Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Onthemarket branded a failure by Zoopla

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Accord cuts BTL rates

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REITS 'oversold and mispriced'

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Scotland's Letting Code of Practice - 2018

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The secret life of a landlord

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BTL is far from dead

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Khan sets 35% affordable home target in London

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Tuesday, November 29, 2016

BofE latest mortgage figures

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Top European rental hotspots

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£3.2bn affordable housing boost for London

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Gov. promises to stop ground rent abuse

But why invest in ground rents?
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Industrial unit turned into two flats

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A bounce in First Time Buyers

The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) Housing Market Report for October 2016 shows a 'bounce back' in sales to First Time Buyers.

Their October data shows -
  • A third (32%) of sales were made to FTBs.( the highest on record )
  • Supply of homes on the market increased to the highest level since March 16.
  • Demand for housing also rose in October
  • Sales averaged - 9 per branch.
  • Properties for sale averaged - 43 per branch.
  • Registered buyers per branch increased to 440.

national association of estate agents data october 2016

NAEA's Mark Hayward, comments : 

“This month’s report paints a positive picture for the UK housing market. Our findings over the last few months indicated mild uncertainty immediately following Brexit – and last month we even saw sales to FTBs fall. After shrugging off the uncertainty, we have seen an increase in supply and a rise in the number of sales to FTBs this month – proof the market is beginning to bounce back.

“Clearly what we need now though is a clear plan as to how the Government is going to tackle the chronic shortage of homes that we are facing. During the Autumn Statement, the Chancellor announced a boost to house-building which is a start but sadly nowhere near enough. We have high hopes for the Housing White Paper as this will set the housing strategy and intent for this Government going forward.”

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Lenders pressured to rein in BTL lending

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Net change in UK housing supply - chart

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Monday, November 28, 2016

Letting Agent Fees - how to avoid them?

Avoiding letting agent fees

Landlords are faced with legislation changes proposed in the Autumn Statement bringing changes that will result in landlords having to bear the full brunt of letting agent fees.  This follows from the Chancellors Philip Hammond's first Autumn statement 2016 in which the incoming Chancellor marked himself out as no friend of landlords and a hero of the tenanted classes.

His proposed ban on letting agent fees means  that in a single stroke 4.3 million renting households will be removed from the obligation of having to pay letting agents fees such as:

1. Production of a tenancy agreement
2. Set up fees
3. Guarantor application fees
4. Pet deposit
5. Registering deposit fees
6. Vetting tenants and credit checks

This follows a letting agent fee ban put in place in Scotland which were tightened in 2012.  But can landlords avoid having to pay for these additional costs when they use a letting agent to let their property?

What are the likely affects of the letting agent fee ban?

The reality is that letting agents still need to charge fees for many of the actions that they carry out in their duties.  It will continue be an expense in administrative time and effort to register tenants for tenancies and to carry out the required checks for landlords to be happy that the tenants is a reasonable credit and letting risk.  This means that many letting agents will just pass these charges on to the landlord or try to avoid doing the appropriate letting checks in the first place exposing landlords to additional risks of letting particularly if they inexperienced landlords unaware of the potential pitfalls.  The additional costs as you can see about if these letting agent fees are passed on to a landlord could amount to many hundreds of pounds to a landlord for each letting so can letting agency fees be avoided?

Letting agent fees - how to avoid them?

The reality is that all landlords can avoid letting agent fees simply by managing their own rental properties.   It really is entirely possible not to use a letting agent at all.  Now with online property marketing such as Lettingaproperty and similar marketing virtual letting agents and marketing websites a landlord can market their property to the whole world by getting their property on the likes of Rightmove and Zoopla giving them maximum marketing exposure.  Then having secured their marketing leads an individual landlord is free to do all the checks and essential letting administration that the letting process requires.  It's perfectly possible for a landlord to do the credit check on line for a few quid.  We have told landlords how they can do the vetting of a tenant far more effectively than any letting agent and save a fortune in the process.  Who needs a letting agent to prepare the inventory?  Landlords can manage their property  with our online software and avoid the fees that will now have to be paid to letting agents.  This legislation could be a game changer for many landlords determined to avoid unecessary letting costs.  Other landlords will just conclude that it is another necessary expense that they will try where possible to pass on to their tenants by raising the rent.  The experience from Scotland where the introduction of similar restrictions has been that the added costs have not been translated into inflated rents.


Landlord insurance costs - professional rate - online brokers
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Sunday, November 27, 2016

LHA cap u-turn -new bedroom tax

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Friday, November 25, 2016

Re-mortgage now to shield against new BTL rules

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Rightmove House Price Index for November

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Thursday, November 24, 2016

ONS reports UK rents remain static

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The Autumn Statement's impact on property

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Landlords pay £3.1bn for stamp duty hike

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Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Property still best place to invest - ONS

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Ban on letting agency fees - landlords to pay

Philip Hammond has confirmed he will be banning letting agency fees for tenants.

Expect one thing to happen as a result of this -  letting agency fees for landlords to rise.

