Greater protection for tenants

The Housing Minister Kris Hopkins announced earlier this month that the Government intends to bring in a range of extra measures to protect tenants later this year.

The initiative is entitled : "Stronger protection for tenants & leaseholders"

It smacks of talking tough (possibly to please their coalition partners).  Maybe the Tories are trying to  appeal to the tenant vote.  However, the raft of proposed measures thankfully lacks real teeth and most importantly any additional regulation.

In this case most landlords can breath a sigh of relief.

It's a case of being gummed by a toothless lion!  The measures are:

• a new voluntary code of practice for the management of property in the private rented sector.
• new help to rent guide.
• a model tenancy agreements for longer lets (good idea - but unlikely to be popular with landlords) - what the government need to do is practice a bit of nudge economics and give landlords letting with these tenancies additional tax advantages.
• extra guidance for local councils on how to tackle rogue landlords
• a discussion document on the conditions in the private rental sector

 Landlord insurance - professional rates - expert brokers

Most popular BTL mortgages

Max LTV	Initial Rate	Term	Completion fee	Booking fee	Incentives	Lender
85%	4.99% Fixed	2 Years	2.5%	£130.00	No	Kent Reliance Semi Exclusive
85%	5.99% Discount	2 Years	2.5%	£130.00	No	Kent Reliance Multi Let & Ltd Co. Semi Exclusive
80%	4.47% Fixed	2016-11-30	2%	£0.00	No	Saffron BS Semi Exclusive
80%	4.87% Fixed	2019-08-31	£995	£0.00	No	Saffron BS Semi Exclusive
80%	4.09% Discount	0 Years	£499	£100.00	No	Hanley Economic Exclusive
75%	2.84% Fixed	2016-06-30	£2495	£130.00	No	Accord Exclusive
75%	2.99% Fixed	2016-06-30	£2495	£130.00	Free valuation	Accord Exclusive
75%	2.88% Tracker	2 Years	2.5%	£150.00	Free valuation for purchases and remortgages & free legals on remortgages	Mortgage Trust Exclusive
75%	3.5% Discount	0 Years	0%	£0.00	No	Hanley Economic Exclusive
65%	5.27% Fixed	2016-11-30	2.5%	£0.00	No	Saffron BS Ex-Pat Semi Exclusive
60%	2.75% Discount	0 Years	0%	£250.00	Free standard valuation for properties up to £250,000. For properties over £250,000 then will contribute £260 towards the valuation	Hanley Economic Exclusive
60%	2.45% Discount	2 Years	£1950	£250.00	One free Valuation on properties valued up to £1,000,000	Hinckley & Rugby Exclusive

Search the whole BTL mortgage market free

Email: info@propertyhawkbtlmortgages.co.uk 

Tel: 029 2069 5446

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgages.  

The Financial Services Authority does not regulate some forms of mortgage.

---

 

Buy-to-let beats other investments

Buy-to-let is the best performing asset class over the last 18 years according to a study by former economist Rob Thomas.

His number crunching exercise shows that a £1000 invested in buy-to-let in 1996 would be worth £4,791 a compound growth rate of 9.7%.  This compares to the same amount invested in the  following asset classes:

• UK equities £3,082
•  UK government bonds £2924
• Cash £1949

If a landlord had geared up on their buy-to-let with a 75% mortgage returns would have lept to an annual rate of 16.3% and the £1000 would have become £13,048.

Mortgage search - finance my investment

Watch out for scammers

It's been a bizarre day on the landlord front.  You get them from time to time. It reminds your that landlording is about life in the raw and that you must always keep your wits about you.

Tenant change of plan

One of my tenants was due to move out by the end of this month.  Then a shock phone call asking whether he could stay because his plans of moving in with his ex has fallen through.  "Yeh ok" (the tenant C has been a reliable tenant so why would I not want him to stay).

