Modelling your property portfolio growth – is 5% annual growth reasonable?

I’m relatively new to property investing, having become an accidental landlord 6 months after buying my first property in 2006. I now have 3 properties, the last of which was the first purpose bought investment (#2 was my wifes flat which we’ve kept). 

I am very goal driven, so I’ve had a go at forecasting various scenarios for expanding my fledgling property empire so I can get a picture of when I will be able to ‘retire’ from my day job and be a full time property investor / vagabond:). The question is; what assumption would you build in for the average annual growth in your property portfolio value over this period of time?

At the moment I’ve done a ‘worst case’ scenario of 3%, and a medium case of 5% per property. Two of the properties are in London (South, and South West), and one is in Bristol. The portfolio is worth around £700k.

Based on the 5% model, I’ll be able to acquire another 2 properties by 2022, which I hope is realistic. It will also allow me to reach my early retirement goal of retiring before I’m 45! 🙂

Regards

Marius (HK)