Having a broad understanding of the global financial micro market is vital before an investment. Especially if you want to make decisions and choose your properties wisely.
However, you shouldn’t underestimate the power of getting down the rabbit hole!
You know when you are really getting the grips with a market to identify useful investment opportunities.
What Factors Should You Consider?
Every city or region has a huge range of projects, challenges, and changes going on at any time. Sometimes, they overlap or interact, while in other cases, they might all be running independently of one another.
However, what do they all have in common?
They can affect factors such as property values and new business opportunities.
Regeneration projects provide some of the most interesting changes. This can help to increase the value of properties in certain areas.
If we look at the example of current urban renewal projects in New York City, we can see the likes of the top markets. These include Wave Hill, the Bronx and Governors Island, Manhattan listing.
These projects are often hugely successful in revitalizing failing communities and increasing properties while opening up new business projects.
Large infrastructure projects can also provide us with insights. The Rebuilding California website lists the current projects in the state, such as the Interstate 5 Stockton Bridge Replacement, which will be important in allowing commercial vehicles to cross from the Stockton Channel.
Additionally, 130,000 vehicles use it each day. Set to begin in 2026 and costing close to $1bn, this project could be of massive help. Especially when it comes to making the area more attractive.
Plus, it improves transport!
Navigating the Zoning Changes
Zoning changes are regular across the country. Plus, it can have a massive effect on the investment potential of the micro market area.
In fact, voters living in Milton, Massachusetts, are deciding to block possible zoning changes.
This would allow planners to add almost 2,500 housing units to the towns, so it’s the kind of decision that can have a big knock-on effect in terms of future investments.
One should also consider extremely large purchases, such as records, to understand how the local market is evolving.
A good example comes with the news of Chuck Roberts of Stifel, Nicolaus & Company buying Waterford at a record.
This purchase set a new record sale amount for Bay Point. Therefore, anyone considering making an investment should take it into account as a market indicator.
How well do you know the area?
The examples we’ve looked at so far are all US-based. But, the same principles apply when looking for investment opportunities anywhere in the world.
Understanding the local market factors is a solid way of getting a grip on an area. Since it helps to understand what kind of investment was made, it could be a good move for you.
This is clearly one of the issues to take into account before making a decision. Looking at urban regeneration projects in other places, we can see a few examples.
For example, in the UK, Birmingham, Liverpool, and Bracknell are listed as the areas with the most activity in this respect.
This can provide you with a good starting point. Especially when trying to decide where to invest in overseas property. Always know you need to know more details before you go ahead.
What are the new changes, and how are they likely to affect the property market?
Some areas can change drastically upon completion of a regeneration project. While others struggle to change their image and fail to register any significant upswing in property values afterward.
So, looking for future projects can be an effective way of seeing the currently undervalued properties you can buy.
This is obviously just the first step in the process if you choose this approach. You still have to look at all the other factors that will let you see whether the investment is worthwhile or not.
Understanding local factors as part of due Diligence
We could also look at this subject in the opposite way. Let’s say that you’re ready to invest in a property that you’ve identified in a certain area.
You won’t want to go ahead and close the deal on a micro market until you find out whether any of the types of new projects will affect it.
Let’s not forget that major infrastructure changes and other projects can have negative effects as well as positive ones.
You need to understand the scope of any work being planned so that you know if it’s something that could decrease the value of your investment in the future.
What if the work being done in a neighboring zone lowers the value of your property, or new transport links mean that it loses a degree of its value for commercial real estate purposes?
Therefore, checking for ongoing or upcoming projects has to be part of the due Diligence carried out for any property purchase.
This may be time-consuming to carry out, but it gives you a great insight into how the market might move soon.
If you don’t take this step, it could prove to be a big mistake, as you won’t have a clear and full vision of how the market is going to change.
Finally! Take the Time to Understand any Market
Each property market is unique and includes many factors that aren’t always immediately obvious.
This is why you need to take the time to get a good understanding of any market you plan to get involved with.
In some cases, the projects and purchases that could affect you are high profile and easy to spot, but in other cases, this may take some time and a lot of digging.
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