Brighton still bright for buy-to-let

In the last few years Brighton has been one of the places that has attracted high levels of attention in the property market. While provincial locations have introduced city centre living for apartment-dwelling professionals as their local economies grow, Brighton has offered something distinctly different.

While cities such as Manchester like to proclaim themselves regional capitals and alternatives to London, Brighton does the opposite, basing much of its appeal on being accessible from the capital and having a London atmosphere. At the same time, it offers coastal attractions that the mostly landlocked cities of the midlands and north do not have.

These attributes were emphasised as a major part of the Brighton appeal by Charlie Snell, director of housefinder firm Brighton and Hove Family Homes. He stated: "It's one of the only places outside London that sort of maintains a London feel to it and where you don't feel like you are in a provincial town."

At the same time, he said, it was not quite the "London-on-sea" that some have described it as, with its own "funky" identity and many independent shops, said Mr Snell.

Nonetheless, Mr Snell commented that the city of Brighton and Hove had a wide range of attractions for Londoners, with the rapid rail connection provide by Thameslink, plus plenty of parks and sea air.

All of this makes the city good for buy-to-let, said Mr Snell, whose company is not involved in the rental market. Despite this, he had no hesitation in recommending Brighton for this sort of investment.

He stated: "Brighton has a strong buy-to-let market because there are two universities here and numerous other colleges and language schools and this helps the rental market. Also, people who want to move here usually rent first, just to test the water, so the rental market is extremely strong."

One fact which may help buy-to-let is the high level of house prices. In September 2007 Halifax noted that Brighton and Hove had seen 132 per cent house price growth since gaining city status in 2000, not the highest growth of the millennium cities (Inverness took that title) but still 24 per cent above the regional average.

Prices are unlikely to fall, most people agree. Mr Snell said a customer survey by his firm showed 70 per cent of people expect prices to stay put or rise.

Last week comma Sussex newspaper the Argus ran a story suggesting the area was in line for a price fall, but this was given short shrift by local estate agents, particularly those in Brighton. Chris Weatherstone of Weatherstone Properties told the paper: "It is going to be a slightly tougher market this year but the talk of a crash in Sussex is rubbish," while Barrie Alderton, of Barrie Alderton estate agents, said: "There's no reason why the property market will crash here. In Brighton you have no spare land."

Another recent sign also points to a bright future in the city. Property portal propertyfinder.com revealed earlier this month that Brighton was the most searched-for location on the site in relation to its size, with four times the national average level of interest, mortgageintroducer.com reported.

So Brighton, it would appear, looks to be an ongoing strong prospect both for the residential and buy-to-let markets.

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Jim Barnaby is a real estate investment broker and successful property investment adviser delivering research and selected UK and overseas property investment solutions with experience in spanish properties, french property investment, German property, Cyprus holiday homes, Property in Cape Verde, German property investment, cape verde property buy to let property