Prospective tenant (scammer) getting desperate

Then within an hour of the existing tenant phoning me a prospective tenant phones me telling me that he was moving out of his previous place & that he'd spoken to the existing tenant and swears blind that he was still moving out ( subsequent call confirms that this was not the case).  So the prospective tenant expected to move in:

• without been referenced
• without responding to my requests to supply his bank statements
• & then giving me a bear faced lie
• without a guarantor agreement

Clearly this tenant thought he was going to try and 'bounce' me into entering into a tenancy agreement & then abuse their legal status.  So landlords ...watch out for scammers and don't be forced into signing a tenancy with a tenant you really don't won't.  Stand your ground and realise you are better off having your property empty for a few weeks rather than ending up with somebody who will make your whole landlording experience a nightmare.

Landlord insurance - tenant guarantee insurance - legal protection

Sequence report a rise in rents

The latest rent report from Sequence, the 300 strong letting agency chains that includes the Barnard Marcus, William H Brown and Fox & Sons brands show rising rents.

Their rental data shows a 1 percent rise in the last month, with average rents at £762 per month. New  tenancies have also seen a rise, up by 20% annually.

London rents have seen the biggest rises, with average rent up 4% annually to £1,427 per month, and new tenancies up by 37% on the year. The report claims that there are now six prospective tenants fighting over every new rental property in the capital.

Head of lettings for Sequence, Stephen Nation said 

‘The number of new rental properties coming onto the market has failed to keep up with demand, remaining flat on the month, which is why we have seen a growth in rents’.

Burnley extend landlord licensing scheme

BURNLEY Council’s executive committee has voted to extend a selective licensing scheme for landlords to include the Queensgate and Gannow areas. The extension to the scheme will begin in June. The landlord licensing scheme requires that landlords pass a ‘fit and proper person’ test, and prove that they have appropriate arrangements in place to properly manage their rental properties.

The extension of the licensing scheme will increase the number of rental properties by 1,220. Of these 15 per cent are empty.

Unsurprisingly the councils consultation reported that 9 out of 10 residents wanted the scheme, whilst  the majority of landlords didn’t.

Halifax Generation Rent Report 2014

The 2014 Halifax Generation Report from the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) commissioned by Halifax shows increasingly 20-45 year olds are left renting,  unable to buy property. The report predicts homeownership will reduce.

The report says -

• One in five of 23-27 year olds have no desire to own a home

• 48% predict Britain will increasingly become a nation of renters

• 86% of tenants are prepared to move to a cheaper rental property in order to save for a deposit to buy

• 57% of wannabe first time buyers want to save but have no spare cash to put by.

Commenting, Craig McKinlay, Mortgages Director at Halifax, said:

“With attitudes softening towards the social implications of renting, and the number of people who say they will never own a property increasing, we may be heading towards the point where the aspiration to own a nice home will be replaced by the aspiration simply to live in one. It seems that people are now beginning to accept a lifetime of renting and this would not only change the way the property ladder looks in the future, it could even bring into question whether or not it will exist at all for some people.”

Alun Humphrey, NatCen Senior Research Director, says:
“The homeownership profile of the UK is currently in a transient phase. If an increased supply of housing keeps prices stable and any economic recovery is felt, in real terms, by those for whom homeownership is currently out of reach, then we may see levels of homeownership start to ‘catch-up’ with those of previous generations.

“However, after a long recession and housing crisis, an increasing proportion of younger people have only ever known a difficult economy and housing market. We are starting to see signs of differing attitudes towards homeownership among younger people; if these do not change as they get older then the homeownership profile of the UK may move towards renting irrespective of the economic climate.”

Landlord overturns restrictive planning on HMO

A Worthing landlord has successfully had the planning constraints placed on a House in Multiple Occupation removed.

Restrictive planning constraints had been placed upon landlord Sean Adelphies HMO property that meant he could only operate the property if he lived on-site. The 25 bed property in Worthing, had previously been ran by the landlord as a care home since 1979 and these restrictive planning conditions were placed on the property following its change of use in 2011. 

