Property as an asset class has outperformed equities and fixed income for decades, according to Money Management’s special report on mortgages, providing a solid basis for income.
Booming property prices have offered growth over the past few years - data from LSL Property Services shows residential property prices increasing at twice the pace of earnings, up 5.5 per cent annually compared to 2.1 per cent salary growth - but direct property investment is also offering opportunities for income.
There are a number of ways investors can access the property market. The easiest and cheapest route is through either an open-ended fund or a real estate investment trust (Reit).
But buy-to-let is growing in popularty, especially within retirement planning as the freedoms kick in.
Borrowing to buy a property within pension schemes such as SSASs and Sipps is also a popular tool in the accumulation phase..
The mortgage landscape has undergone a significant shift in recent years, largely prompted by the crash.
A feature on specialist lending argues that the issues that caused the crash were not so much to do with the lending model, but the fact that the wrong people were using it.
It further explains that self-certification, specialist and sub-prime lending are not synonymous, but are frequently used interchangeably.
But the demise of sub-prime and self-cert has tarnished the perception of specialist lending.
Despite this, the specialist market has reinvented itself to recover, and represents a growing sector of the mortgage market
The special report, featuring both features, is available to view by clicking here.
