for you and give you my thoughts! You can send them to [email protected].