2009 was a great year to make use of cheap buy to let properties according to figures. Official British Government stats show the price of the average UK house rose by 3% in the 12 months leading to the end of December 2009. This bought the cost of a house to a little over £200,000 and it was the eighth month in a row that house prices had risen. Last year saw many below market value houses on the market as people were forced into selling homes because of job losses and banks repossessed others and then put them up for sale to cover the debts that they were owed.
England, Scotland and Wales all saw a rise in the cost of houses but Northern Ireland saw house prices drop by a whopping 6% on the previous year. It will also come as no surprise that the area that boasted the highest rise in the average price of a house is London, with a rise of 4.9% throughout 2009. The prices have continued to rise going into this year, but some fear that prices could all drop again as the world comes to grips with the continuing effects of the recession. Last year was a good time for people to look into cheap buy to let properties as a way of earning money.
Other experts in the property industry claim that the increase in house prices is a short-term fad and that by 2011, the UK housing market will again fall into chaos due to the mortgage lenders needing to pay back the £300b they borrowed to keep the mortgage economy going. They say this will restrict the amount of money that lenders can offer buyers, thus forcing prices back down and into the hands of the would-be purchaser with below market value houses dominating the market.