Some say that you can have too much of a good thing. The rude health on display from Liverpool’s student property market has already attracted the usual cavalcade of naysayers and sceptics. They say that one of the biggest cogs of the Northern Powerhouse is on course to have this bubble well and truly burst.
But the UK student accommodation market in 2018 is stronger than ever and only ever picking up pace. The constant, loud demand for high-end luxury student properties is encouraging new builds and developments at a rapid rate. The huge and boisterous growth of Liverpool is heavily aided and abetted by the student property market, and there are plenty of reasons why the city won’t be having bubbles bursting any time soon.
Liverpool attracts a high number of students to enrol in its many, reputable higher education institutions. Just under 70,000 students perform their studies in Liverpool. With these figures expected only to grow year on year, it seems demand will not cease or even diminish for the long-term future.
The University of Liverpool is ranked as one of the top 1% of higher education institutions in the world, while its contemporaries, Liverpool John Moores University and Liverpool Hope University are reputable homes of education with high attendance numbers growing year on year.
Meanwhile other parts of the UK, London in particular, the steep demand and pressure on new developments would cause prices to rise steeply, Liverpool is able to offer tenants and landlords low prices and high yields respectively.
Liverpool has quickly gained a solid reputation for this. Three of its postcodes rank in the UK’s top ten most profitable student property areas. Toxteth, Kensington and the city centre return average yields of between 9.5% to 11.7% and prices that rank among some of the most favourable in the country.
Even if house prices were to rise at a faster rate than the national average, Liverpool’s relatively low purchase prices will soften the blow and stave off any fears of a spiralling market and untenable costs for landlords and their tenants.
That is not to say that low prices are any indicator of quality. The new developments that are being and supplied to meet the demand are of the highest quality and are in line with the accommodation demands of the modern student.
Buy-to-let property investment market leader RW Invest are one such company who offer high end luxury student accommodation at prices lower than across the rest of the UK.
Liverpool also reaps the benefits of attracting a high volume of overseas students, particularly from China and other Far East countries. It is this influx of Asian students that has quickly and quietly changed the face of buy-to-let student property, especially in Liverpool.
Students from China, who make up a big percentage of Liverpool’s student population, are far more likely to take up longer tenancy agreements with buy-to-let landlords. Unlike their peers from the UK and other nations, Chinese students are more inclined to take up tenancies for the entirety of an academic year instead of a term-by-term basis.
That offers more security and stability in a rapidly growing market and will do more to prevent a sharp rise in prices that would destabilise the student property market.
The question of whether Liverpool’s student property market will fall victim to a bubble appears to have a clear answer. With its low prices, high yields, constant influx of students, high demand for luxury accommodation and the growing numbers of students stampeding to the city annually, you wouldn’t be wrong in thinking that the city has a long way to go before fears will need to be allayed.