Councillor Michael Cloake said: “I think it’s testament to the success of this so far that there’s no objections in here. In the three years it’s been running it seems to have been run very professionally.”

The planning committee voted to allow Mr Adelphie to manage the property from a separate address and continue to use the building as a multiple occupancy property.

Rotherham landlord fined £3000

A Rotherham landlord, Mohammed Tariq Iqbal, has been prosecuted by Rotherham Council for renting a property considered to be hazardous to the tenants. The rental property was damp, had holes in the walls, damaged floors and broken windows.

The landlord failed to meet an initial improvement notice for the rental property, and after two months the work required work was not carried out. 

Iqbal pleaded guilty, and was fined £3000, a £120 victim surcharge and court costs of £260.

Cambridge landlord con

A conman managed to steal thousands of pounds by posing as a Cambridge landlord after writing a rental advert on Gumtree that a attracted unsuspecting tenants to a an empty rental property.

Lithuanian Marius Sperauskas, 26, took rental deposit money totalling £5,400 from the prospective tenants he showed around an empty rental property that he'd somehow gained access to. The viewings lead to three couples agreeing tenancies only to arrive back at the rental property to find it already occupied.

Sperauskas was sentenced to 18 months by Judge Jonathan Hawkesworth, who in summary commented 

“It was a particularly mean and unpleasant offence because there you were a foreigner in this country targeting foreigners who were in this country seeking to work hard and contribute to the city in which they lived undoubtedly short of money and desperate to find appropriate accommodation for themselves.

Stoke landlord licensing scheme

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has decided to go forward with a selective landlord licensing scheme after a pilot scheme was deemed to have been a success.

The council will extend the scheme out from Tunstall into the Portland Street area of Cobridge. The scheme will require landlords to apply for a five-year operating licence at a cost of £500. To remain licensed landlords will be expected to maintain rental properties to a certain standard as well as monitoring the behaviour of their tenants. Those landlords who fail to meet these requirements could have their licence withdrawn or face the risk of a maximum fine of £20,000.

Most popular BTL mortgages

Max LTV	Initial Rate	Term	Completion fee	Booking fee	Incentives	Lender
85%	4.99% Fixed	2 Years	2.5%	£130.00	No	Kent Reliance Semi Exclusive
85%	5.99% Discount	2 Years	2.5%	£130.00	No	Kent Reliance Multi Let & Ltd Co. Semi Exclusive
80%	4.47% Fixed	2016-11-30	2%	£0.00	No	Saffron BS Semi Exclusive
80%	4.87% Fixed	2019-08-31	£995	£0.00	No	Saffron BS Semi Exclusive
80%	4.09% Discount	0 Years	£499	£100.00	No	Hanley Economic Exclusive
75%	2.84% Fixed	2016-06-30	£2495	£130.00	No	Accord Exclusive
75%	2.99% Fixed	2016-06-30	£2495	£130.00	Free valuation	Accord Exclusive
75%	2.88% Tracker	2 Years	2.5%	£150.00	Free valuation for purchases and remortgages & free legals on remortgages	Mortgage Trust Exclusive
75%	3.5% Discount	0 Years	0%	£0.00	No	Hanley Economic Exclusive
65%	5.27% Fixed	2016-11-30	2.5%	£0.00	No	Saffron BS Ex-Pat Semi Exclusive
60%	2.45% Discount	2 Years	£1950	£250.00	One free Valuation on properties valued up to £1,000,000	Hinckley & Rugby Exclusive

Search the whole BTL mortgage market free

Email: info@propertyhawkbtlmortgages.co.uk 

Tel: 029 2069 5446

 

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgages.  

The Financial Services Authority does not regulate some forms of mortgage.

---

Rent to rent guru disappears

We've covered the 'rent to rent' fad before on Property Hawk.

We said at the time we thought it was wrong and probably illegal.

Funnily enough, the so called 'rent to rent' guru Daniel Burton who claimed he was making £35,000 disappeared in October with his company Unida Place owing thousands to landlords and tenants who had rented through him.  Burton also charged hundreds of pounds to tell gullible individuals how they could make a fortune.  For more details see this piece in the Guardian.

