Our decision to invest in the UK Property Market was based on a number of positive economic circumstances that we believed would lead to tremendous capital growth and wealth creation.
Firstly, the United Kingdom is a triple "A" rated economy.
Secondly, property prices in the UK have on a historic basis doubled every seven years for the past 100 years.
Thirdly, future demand is set to vastly outstrip supply.
There has over the last 10 years been a steady but rapid decline in new housing completions and this has resulted in the lowest number of new homes being completed for 77 years.
The UK in 2001 built just 162,000 homes whilst household growth over the same period was 220,000.
(Source: House Building Federation) Furthermore, 7.
6 percent of the nation's housing stock was classified as unfit in 1996.
15,000 houses were demolished in 2001 widening further the gap between the number of homes available and those in need of housing.
In short the average annual deficit of houses needed in the UK is 73,000.
This situation has been compounding itself and will form a definite basis for future capital growth across the entire country.
Finally and in accordance to a recent report from the National Housing Federation (NHF), prices are predicted to rise by a further 40% in the next few years.
By the time of the 2012 Olympics, the average property price in London will be over 500,000 GBP.
The current London average property price is 318,864 GBP.
After having decided that the UK was a country in which to invest we set about conducting research so as to determine which areas in the UK where likely to go up in value faster than the national average.
This research then got published in what we call our location reports.
Location Reports are used to identify our reasoning for investing in certain areas.
These reports are normally about 50 to 60 pages in length and primarily cover changes in infrastructure developments such as national ports, rail & road as well as airport expansions.
We also cover major funding initiatives such as structural and objective funding from both the EU as well as from central government.
We also take a long and hard look at the local rental markets to determine both current and future rental yields.
This involves examining the areas major employers as well as demand for rental accommodation.
Two years ago we identified the area of Thanet as our choice location and in particular the towns of Margate and Ramsgate.
We then set about negotiating with local developers and were able to structure a deal in which we secured 15 units on behalf our investors in a development named Lime Grove.
Due to our combined buying power we were able to purchase the units at below market values.
(This was only possible because we were committing to 15 units.
) These units then took a number of years to build and during this time our investors got to enjoy the above average capital growth that the area was experiencing.
By the time we took transfer they had gone up in value from the original purchase price of 135,950 GBP and we could have immediately offloaded them at 165,000 GBP.
Our initial deposit had in this time achieved a cash on cash return of over 300%.
The area is, amongst other things, currently benefiting from a major upgrade to the train link infrastructure which will dramatically reduce travelling times into central London.
By 2009 three high-speed trains per hour will link Ramsgate to London (St.
Pancras).
Journey times will fall to as little as 63 min.
This will then put Ramsgate well within the commuter belt and it is our opinion that Ramsgate will see a huge influx of London home buyers that will choose to live in this popular seaside town.