Cradley Heath developers turn into Blackburn rovers in search of property hotspot
A BLACK Country property developer has identified Blackburn as a new buy to let hotspot after the town was named the best place in Britain to make a living.
Cradley Heath-based Stewardson Developments has opted to shift its focus north to the area and has pledged £1m to convert swathes of run-down properties into new homes.
The move follows a survey, carried out by a credit comparison site, which found the cost of housing in Blackburn was amongst the lowest in the country. This, combined with a strong job market is what marked the town out for the top spot – and which is likely to mean healthy margins for smart investors.
Blackburn estate agent Paul Ainsworth-Lord, who runs Ainsworth-Lord Estates, said interest in the area began five years ago.
“We identified development potential across the region long ago and have quietly been working with a group of developers and Investors for almost five years,” he said.
“There is a huge amount of derelict residential and commercial property and it’s great to encourage outside investors to breathe life back into these properties to create homes and jobs.
“We are careful to only work with investors we know will invest and improve our local communities and in doing so we have grown Ainsworth Lord Estates into a leading agent for sales and lettings in Lancashire.”
Phil Stewardson, who runs Stewardson Developments, with his brother Mark, has concentrated all their existing investment in the West Midlands.
However, after extensive research they now believe the area around the Lancashire town represents an opportunity for a substantial yield, and their business has already purchased 20 properties.
Phil said: “Two years ago we knew that we were moving towards an improving market and set about researching other areas to invest in. We considered four regions: Northern Ireland, North East, Devon/Cornwall borders and the North West.
“The North West stood out immediately as having huge potential, lots of businesses moving into the area, a plentiful supply of property ripe for development and excellent transport links.
“So as well as being confident in the area we found a superb sourcing and managing agent in Ainsworth Lord Estates that we could work with so started investing there 12 months ago. The strategy of buying poor quality houses, retail and industrial stock has worked well.
“By investing and bringing these up to a good standard we have found strong demand and our portfolio is going from strength to strength buying in Blackburn, Hyndburn, Burnley, Accrington and Darwen.”