Apparently Burton has turned up in Cleethorpes where he has set up his second letting agency since being exposed. Does anybody know what it trades under? It might be useful for others to know.

We have warned investors before about following so called property gurus.  If they have such a great scheme 'why? oh why?' being a businessman would you tell others how to do it?  Would Starbucks run a seminar telling the world how to run a successful coffee shop?

Property Hawk Advice
When it comes to investing in property it's always keep it simple.  You could have a look at our 3 Pillars of Buy-to-let for general advice on investing in residential property.  The other thing now is that when looking at borrowing money seriously consider a repayment not just an interest only mortgage.  Overall, in 20 years time you will have an income generating asset that you can sell or take an income from pretty much paid for by your tenants.  It's not 'rocket science' but also it's no fast bucks either.  This is the reality of being a landlord and of buy-to-let.

Landlord Insurance - trusted brokers - professional rates

PM 3.0 tips, advice & improvements

The Property Hawk team had one of their regular 'hot housing' get togethers. chewing the cud over the website and working on improvements to the Property Manager software.  Thanks to our friends at Ziferblat for playing host to several days throwing around ideas and pink cards full of details of your suggestions and our latest ideas for PM 3.0.

We did manage to fit in an excellent lunch at 8 Hoxton Square and I can thoroughly recommend the Cuttlefish with risotto nero.

Look out over the next few weeks and months for a number of little tweaks and improvements.

If you need help using the software have a look at our tips and advice within the Forum and feel free to sign up and once your membership has been approved post a question.  We will answer it.

Interest only vs repayment mortgages

There are pros and cons for choosing either an interest only or repayment mortgages to buy a investment property.  The pros of interest only finance are obvious.  You pay less initially.  This means you can borrow more (gear up your investment) and that you can buy more property, more quickly by preserving your all important capital.  Lower repayments mean that your rental profits also benefit.  These profits can then be reinvested in the future and faster growth of your renal business.  However, underlying these positives there are a number of negatives too:

1. Gearing up your investment is great in a rising property market.  The more you can borrow....the more money you make....it's that simple.  However just as recent experience demonstrates that when the opposite occurs....it can be a recipe for disaster ....the more you borrow ...the more you loose.  As we have also witnessed with the credit crunch, there comes a point when the lenders start pulling the plug and landlords can be left with nothing.

2. Borrowing on an interest only basis will cost your more.  Much more.  Using a very simple example if you borrow £100,000 at 5% interest over 25 years it will cost you the following in interest payments:

Interest only: £125,000 in interest payments but then you still have the £100,000 debt to repay giving a total repayment sum of £225,000.

Repayment mortgage:  £175,377 in interest and capital repayments but you have no debt and the property is yours.

The result is a  saving of almost £50,000 in interest payments over the 25 years alone.

Inflation could be key
This assessment between the two methods of loan repayment is complicated by another factor.  Inflation.  If inflation roars away then your debt gets inflated away to practically nothing.  For example, if we assume an annual inflation rate of 5%; in 25 years time then the £100,000 debt will be worth the equivalent in todays terms of only £29,530... a hell of a lot more affordable to repay.  However if inflation is only at 1% during the same period, your debt remains at £77,977 not so easy to stump up the cash for.

The choice of whether to elect for a repayment or interest only mortgage is a complicated and personal one.  You must carefully consider and be aware of all the factors.  In essence though, the low risk option is repayment whilst the optimist is likely to elect for the interest only option.  The choice remains yours.

Mortgage Search -  expert brokers - internet rates

Buy-to-let 'guru' hits out

The so called King of buy-to-let has been found guilty of flooring a small time estate agent with a good old fashioned left hook or was it a right jab...

I know we all have felt like giving an estate agent a bit of a kicking from time to time but steady on Fergus.  Fergus a former teacher and boxer denied the charges claiming instead:

"If I had intended doing him an injury I probably would have kicked him a few times while he was on the floor and I don't think he's suggesting I did” said Wilson, who represented himself in court.

