Our Review Of Q3 2020
Wow, ok Q3 review time. I write this as I am flying over a city called Kirkuk, a couple of hundred km north of Baghdad, Iraq on the way home from Dubai. At first glance, and from this high up the area looks arid and empty. At a closer glance, you’ll see the makings of quite a prominent city. And then closer still, smaller towns and villages surrounding it. This must feed the big city with trade, employee, crops and livestock. Interesting comparison afoot.
This summertime quarter has been as busy as we had predicted and culminated in the Thirlmere Deacon London Team visiting the Dubai team and getting a taste of working from Business Bay. I can’t sit here and pretend that I knew what was going to happen this quarter other than that it would be busy. For example, I had expected the majority of our business, interest and sales this quarter to come from the big cities, such as Manchester and Birmingham, as deals started to reappear in the market. However, what we saw, was in fact a vindication of our earlier efforts and belief in sourcing options in smaller towns and cities that offer the right mix of price point and rental demand for our investors. Allowing them to secure lower ticket assets with higher returns.
Among other wins, selling out our Wolverhampton and Redditch projects this quarter (242 apartments between them) was a big milestone for us as a company as well as our developer partners as it proves that hundreds of individual investors (along with their independent network of wives, husbands, accountants, IFAs, agents, social distanced mates at the pub etc) have all done their own due diligence and research and have come to the same conclusion that we have – there is a vast under-supply of quality rental property across the UK, and there are still certain areas where you get the right mix of socio-economic growth and available land to build on that allows an investor to secure a great, well priced asset and enjoy a handsome, minimum hassle yield.
Whilst delving down this “due diligence rabbit hole” over the last year or so, I have come across many interesting success stories for “Satellite Cities and Tertiary Towns”. The one I have regaled the most recently is that of a very prominent football pundit (no names mentioned – I’m trying to get him to agree to an interview) who himself had a decent on-pitch career back in the 80’s & 90’s but nothing like the vast sums top football players make these days. This shrewd young visionary, however, decided during his playing days to buy something in the region of 35 properties in Swindon – 30 years ago!! With the average property price today in Swindon at £242,153, that’s a passive portfolio that would be worth in the region of £8.5million today. Not to mention the 30 years of rent this quixotic goal-setter (and goal scorer) will have achieved over the life of his portfolio.
In short, buying low and selling high has been the generic investment mantra, but I suggest buying low and never selling at all if you are looking at securing a long term future of financial freedom.
The TD Focus Q4
As the last quarter has proven, it’s particularly difficult in these times to predict what the next 3 months has in store. All I can assure you of is that we will continue to offer innovative and creative buy to let products that will help those that want to sure up and secure their financial freedom.
Uncertainty always breeds opportunity. During this last couple of years, we’ve been perfecting our groundbreaking 10 year residential rental assurance packages, and in these uncertain times, they are proving extremely popular. Q4 will see the launch of 2 new sites on that now tried and tested model.
Sir John Templeton proved it best when attributing much of his investment success to “maintaining an elevated mood, avoiding anxiety and staying disciplined!”
So let’s all take a leaf out of Sir John’s book, stay positive and focus on growth and prosperity.
