Tyneside Flats are they a great investment?

If you’re not from the North-East you probably won’t know what a Tyneside flat is? These are typical investment properties where a terraced house...

If you’re not from the North-East you probably won’t know what a Tyneside flat is?

These are typical investment properties where a terraced house has been split into two flats, uniquely with the top flat owning the freehold of the bottom flat and the bottom flat owning the freehold of the top.

Are these good investments?

I’d say – yes & no. I own a couple of Tyneside flats and they’re typically high yielding, rents in the region of £350 to £500 and you can still pick up flats in Bensham, Gateshead for £50kish.

The problem with them is if something goes wrong with the flat you don’t own. The roof leaks or there’s water damage into your flat. You then end up having to negotiate with a third party you don’t know or claiming through your insurance. We’ve had this a couple of times and it’s always a bit awkward and difficult.

Lower flats typically will have more issues and so are often cheaper.

Overall we’d say they’re a solid addition to your portfolio but the caveat being with flats you’re always going to have more churn than a family home purely due to people outgrowing them.

With a house, families tend to stay longer due to their children attending the local school. So what appears to be a higher yield may end up being lower once the churn and voids are taken into account.

We’d always recommend a house over a flat for that reason – also we see better house price growth in family homes, owned by owner-occupiers rather than investors.

In some Tyneside flats, we occasionally see damp issues, especially with regard to gutters, down pipes and airbricks. Again with shared ownership, this can be a bit of a problem.

Chris our senior property manager, recently attended a flat to problem solve a damp issue to try and save the landlord money. Often finding the cause rather than paying for the effect can save you thousands…See video below:

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• Contact us today by phone or email to move your property to us.
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• We’ll contact your tenant to resolve any rent, maintenance or refurbishment issues you have, arranging a property visit if required.
• We’ll begin the process of maximising your income and wealth.