I'm guess this line of defence probably didn't help his case.  Fergus and his wife have amassed a property portfolio of £200m buy shrewdly buying family orientated new builds in Kent.

I'm guessing they probably don't need help with the legal fees.

Anybody else feel like wacking their agent?

Free property management software, Free tenancy agreements

Mortgages -time to get fixed up!

Like many landlords hit by the credit crunch.  I have pretty much 'bunkered down' with all my mortgages.  Most, fortunately were linked to the bank base rate which we all know has been on the floor since 2008.

Mortgages - time for a fix
However, in light of the recovering mortgage market I decided to have a look around at the alternatives.  I only have one problematic mortgage through the Leeds & Holbeck building society on which I feel I'm paying way over the odds.  My current pay rate is 5.79%, that's a massive 5%+ margin over the current base rate - frankly it's not on!  Whilst I looked at changing it a couple of years ago, when I looked at the limited alternatives it just didn't add up.  However, I've recent come across the Santander 5 year fix rate mortgage which at 4.34% is almost 1.5% below my current mortgage.  This works out at a saving of over £100 a month or £1200 a year.  Even with the £1495 fee, in just over one year I'm going to be saving at least £100 per month and given that any base rate increase will increase the margin between the two mortgage products the benefits of switching to the lower fixed rate will only increase. I figure my situation is similar to many other landlords.

I've waited patiently, but I think the time is right for landlords to seriously look at their finances and if my situation is anything to go by we may have reached a time where it really does add up to switch towards a longer-term fixed rate product.  I'm certainly going to do my home work over Easter and I'll let you know what I conclude.

Mortgage Search - professional rates - expert broker

Landlords seeking finance - 'gain confidence'

Landlords confidence in the availability of buy-to-let finance has hit a post crash high according to a recent survey by Paragon Mortgages.  Out of 200 landlords questioned 44% were of the opinion that mortgages to purchase a buy-to-let property were readily available.  This is up 2% on the same period in 2013.

Further evidence of the recovering mortgage market for landlords is the recent Moneyfacts survey that showed over 500 mortgage products available now compared to only 200 just after the credit crunch.

The FT also reports an up trend in buy-to-let mortgage advances. In February 2014 the volume of gross buy-to-let loans advanced increased 46% compared to 2013.

Mortgage Search - finance my investment

RICS see spread of property price boom

Property price boom spreads across the whole of the UK according to the Royal Institute of Surveyors.

RICS economist Simon Rubinsohn described how the property market conditions have improved nationally “There has been a sense that it was one story for London and a very different outlook everywhere else, with perhaps a few other city centres edging ahead. But that is not the case any longer.”

The 513 RICS branches across England and Wales recorded an average of 23 property sales in the first quarter of 2014. The figure compares against a post crash low of 12 in 2009 and the mid-2007 high of 40.

Most pundits are feeling confident of price rises, with RICS increasing their forecast for property price growth to between 6 and 8 percent for 2014, however, they do warn of a shortage of property coming to the market.
 

Rise in possession court fees

New court fees will come into place on the 22nd April. Landlords will see a sharp increase in fees on both Section 8 Notice possession and Section 21 Notice possession.

Section 8 (PCOL) claims and accelerated Section 21 claims will rise to £280.

The online possession service will also see a sharp rise in charges, with an application for possession used after the service of a Section 8 Notice, increasing from £100 to £250.

Landlords planning on submitting for a possession order have two weeks left of the current cheaper rates .

The rise of the centenarian landlord

The BTL mortgage market is considering loosening age restrictions on lending.

The changes in the budget giving access to pension pots has meant a flood of elderly landlords are expected to hit the rental scene.

BTL lenders are re-considering their lending restrictions to cater for the ballooning market in elderly investors. With many pensioners holding large capital pots in the existing residential properties lenders see them as a safe bet despite any fragility in their health.

