Property Investment Slough - Buy To Let & Off Plan

Slough – CityRise

Slough allows residents to live more

Affordably

As London has become increasingly unaffordable, Slough has begun attracting a large number of workers that can live more affordably but still be close to the capital.

Furthermore, as commercial office space and business rates have become gradually more costly in London, companies are looking at alternative locations for their offices and workforce. Slough has been a firm favourite destination for company migration and now has the highest concentration of UK headquarters of global companies outside of London.

159%
20-Year Price Growth
£3bn
Regeneration Plan
60,000
London Commuters

Investing in Slough

Slough is a property investment prospect like no other in the UK. This is largely due to the calibre of workers you can expect to live and work there. Slough has an abundance of headquarters, some of the highest salaries in the UK and unemployment levels a third of the national average. Large multinational companies such as Amazon, Mars UK, Blackberry and 02 have chosen to have a significant part of their operations there.

With such a strong economy and a fantastic pool of well-paid talent, the Slough rental market is extremely strong. The average person in Slough can afford much higher rents than almost anywhere else in the UK and are willing to pay these to live in the nicest properties. As a landlord, it is imperative you are confident of the rental values achievable in the area and are buying in a rental market that has a good pool of renters and is not saturated with properties. Slough ticks all these boxes.

Furthermore, as London property prices have become increasingly unaffordable, Slough offers workers an alternative outside the capital. Slough’s average property prices, although still high, are an astonishing £250,000 lower than London’s £630,000. This means investors can purchase property in touching distance of London, in an area with high rentals, certain strong capital growth for a much more affordable price. With expected yields of 4-5% you really do benefit from both strong yields and fantastic capital growth, something many UK cities fail to do.

A Transport Hub

One of the key reasons for this rise to prominence is Slough’s fantastic transport connections to London, other parts of the UK and international destinations. It is a mere 20-minute train journey from Slough to Paddington Station in central London. From Paddington there are fast train links nearby to the rest of the UK and to Europe. The town has direct access to the M4 Motorway which connects slough to towns such as Reading, Swindon, Bath, Bristol and Cardiff. Furthermore, Slough is within a 10-minute drive of Heathrow Airport, one of the busiest international airports in the world.

Despite the amazing existing transport links, Slough is about to receive an even bigger boost with the opening of the £14.8 billion Crossrail route. This new high frequency, high-capacity railway will connect even more commuter towns to central London locations such as Paddington, Liverpool Street and Canary Wharf. When it opens in 2021, an extra 1.5 million people will be within 45 minutes of central London, Slough being a town directly on the new railway line. The new line will have a monumental impact on an already flourishing property market.

All in all, Slough is certainly a very good proposition and one that should be strongly considered. With towns inside the London Commuter Belt continuing to prosper and the introduction of even better transport links with the new Crossrail line, Slough is certain of success. The additional workers and businesses expected to arrive over the next year will push up rent prices and therefore house prices. It would be wise to invest sooner rather than later in this fast-growing town