Agents will look to recoup income by either increasing charges to landlords for letting a property or by increasing management fees, or a bit of both.

The Government clearly feels the need to continue its re-balancing of the tenant / landlord wealth divide in the economy.

One positive we might take, is the economy's reliance that residential property prices are maintained / propped up in the medium to long term.

The house of cards appears to be getting its base stuck down with a glue gun.

Landlords can of course avoid Letting Agent Fees altogether by DIY.

More comment on the ban on letting agency fees for tenants -









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The Autumn Statement in full

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Rent Smart Wales deadline today

This was posted yesterday, so therefore the deadline for registration is TODAY!
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Tuesday, November 22, 2016

42% of new builds are leaseholds

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Government scraps 'Pay to Stay'

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Brexit wipes £1.5tn off UK household wealth

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Landlords reveal their tenant nightmares

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Sunday, November 20, 2016

Having to move - PRS stories

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London rental hikes are slowing - ES

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Saturday, November 19, 2016

BTL investors feature in arcade game

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Friday, November 18, 2016

Prime London - divergent prices and rents

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Leasehold scandal - rocketing group rents

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Communes for hipsters, not hippies

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Thursday, November 17, 2016

A changing BTL market - PRA regulations

Jane Simpson at Property Hawk Mortgages says:

The finalised PRA regulations for buy-to-let mortgages were published at the end of September and there are concerns amongst some in the industry about how the prescribed changes to underwriting standards are going to affect the market and how much more complex arranging finance for landlords will become.

For shorter-term buy-to-let rates, the PRA has stipulated a minimum interest coverage ratio (ICR) of 125% and have a minimum stress test interest rate of 5.5%. Also, when assessing customer affordability, lenders are now expected to take account of the likely interest rate increases during the first five years of the mortgage contract. However, for fixed rate buy-to-let mortgages of five years or longer, these requirements do not apply and there are already some lenders, for example Newcastle Building Society, offering different rental calculations for five-year fixed rate products.

The PRA has set 1st January 2017 as the deadline for lenders to implement these new measures for ICR tests, so over the next couple of months we can expect a raft of changes to lenders’ rental calculations. One of the common concerns raised is that landlords in certain areas of the country where rental yields are lower, for example London and the South East, will find it difficult to meet the new stress tests.

It has also been suggested that as the overall yield for buy-to-let properties varies so greatly around the UK, we may see some lenders having geographical ICRs for different areas of the country, which will add another layer of complexity to the already challenging task of sourcing the most suitable buy-to-let mortgage for landlords.

The PRA underwriting standards policy has confirmed that “lenders can use personal income as a means for the borrower to supplement the rent within their affordability test”. This is likely to result

in a wide range of approaches by lenders when assessing customer affordability, which may affect the choice of products available to clients and further increase the complexity of lending criteria.


With reduced buy-to-let tax relief coming into effect in 2017, lender’s may also offer different rental calculations depending on the client’s tax status, with higher rate tax payers being subject to more stringent affordability tests.

Alongside the PRA’s expectation for ICRs and interest rate affordability stress tests, the underwriting policy also makes a special case for portfolio landlords, who are defined as having “four or more distinct mortgaged buy-to-let properties.” It is indicated that as lending to portfolio landlords is “inherently more complex”, lenders should take a specialist (presumably more lengthy and in-depth) underwriting approach to these borrowers.

It is possible therefore, that we will begin to see a distinct split between lenders in the buy-to-let mortgage market, with large specialist lenders dealing with portfolio landlords on one side and lenders who opt to deal only with smaller landlords with 3 or less properties on the other side.

Without doubt, the buy-to-let mortgage market will undergo significant change over the next 12 months and sourcing finance for landlords will become increasingly complex.

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Stamp duty hits low end of market

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Affordable housing supply data

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BofE clamp down on BTL lending





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Bank of Ireland BTL case - going for solicitors

The group of landlords lead by Mark Alexander of Property118 have put there lawsuit against the Bank of Ireland on hold.

The case echoes their victory against the West Bromwich Building Society over raising the base rate on BTL tracker mortgages.

The Bank of Ireland decided to raise the rate on their  base rate trackers back in 2013 impacting on 13,500 mortgages.

Mark Alexander comments:

 “The cost of taking the Bank of Ireland to court to challenge their understanding of law would be around £1m because we would have to make provisions for paying their legal fees if we were to fail."

To minimise their financial risk, the landlord crowdfunded group are now looking at taking the solicitors who advised the Bank of Ireland to court. 

Hoping this way, if they win, the number and the value of these claims will force the solicitors to pay/cover for the legal action against the Bank of Ireland.