Currently most BTL lenders have age restrictions on when a mortgage will mature, typically 75 is the limit.

However, Mortgage Works are launching a product with a application age limit of 70, with a 35 years term mortgage product!

Now that would make the landlord 105 years old by the time their BTL mortgage matures.

Search the whole BTL mortgage market free 

Rental arrears fall

Landlords reporting tenants in severe arrears  from non payment of rent has fallen over 35% over the last year according to LSL's buy-to-let index.  Their data from  LPA Receivers show that at 68,000 the number of tenants in serious arrears is now over 40% below the peak of 116,000 reached in mid 2012.

The trend is improving with the latest figures indicating that severe arrears only account for 1.4% of all tenancies.  This is down from 2.3% of all tenancies one year ago although it still remains flat on Q4 the previous quarter.

Property Hawk - insights

It could well be that the overall improving economic environment is feeding through to tenants and that less of them are falling into arrears.  Time will tell but with more people in work and the financial squeeze finally reaping economic results maybe landlords will be able to benefit from the economic up turn too.

Landords Insurance - professional rates - online brokers

Most popular BTL mortgages

Max LTV	Initial Rate	Term	Completion fee	Booking fee	Incentives	Lender
85%	4.99% Fixed	2 Years	2.5%	£130.00	No	Kent Reliance Semi Exclusive
85%	5.99% Discount	2 Years	2.5%	£130.00	No	Kent Reliance Multi Let & Ltd Co. Semi Exclusive
80%	4.09% Discount	0 Years	£499	£100.00	No	Hanley Economic Exclusive
80%	4.47% Fixed	2016-11-30	2%	£0.00	No	Saffron BS Semi Exclusive
80%	4.87% Fixed	2019-08-31	£995	£0.00	No	Saffron BS Semi Exclusive
75%	2.84% Fixed	2016-04-30	£2495	£130.00	No	Accord Exclusive
75%	2.99% Fixed	2016-04-30	£2495	£130.00	Free valuation	Accord Exclusive
75%	3.69% Fixed	2019-05-31	2.5%	£250.00	No	Hinckley & Rugby Exclusive
75%	3.5% Discount	0 Years	0%	£0.00	No	Hanley Economic Exclusive
65%	5.27% Fixed	2016-11-30	2.5%	£0.00	No	Saffron BS Ex-Pat Semi Exclusive
60%	2.45% Discount	2 Years	£1950	£250.00	One free Valuation on properties valued up to £1,000,000	Hinckley & Rugby Exclusive

Search the whole BTL mortgage market free

Email: info@propertyhawkbtlmortgages.co.uk 

Tel: 029 2069 5446

 

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgages.  

The Financial Services Authority does not regulate some forms of mortgage.

---

A balanced view of tenant eviction

The Guardian has made an attempt to show both sides of a tenant eviction story - the landlord's and the tenant's.

It makes a change to have a human face put on a landlord. For too long the left wing press have used landlords as easy bile fuel to feed the angry, 'this world is sh*t' brigade. A bit of balance is nice to see.

Simply put - most tenants are good,  most landlords are good, but a few tenants are dicks and so are some landlords.

Maybe Shelter should use that in there next press release - it would be more accurate than their usual statistics.

Sandwell landlord licensing scheme consulation

Sandwell Council have started running a ten week consulation over plans for the introduction of landlord licensing in certain areas of West Bromwich. The consulation period ends May 12.

The proposed licensing scheme will apply to all private residential landlords within the area. Each rental property will require a separate licence. Licence costs will be charged as a one off fee to a landlord and might be as high as £500 per rental property.

Landlords would also be subject to a series of tests before a licence is granted, moving forward, and certain grounds would need to met to avoid fines of up to £5000. One proposed ground that landlords might be expected to meet is making sure bins are taken in from the pavement after refuse collection.

Leave your thoughts and read more on the Sandwell landlord licensing scheme proposals

It appears a tenants actions are increasingly becoming the responsibilty of their landlords. Where tenants don't have the money to pay fines, councils are clearly turning to a more lucrative source.

