Bournemouth Property Investment Guide

£40 million of regeneration will boost buy-to-let investments

Bournemouth’s location has made it a popular destination for tourists, attracting over five million visitors annually with its beaches and popular night-life. It has a financial sector that is worth more than £1,031.8 million in GVA.

The town is also a regional centre of business, home of the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC) a large venue that hosts many conferences, bands and is one of the Premier League Darts annual venues.

Tourism is also important to the local economy. In 2011 domestic and overseas visitors made more than 5.6 million trips to the town and spent over £460 million between them. The equivalent of 8,531 full-time jobs exist, this accounts for 15% of all employment in the town. Bournemouth seafront is one of the UK’s biggest attractions with 4.5 million visitors in 2011.

Located on the south coast directly to the east of the Jurassic Coast, it contains a 96 mile World Heritage Site. According to the 2011 census, the town has a population of 183,491 making it the largest settlement in Dorset. With Pool located to the west and Christchurch to the east, Bournemouth forms the South East Dorset conurbation, which has a total population of over 400,000.

Property prices in the area are just a little above that of the Dorset average, which is unsurprising being a vibrant seaside town and having two universities in the vicinity. Last year sold prices were up 8% on the previous year and 6% on 2010. With the huge student population here Bournemouth is an excellent investment choice for buy-to-let investors.

With 4,000 residents per square kilometre, Bournemouth has the highest population density of any authority in the south-west region and is the eighth most populated. The largest group of people moving into the area are students in the 16-24-year age group, with 9% of the current population being between 20 and 24, around 2% higher than the UK average.

With a third of all town centre businesses in the leisure industry, Bournemouth has a booming economy and it contributes around £125 million a year and supports 4,000 jobs. In 2010 the town was awarded a Purple Flag for providing a wide variety of night-time activities while maintaining the safety of both residents and visitors.

With sustainability high on many people’s agenda, Bournemouth eateries have no trouble keeping it local. You are spoilt for choice with beautiful cheeses and amazing artisan bread all produced within Dorset and Hampshire.

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Economy & Employment

The service sector is the main driver of Bournemouth’s economy.

Similarly to the rest of Dorset, Bournemouth’s economy is primarily in the service sector, which employed 95% of the workforce in 2010. This was 10% higher than the average employment in the service sector for Great Britain and 11% higher than the south-west. 

Of particular importance are the financial and public service sectors which through 2011 continued to show sustained growth. Compared to the rest of the country, Bournemouth performed well in these two areas.

Financial sector employees include JP Morgan, Nationwide Building Society alongside Liverpool and Victoria, Unisys and RIAS insurance companies.

Of those employed in Bournemouth based industries, 29.32% were employed in the public administration, education and health sector. This compares favourably with Dorset, the south-west region and the country as a whole, as do the other large sectors; distribution, hotels & restaurants (29.06%), and banking, finance and insurance (24.48%)

Discover more with the Bournemouth Property Investment Guide download.

Investment

The £40 million regeneration of Bournemouth town centre is underway.

The project is being delivered by The Bournemouth Development Company (BDC), a public-private partnership involving Bournemouth Borough Council and Morgan Sindall Investments.

The Madeira Road scheme will bring a number of benefits. Student accommodation is a very appropriate residential use of the site which will help to increase the number of people living in the town centre, so affording additional vibrancy and life together with an economic boost to local traders.

Regeneration in Boscombe is also underway.  It has a vibrant community network, strong cultural history, stunning beach location and award-winning parks! It’s therefore easy to see the economic potential of the area, the aims are to:

  • Improve the quality of accommodation across all tenures.
  • Encourage more working households to move into the area.
  • Restore the architectural look of the area.
  • Make Boscombe a place to be proud of

Transport

Air: A choice of scheduled and charter services are available to a large range of short and long haul destinations from Bournemouth Airport and others in the region.  Access to London’s Heathrow and Gatwick Airports is also easy with convenient train and coach connections.

Rail: A fast service operates to/from London Waterloo in as little as 97 minutes. Many lines also serve Southampton, Winchester and Basingstoke to the East, with Poole, Wareham, Dorchester and Weymouth to the West. Other train lines offer direct trains to Reading, Oxford, Birmingham & the Midlands, Manchester and the north-west, Yorkshire (Sheffield, Leeds, York), Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland.

Road: If you do decide to travel by car to the South Coast’s premier resort make sure you plan your journey ahead of time and look into visiting the surrounding areas like the New Forest, Stonehenge and Salisbury.

Bus: There is a great local bus service with regular routes to Poole, Bournemouth Railway Station and Christchurch. There are also buses which go further out to Salisbury, Swanage and the Purbecks, so visiting Bournemouth and the surrounding areas couldn’t be easier.

Education

The borough of Bournemouth has an excellent education system. It contains 26 primary, 10 secondary,  2 grammar and a few independent schools, alongside award-winning universities.

Further Education: Arts University Bournemouth is a further and higher education university, it specialises in arts, performance, design and media. It was named No.1 Creative University in the Which? University 2012 survey. In November 2012, the University also attained a 97.7% employment rate.

Higher Education: Bournemouth University is higher education finalist for commendations including the University of the Year and Research Project of the Year. Bournemouth University invests heavily in research to maximise its contribution to the regional economy. It currently has over 16,000 students, including over 1,500 international students.

A large student population benefits your investment

Bournemouth is an increasingly popular destination for education in the south-west so there’s a big need for student accommodation. As many lower-end properties are rented by students there is a huge demand in the market for higher-quality residences required by commuters and professionals. This makes Bournemouth the perfect place to purchase a new build investment that will attract a reliable professional tenant.

Shops & Leisure

Shopping: Bournemouth’s shopping streets are mostly pedestrianised with modern shopping malls, It also contains Victorian arcades and a large selection of bars, clubs and cafés. North of the centre there is an out-of-town shopping complex called Castlepoint, a 41-acre site with 40 units, it was the largest shopping centre in the UK when it opened it 2003.

Dining: International cuisine is also well represented in Bournemouth and the surrounding area. The suburbs of Winton and Charminster, located a couple of miles from Bournemouth town centre, have a wide range of offerings. Nestled alongside popular Italian and Indian restaurants, you’ll find Lebanese, Mongolian, Mexican and Indonesian dishes to tempt you.

Sport & Culture: Bournemouth is a tourist and regional centre for leisure, entertainment, culture and recreation. Local author and former mayor, Keith Rawlings, suggests that Bournemouth has a thriving youth culture due to its large university population and many language school students

Green Spaces: Boscombe Chine Gardens, a fantastic mix of flowers, grassy areas, water, trees and wildlife, the gardens bring together their Victorian past. You can also enjoy crazy golf, have fun in the water-themed play area or simply relax with a cup of tea. Alum Chine Tropical Gardens, dating back to the 1920s is a tropical retreat, home to a haven of unusual plants. Bournemouth Lower, Central and Upper Gardens, provide everything from sunbathing in the summer to picnics or a relaxing afternoon with the children.


Brett Alegre-Wood
December 28, 2017

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