Invest in Salt River and Woodstock, the home of turnkey properties
Category Newsletter: Article
To thrive in the Cape Town rental market, investors need to pay special attention to two critical elements: design and amenities.
The flats and homes they reside in are selected for many tenants leasing in the R8,000 to R20,000 range because they meet their design aspirations and amenity needs.
That need can be summed up as a turnkey property.
These turnkey properties might not be within reach if they pursued buying.
But, for investors and landlords, these young professionals often make outstanding tenants if your property can furnish their needs.
Why Are Turnkey Properties a Profitable Investment?
For years, investors have been advised about the profit-making in an apartment or home that needs remodeling. The implication is that you can attain these properties for a song and then rent them for far more. In certain instances, this still applies, but investors should scrutinise the underlying cost.
Some of the underlying costs include regular maintenance. For example, an older flat can be prone to leaks and structural damage that builders may not uncover during the renovation, leaving owners on the hook for thousands to fix these issues and keeping the apartment dormant for months.
Furthermore, an older block may come with existing tenants and owners who don't reflect the calibre of tenants you're targeting, making it a challenge to get serious tenant applications.
Turnkey properties solve those hurdles by ensuring the only cost you're spending, often for years after the purchase, is the cost to buy the apartment or home.
Prospective tenants appreciate the modern design, accompanied by a newer block, resulting in plenty of serious applications and lower vacancy rates.
A newer block of turnkey apartments can also mean buyers are leveraging an existing waiting list of tenants.
All these benefits make turnkey properties a far more advantageous purchase than a "renovator's dream."
Four Reasons Salt River and Woodstock Have Emerged as Superior Suburbs for Turnkey Property Investment
The burgeoning need for turnkey properties in the middle-income rental market has caused developers to flock to suburbs throughout the city to build turnkey properties. But nowhere do turnkey properties meet amenity-rich surroundings and ROI than Woodstock and Salt River.
The flats and homes in these suburbs tick all the boxes: proximity, cost, return on investment, and a rich rental market.
Proximity
Salt River and Woodstock are within a short drive of the Northern and Southern Suburbs, Cape Town CBD, West Coast, and Atlantic Seaboard.
The proximity means apartments and homes in these suburbs target several types of tenants, including those who work in the city, UCT or CPUT students, and professionals who work from home but need access to the city's pulse for meetings.
Yet it's active professionals who most often flock to these suburbs because they're close to the V&A Waterfront, the Atlantic Seaboard's beaches, and the city's nightlife.
Renters don't only seek out Salt River and Woodstock because of their closeness to what other suburbs offer but also because of their amenities.
Salt River is a budding CBD, with smaller companies in Tech and creative industries choosing to anchor there rather than in the city.
Woodstock is an arts and culture district of note, with events and entertainment spaces that lean on the suburb's long history to draw in crowds.
Then, the expected Amazon headquarters planned for the Observatory River Club will bring a surge in demand to neighbouring suburbs.
Cost
Unlike other amenity-rich suburbs, Salt River and Woodstock still offer investors value.
Turnkey properties in these suburbs go for far less than properties with similar amenities in neighbouring suburbs.
As more investment is poured into the region, these prices will surge, but for now, the area is a bargain.
Investors can also pass on those cost savings to tenants, multiplying demand in an area where they can achieve their aspirations without the price tag of Green Point, Sea Point, and Cape Town's CBD.
Return on Investment
Investors buying in Salt River and Woodstock can also expect to leverage the predicted rising rents and lower vacancy rates to achieve profitability quickly.
Woodstock and Salt River properties still enable investors to consistently achieve rentals above the recommended one per cent of the purchase price. This means covering expenses like vacancies, maintenance, property management, and rates and levies can be accomplished without charging exorbitant rentals.
Furthermore, reasonable property costs enable investors to profit when they sell, even as other suburbs' purchase prices take a battering.
Rental Market
As previously mentioned, Woodstock and Salt River attract young professionals. But the area's revitalisation also means it's attracting families, multi-generational families and holidaymakers. Many of these groups are flocking to Salt River, and Woodstock for the same reason young professionals do.
Having variety in the tenant market is a bonus for investors, as it signals that irrespective of the type of Turnkey property pursued - studio apartment to three-bedroom home - there will be qualified tenants clamouring to reside there.
In the kind of economic climate South Africa faces, Salt River and Woodstock have the foundation to maintain their prices and emerge as the most resilient rental markets in the city.
Author: Coastal Property Group