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Students digs - landlords love them, students don't

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Rental supply hits 18 month high

ARLA's Private Rented Sector Report using September's data from agents shows
  • Agents  manage an average 193 rental properties, an eighteen month high (183 in Aug)
  • Demand from prospective tenants rose to 40 new registrations, (37 in Aug )   
  • Agents witnessing rent hikes fell to 24%, ( down from 27% in Aug )
ARLA's David Cox, comments - “

This month’s findings paint a really positive picture for renters. Although demand is rising, we’ve seen this happen gradually over the course of the year, and would expect it to slow again in line with seasonal trends over the next few months. On the other hand, the supply of rental stock has risen astronomically, which suggest it’s not quite right that landlords are pulling out of the market as a result of Brexit. This is supported in our findings, which reveal the number of landlords selling their buy-to-let properties hasn’t changed since April, when three landlords were selling up per branch.

It’s good to see less landlords hiking rents this month, but 24 per cent is still too high. The cost of renting is already high in many parts of the country and until the Government converts its pledges and promises into bricks and mortar, we won’t see renters reach a position where they’re able to save to get on the housing ladder. It will be interesting to see how this is tackled in the upcoming Autumn Statement.”

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House building picks up in England

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6 ways to fight landlord taxes

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Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Rightmove's November asking prices

    Properties listed on Rightmove during November 2016 showed -

  • A seasonal fall of 1.1% (-£3,452) this month, a smaller drop than the 1.8% average over the last six years showing signs of a resilient market
  • Two beds or fewer rise by 1.7%, annual growth of £15,000 (+8.2%)
  • Those living with parents or aged between 21 to 24 are most likely to shun attempting to get on the housing ladder according to new research
  • The average first-time buyer now aged 33.


Miles Shipside, Rightmove's housing market analyst comments:

“Overall, house prices continue to hold up well. This is the smallest drop in average November asking prices since we saw the same figure of -1.1% in November 2011. Furthermore, the average time to sell of 65 days is one day quicker than at this time last year. However, price resilience is not good news for cash-strapped aspiring first-time buyers, and in spite of the more subdued time of year the smaller properties that they typically target have increased in price this month, the only market sector to show an increase. Compared to 12 months ago the price of newly-marketed properties with two bedrooms or fewer is up by over 8%, twice the rate of the sectors containing properties with three bedrooms or more. In the sprint to get onto the housing ladder, wage inflation to help meet lender affordability ratios and to save for the larger deposits required is being comprehensively outrun by price increases. 

As well as helping people’s home-ownership aspirations, activity at the bottom rung of the ladder helps the rest of the market to move and through that boosts the wider economy. Short-term options that might be top of a first-time buyer’s list would be a stamp duty holiday exclusive to them. However, there are dangers to increasing demand unless this is matched by policies to improve supply, and more radical steps need to be taken to remove some of the barriers preventing more affordable homes to buy and rent from being built in the right locations.” 
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Boom in office-to-home conversions

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First time buyers need more help

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Graph of new housing supply

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Tuesday, November 15, 2016

What went wrong with Stamp Duty reforms?

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What slowing price growth means to renters

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FTBs continue to struggle

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Free event for Lincolnshire landlords

Lincolnshire landlords are invited to learn about minimum property standards and changes in legislation at a free event at the Sleaford Council Chamber in the North Kesteven Council buildings.

The free event is to be held on Monday 12th December.

The drop in event runs between 1-4pm, with welcome presentations given at 1pm and again at 2.30pm. 

For more information or to register  -

email - safeashouses@n-kesteven.gov.uk or call  01529 414155.

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CML lending data for September

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1 in 4 landlords to sell up

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42% fall in BTL mortgages

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ONS property price data for Wales

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Birmingham landlord threatened tenants

A Birmingham landlord has been fined £2,000 for intimidating his tenant.
Zahid Khan, aged 30, breached Section 1(3A) of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 after threatening to change the locks of his rental property if his tenants failed to leave. 

Khan also broke laws governing HMO Management Regulations. 

The House in Multiple Occupation was unlicensed, in a poor state of repair, and had inadequate fire safety precautions.

Mr Khan was handed 150 hours of community service and ordered to pay a fine of £2,000, along with costs of £5,070.93. 

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ONS September property price data for England

The ONS have published their house price data for England - September 2016

Key points
  • Average price of a property - £234,250
  • Annual price change - 8.3%
  • Monthly price change - 0.2%
  • Index figure was 115.5 (January 2015 = 100)
Annual price change for England and London over the past 5 years


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UK HPI for September published

The UK House Price Index for September 2016 has been published by the Office of National Statistics.

Key Points
  • Average property price  - £217,888
  • Annual growth - 7.7%
  • Monthly change - 0.2%
  • Monthly index figure - 114.3 (January 2015 = 100)

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Regional variations in house price growth

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Second home ban in Cornwall

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Birmingham Property Report and Forecasts

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Are we building enough?

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Sunday, November 13, 2016

Tunnel to trigger new London hotspots

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39,723 households faced eviction this year

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Saturday, November 12, 2016

London 16 yr property price forecast

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Leeds City Region property forecast

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Mortgage arrears remain low

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Friday, November 11, 2016

Mortgage rates to rise for portfolio landlords

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Thursday, November 10, 2016

Trump to shake up UK property market

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Housing shortage pushing up prices - RICS

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