Are the streets of Canterbury paved with gold?

Whilst I sometimes ‘harp on’ about the merits of the Canterbury property market and why it’s such a great place to invest, it’s a real (and pleasant) surprise to get another endorsement by none other than the property correspondent at The Times, Ruth Bloomfield!

Whilst I would love to say that it was my ‘eagle eyes’ that spotted this ground breaking revelation, I am delighted to say that it was one of my blog readers, (whom may I also add is one of our long established Canterbury Landlords) who brought the article to my attention.

In the recent article (Friday 12th February) Ruth Bloomfield looks further afield than London and offer her ‘top tips’ for growth, based upon various pieces of research that she has been studying.

One piece of research, from JLL, first of all looks at Manchester, predicting property prices will increase by 5.5% this year. The researcher, Adam Challis also points out that Manchester is the ‘out and out’ second economic city of the UK. This it may be, but at 5.5% growth I’m not too sure that many investment Landlords are going to get very excited at such a prospect! Interesting to note that Mr Challis, then takes a punt at Southampton, where again he has ‘high hopes’ and again, will rise by 5.5%. We then get another ‘drum roll’ as we head back up North to Liverpool and (wait for it)…….. it’s a growth of 5%. I know what you’re thinking…..”does it get any better than this, because these figures don’t quite excite me”.

Ruth Bloomfield then takes a look at further research that’s been made by the esteemed agent Savills, who recommends focusing on the 20 key cities and they say that the ones to watch are the ‘southern university cities. Now it gets interesting I hear you say! Quite rightly they first pick up on the two main University cities in the UK, i.e. Cambridge and Oxford, whose property values have increased by 10.4% and 9.3% respectively. What is of further interest, the lovely lady from Savills, Sophie Chick (what a great name!) then starts to look further afield and she tips Canterbury as “within commuter distance of London, a beautiful city and, comparatively, excellent value, with average property prices of  £269,000.00”. This is further endorsed with a property value growth of 8.6% in the past 12 months.

So there you have it! Great city, great place to invest in. That’s being said, rest assured that despite what others maybe telling you, the streets of Canterbury are not ‘paved with gold’….. tread with care and if you need any advice, give me a call!