As the Winter nights draw in and with nothing on the television, the significant other and myself like to play the board game Monopoly. The buying and renting of property – it’s like a busman’s holiday for me!
Interestingly, the game was originally invented at the turn of the 20th Century (in 1903) and the game was initially called ‘The Landlord’s Game’. Not many letting agents in London will know that, but I pride myself on useful bits of property information.
Anyway, after a few years in the wilderness, the current owners of the game re-named it in 1935 and so began Monopoly as we know it today.
This got me thinking – if you were a property landlord in London, what would a Monopoly board look like today in the city, and how would house prices vary in BS postcodes?
Property prices over the last 80 years have certainly increased beyond all recognition, so looking at the original board, I have substituted some of the original streets with the most expensive and least expensive locations in London today.
As a leading letting agent, knowing the most competitive house prices in BS postcodes is essential information for our buy-to-let landlord clients.
Initially, I have focused on the BS8 postcode only, looking at the Brown Squares on the board.
The ‘new’ Old Kent Road in London today would be Cumberland Place, with an average value £128,400 per property, and Whitechapel Road would be Chelsea Vale Close, which would be worth £192,200.
What about the posh dark blue squares of Park Lane and Mayfair? Again, looking at BS8, Park Lane would be College Fields at £871,300 and Mayfair would be Chelsea Vale at £913,700.
However, look a little further afield from the BS8 postcode, and such roads as Mariners Drive in Sneyd Park would claim the prestigious Mayfair card at a whopping £1,137,500.
Also, I can’t forget the train stations – which are my favourite squares – and over the last 12 months, the average price that property within a quarter mile of the station sold for was £227,600.
This also got me thinking what you would have paid for a property in London back in 1935, when the Monopoly game came out?
The average London detached house today is worth £429,300 – and would have set you back 776 Pounds 14 shillings and 7 old pence.
The average London semi- detached house today is worth £278,160 – and would have set you back 503 Pounds 5 shillings and 5 old pence.
The average London terraced town house today is worth £241,080 – and would have set you back 436 Pounds 3 shillings and 8 old pence.
The average London apartment today is worth £213,920 – and would have set you back 387 Pounds and 11 old pence.
If that sounds like another currency, you must be in your 20’s or 30’s, because it was back in February 1971, that Britain went decimal and 100s of years of everyday currency was turned into history overnight.
On 14th of February of that year, there were 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound. The following day all that was history and the pound was made up of 100 new pence. This isn’t information that most of our London letting agents are aware of!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this bit of fun, but underlying all this is one important fact.
Property investment in London is a long-term game which has seen impressive rises over the last 80 years.
In my previous articles, I’ve talked about what is happening on a month-by-month or annual basis and if you’re going to invest in the London Property Market, you should consider the London property you buy as a medium-term to long-term investment.
Buy-to-let property investment in London is pretty much what it sounds like – you buy a property in order to rent it out to tenants.
As I reminded a soon-to-be first time property landlord from Keynsham the other week, buy-to-let in London (as in other parts of the Country) is very different from owning your own home.
When you become a property landlord in London, you are in essence running a small business – one with important legal responsibilities.
On that note, I want to remind private landlords in all BS postcodes of the recent and future changes in legislation when it comes to the buy-to-let market.
This year, rules have changed about tenant deposits, carbon monoxide detectors, and early in the New Year buy-to-let landlords will have responsibilities to do immigration checks on all their tenants.
Failure to adhere to them will mean a minimum of heavy fines or in some cases, prison – it’s a minefield of legislation, and our London letting agents advise property landlords around the 80 pieces of property legislation relevant to letting out properties on a daily basis.
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