It begs the question, when did certain parts of society stop being responsible for their own behaviour?

Investment returns could disappear

Calculations from Your Money indicate that new property investors could see their cash flow turn negative by 2017.

Projections are based around a property investor who has borrowed 70% of a residential investment property on a loan with the loan base rate of 3.4%.  With the bank base rate of 0.5% and the current mortgage costs of 3.9%.  Should the bank base rate rise to only 3% (a sixfold increase) the mortgage rate would double to 6.4%.  Have a look at the most recent interest rate projections.

The suggestion from Your Money is that in London for example, where the average valued property of £291,500 would attract a monthly rent of £1121.  An interest only mortgage of 70% of the property value is £204,050 would at a rate of 3.9% equal a monthly cost of £633 leaving a rental profit of £458.  But at a mortgage rate of 6.4% the mortgage cost would increase to £1088 giving a rental profit of just £33 per month.  This is before other rental expenses that could easily amount to another 1.5-2% of the gross rental yield

All this could lead to landlords being confronted by a rental loss within a couple of years.  Booming capital values would obviously compensate for any rental shortfall but if they don't materialise then investment returns in the short run may disappear.

All this is food for thought for highly geared landlords. Landlords can use our BTL mortgage search to find the best deals from the market.

Chainsaw rent demand

Landlords looking at getting their rent back might want to look at the headlines in the Toronto Sun.  Apparently, a landlord in Berlin had completely 'lost it' and gone rent collecting armed with a chainsaw.

NOT ADVISEABLE!  even if it is somewhat understandable.  I've got a tenant who has decided stop paying their rent.  Unfortunately, my mortgage company still needs me to cough up the 'readies' each month.  You do feel like banging the door down or even cutting it down.

Instead in time honoured tradition I've served my section 21 notice and I'm now waiting to serve the follow up N5B.  Have a read of this Landlords Bible about filling out your N5B form seeking possession.  If you are still not sure how to do it feel free to drop a question about N5B on our Forum.

I'm afraid this is the boring but correct way of getting your property and your money back but it should avoid you been slung in the slammer for 'harassment'.

Nationwide report London's price gulf

The Telegraph have posted an interactive map showing increases in London's property prices.

The map shows the growing gulf in property values between London and the South East and the rest of the UK. London's property now costs one hundred percent more or in real money - £183,000 more.

This gap in average property price is the highest on record, since the launch of the Nationwide's property price index. Back in the early nineties the differential between the average London property and the UK average was at just thirty percent.

Landlords to be the new bankers?

Landlords risk gaining the reputation of being the new bankers in the current housing market warns an Oxford University Professor - Danny Dorling.

This rather eye grabbing headline is meant clearly to provoke.  Landlords have been blamed for rising rents and are also accused at under investment in their properties.  He seems unsatisfied with a higher proportion of people renting privately which I can't understand.  Rental property gives people flexibility and low costs of movement.  In many ways we have had a housing system far too obsessed with home ownership often predicated on government tax subsidies and an incorrectly regulated rental sector.

Blame the planners not the landlords

If you want to blame anything then blame the planning system that perpetually underdelivers on housing numbers and artificially inflates the price of land.  But given that we are a nation of NIMBY's then to a degree we all play a part in keeping housing unaffordable.

Landlord insurance - online quotes - professional rates

London out paces in the long-term

Landlords looking across the UK at where to put their money should check out the latest statistics from the Halifax on house prices.

They reveal that the average price growth in Greater London has been just under 7% over the past 30 years.  In the north it has averaged 5.35%.  At just over 1.5% the differential doesn't sound that great.  However, the power of compounding means that the gap between a house in the North and that in Greater London has gone from just over £15,000 to almost £187,000.

Landlords looking at snapping up cheap property in the North as 'cash cows' need to factor this into their long-term calculations.  Is there such a thing as a winning investment strategy...you pays your money and takes your choice.

Landlord insurance - professional rates - expert brokers