Couple put savings into property
Updated on 06 November 2008
A wealthy couple have paid £3 million upfront for 11 luxury apartments because they have decided the money is safer in property than it is in the bank.
The unnamed couple have bought the two-bedroom flats in the exclusive Harbourside development in Bristol, overlooking the historic Great Britain.
Developer Crest Nicholson said the couple, who are from north Somerset, wanted to withdraw their money from the bank and invest in bricks and mortar as a safer option. Prices for the flats snapped up by them range from £239,950 for a two-bed on a lower floor of the development, to a penthouse priced at £399,950.
The Crescent development comprises 268 apartments, 163 of which have been sold to buy-to-let investors. The deal is the largest purchase of flats by an individual investor although a firm has already bought 20 apartments.
Average rental prices on the two-bedroom flats are around £1,100 a month. Letting out all 11 of the flats would yield the couple a return of £145,200 per year.
Vicky Dudbridge of King Sturge, the selling agents for the development, said more investors who have their funds in banks around the world are losing confidence in the system and moving their money into the property market.
She said: "We are increasingly seeing investors who want to get their money out of the banking system as quickly as possible. Although the property market is at a low, people have more confidence in it than the banks. We are almost 70% sold in The Crescent building here. From the middle of August to the end of October we had 27 sales.
"The property market will take time to recover, but at the end of it investors will still have their property and they will have gained an income from renting the property out."
Ed Osborn of The Bristol Residential Lettings Co, which handles much of the rental market at Harbourside, said: "The residential market is very good at Harbourside. We have rented out over 30 apartments there since September and are achieving £825pcm for one bedroom apartments and between £1,000 and £1,200pcm for two bedroom apartments.
"The rental market remains strong and I am not surprised investors are moving their money into bricks and mortar at the moment as they will at least gain an income from their investment, which is more than can be guaranteed from the banks."
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