As a Hong Kong based company (actually our team is quite multi-cultural!), we get this question over and over again – “why do you invest in the UK?”.
There are a few factors that make investing in the UK a good decision.
1.Popular place for work and study
A beautiful country full of incredible sceneries and historical sites, the UK has always been a popular country for tourists.
It also offers great job opportunities and has got renowned universities that make it even more attractive for overseas students. According to Universities UK, there were 538,615 international students studying in the UK in 2019/2020. The majority of students need to find somewhere to stay during their academic years.
2.Shortage of social housing
The housing crisis in the UK has slowly begun in the 1980s when the Right to Buy scheme with big discounts was introduced. Since then the money councils receive for creating new homes was reduced and there is less supply of social housing, the shortage of housing has gradually become a bigger problem. There are currently 1.6 million households that are in need of social housing, over 500,000 of these households are on the waiting list (2020). The government relies heavily on private landlords to provide more housing to the market. There are fines issued on owners who leave their house empty for over 6 months and the local authorities also offer guaranteed rents for owners who rent out their property to the government for the use of social housing.
3.Regeneration schemes all over the countries
There are massive regeneration schemes in different parts of the UK which aim to modernise some older parts of the city centres to make them attractive again for people to live in. For instance, the Liverpool Waters is a £5.5bn inner-city regeneration project and the MediaCityUK is a £2bn project that transformed Salford Quay’s derelict docklands in Manchester. All of these big development projects call for contractors and short-term accommodations in the area.
4.Strong rental market
Because of the continuous growth of house prices, it has never been more difficult for first-time buyers to get on the property ladder. Therefore, most people choose to rent their homes rather than buy one. Bringing rundown or outdated properties up to local authorities’ standards not only is a profitable business but also helps solve some housing problems.
5.Stable market, strong currency
For overseas investors, this is a factor not to be ignored, especially if you are investing with your home currency and are looking to take out some or all of your profit from the property deal in the future. The Pound Sterling has stayed strong for more than 2 decades and very seldom drastically decreases in value.
If you would want to invest in the UK but don’t know where to start, get in touch and we are happy to find out how we could help!