UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi all,

I'm new here but just wondered if anybody has some local knowledge of the
Clapham area in SW London as I'm trying to do some research on investing ina small property here as I have heard it is an extremely popular place to
live hence less chance of a void. Property is expensive to say the least so if anybody has any experience of being a Clapham (or surrounds) landlord
any feedback would be great.
Thanks in advance.

Take the train to clapham junction and canvass the locals

That's what I'd do if my heart was set to buy investment property in a specific part of London.

Hello aflynn,

Sorry but my analystica side is hurting really badly here.  You say you're interested in Clapham because you want to have a very small void period between tenants.  That kind of implies that Clapham is the only place with short void periods in the UK.

In my experience (and I don't have any property in Clapham) the void period is not dictated by the area.  It's dectated by:
1 - Do you want to do any modernisation / maintenance between tenants (which is a voluntary thing)
2 - Has the tenant left the place immaculate / a stinking dump.  If the latter, there will be a void period whilst you sort out the mess left behind.

I have had the same property (in a desirable area) left like a palace.  I've also had it left needing nearly 35 man days work required on it because the tenant lived like a pig.  I would suggest to you that careful tenant selection and subsequent relationship management is far more important to determining a viod period than a postcode.

And if you avoid Clapham and buy an attractive place in a cheaper part of town, your financial gamble is lower.

Just some thoughts.  Please let us know what you decide to do and how it turns out.

Hi there,

The green open spaces and the area's convenient transport links make Clapham Southside a wonderful place to live.

When looking for apartments or houses for sale here, you'll find properties in the area have something to offer everybody – for families there are larger houses with generous gardens, close to excellent schools and nurseries, while young professionals can find excellent purpose-built or conversion flats for sale surrounded by the fantastic local nightlife as well.

We all like to see minimum priced offers on prime locations. You should conduct a property search through real estate agents to ease up your purchase. For example, Plazaestates.co.uk can provide you detailed information about rentals as well as properties for sale in SW and in every region of London too.

you ought to try Rightmove and compare relative flat prices and then make 'friends' with a reputable agent so they can feed you decent properties, preferably vacant. Lord Boris