Sourcing Manchester Properties for Hong Kong/Chinese Investors

Since 2004 Property Fit has been sourcing houses for Hong Kong clients in Manchester. We have sourced over 450 properties worth £35M.

Property Fit manages the whole process which includes talking to clients about their brief, finding suitable properties, negotiating the price, managing the purchase process, managing any repairs and overseeing the letting of the property. We can’t give any financial advice as we are not qualified to do so.

Increasingly we are sourcing Manchester properties for overseas investors with the majority coming from Hong Kong. We are very used to dealing with investor clients from Hong Kong and understand what their requirements are. We understand that our Hong Kong clients have different needs to our UK (typically London) clients. We make sure that we provide any information that is needed, including a full set of photos and a video walk around the property.

This really helps to bring the investment opportunity to life for our clients who are not able to visit the property themselves. We are also used to requesting certified documents from our Hong Kong clients such as proof of identity, proof of funds and proof of address so that we can nominate a lawyer on behalf of our clients.

We are extremely lucky to have a member of the Property Fit team who is a dual Cantonese/English speaker. We understand that the time in Hong Kong is seven hours ahead of the UK and we can make ourselves available for customer enquiries earlier in the day to answer queries (from 7am UK time, 2pm Hong Kong time). Most of our communication is via email but we are also happy to communicate via ‘WhatsApp’ when needed. As we are based in Manchester we are experts in Manchester property and dealing with customers from the UK or Hong Kong.

 

A recent property example that we sourced for a Hong Kong client.

East Manchester, purchase price £130K, 2 bedroom mid terrace property with no repairs. Rent = £695 per month. Gross Rental Yield = 6.4%. Even with no repairs we always budget at least £1K of minor repairs as we know that when owners move out of properties there will be some minor repair issues that need to be attended to. We know that our remote clients prefer to have the minimum amount of repairs so that properties are sourced and let as quickly as possible.

The typical gross yield that we are achieving for this type of house is between 6% – 7%. It has to be noted that the Manchester property market is strong at the market and that it is a seller’s market. Quite often we have to pay the full market price to secure the property. Our focus is to get properties that will rent really well and will achieve the gross yield target with minimal repairs. With the market being so strong at the moment our close relationships with local estate agents ensure that we are one of the first viewers to see a property on behalf of our clients.

One of the benefits of buying Manchester terraced houses is that there is very strong demand in the working-class boroughs, particularly in East and North Manchester. The City Centre and South Manchester are also very strong rental demand areas however the prices are a lot higher and a gross yield of between 6% – 7% cannot be achieved in those areas.

In the Manchester working-class boroughs, there are strong rental areas and an additional benefit is that the house do not have to be furnished and white goods (such as fridge and freezer) do not have to be supplied. The benefit of this is that tenants bring their own furniture and white goods and in our experience look after the property better. Typically rental periods are an average of up to two years however it can be much longer with good tenants in these types of houses.

Contact us to discuss your requirements on 0161 327 3097 or email info@property-fit.com or on the website www.property-fit.com. We look forward to hearing from you and becoming your trusted property sourcing partner to help grow your investment portfolio. Property Fit is a trading style of A. Bradwell (UK) Ltd. We are members of the Property Ombudsman and comply with all regulations as required.