Landlords come clean on unpaid tax

Huge rise in the number of landlords admitting unpaid tax on rent - https://t.co/XXWz5Jmvpy #GoogleAlerts

— Property Hawk (@landlordnews) July 5, 2019

Take advantage of our discounted landlord insurance rates

Rents forecast to increase 20% in 5yrs

Rent increases of 20% forecast by surveyors https://t.co/dWIuhd7ioz

— FTAdviser (@FTAdviser) March 9, 2017

Take advantage of our discounted landlord insurance rates

Lloyds pressure landlords to increase rents

Lloyds's buy-to-let division pressures landlords to increase rentshttps://t.co/8fnleI68UR pic.twitter.com/Ly2w5EWanp

— Telegraph Money (@MoneyTelegraph) November 8, 2016

Take advantage of our discounted landlord insurance rates

Airbnb pushing up PRS rents

Airbnb 'pushing rents up' as landlords swap long-term leases for short-term deals https://t.co/YyujNoqc2Y

— Telegraph Property (@TeleProperty) September 2, 2016

Fewer homes for rent, as landlords put their properties on Airbnb. https://t.co/FfpK1QZZXw pic.twitter.com/eNfvW8BuEH

— Brian Milligan (@brianmilli) September 2, 2016

Buy-to-let landlords turn to Airbnb to boost profits, report claims https://t.co/FfXvu7fTq7

— This is Money (@thisismoney) September 2, 2016

Take advantage of our discounted landlord insurance rates

How do 2 landlords split rental income?

I own a buy-to-let property with a friend – how do we slice up the rental income? - The Guardian https://t.co/gEt33RpX5M

— Mason Row (@row_mason) July 15, 2016

Take advantage of our discounted landlord insurance rates

Million landlords face a tax investigation

According to the latest report in the Mail almost a million landlords could face a tax investigation because the have failed to register with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC)

Landlords  are not registering for tax
This is based on the fact that  the number of landlords now equals 1.4 million whilst only 500,000 have registered with HMRC.  In theory there are over 900,000 landlords that could be quizzed by the HMRC about their buy-to-let property and tax affairs.   For many landlords historically there appeared no need to register with HMRC because not making rental profits.  The difficulty for many landlords is that since interest rates have fallen to the floor is that they are now making significant rental profits.  HMRC are aware of this and could now be pressing to find un paid taxes.  Accountancy, firms have estimated that unpaid taxes could equal in the order of £550 million.

Tax advice
Landlords need to be aware that where they do make a rental loss that they can off set this against future rental profits.  Whilst clearly HMRC have limited resources and will not be able to launch investigations against every unregistered landlord.  At the same time there is an increasing risk that landlords who do not declare their rental income will be targeted & investigated.  Chris Horne a serial landlord and Editor of Property Hawk a leading website for landlords comments:

"The nature of many landlords is that start off with one property which makes no money so they don't feel they need to notify HMRC.  Over the years that 1 property perhaps builds into a portfolio of 5 or maybe 10 properties.  Perhaps they have sold a property along the way to allow them to build up their rental business and purchase more investment properties.  Over time they have a significant rental business but have not declared it to the tax authorities.  Landlords in this situation, feel trapped because they are worried about the fact they have not registered and how the tax authorities will deal with them.  I know this because it is exactly what happened to me.

Landlords are therefore always best to disclose their income from the outset to avoid this happening.  If this situation has arisen then they should seek professional tax advice but a full disclosure to the tax authorities will often be treated more leniently than been discouvered as part of an investigation."

Calculate my rental tax return

Retired landlords predict a Bon Voyage

Landlords are predicting that their BTL property will support half their pension income. Five hundred landlords were asked to predict what  annual retirement income would come from their rental properties by Platinum Property Partners. Their  average 'guess-timate' was £19,785.

According to their predictions, their BTL property would bring in 56% of their overall annual retirement income, which they hoped to be £35,600, with  £15,815 of that coming from other investments, savings and pension payments.

This projected pension income compares with the £19,300 that the  ONS put as the figure for UK average pension income. 

At this level, landlords are predicting they will be nearly twice as well off in their retirement than the national average.

Bon voyage!
 

Landlords earn double average wage

Landlords earn double the average national income according to recent research. My experience in recent years that bucks for effort my property portfolio generates far more cash per hour work than my other ventures.

Research on landlord income
The research from BRDC indicates that the average landlord takes almost £60,000 in rental income from a portfolio valued at £1.2 million and comprising of 8-9 properties. This is over double the average wage of £27,174.  I'm guessing that the average is inflated considerably by the London effect but I would agree that it certainly is in the right ball park.

My strategy
My strategy over the next few years is to fix some of the mortgages I have to lock myself into the low interest rate environment and also pay down some of my debt by transferring some of my mortgages to repayment from their current interest only status.  In this way I'm hoping that my rental portfolio continues to generate a significant income even after the current interest rate environment normalizes over the next few years.

MORTGAGE SEARCH - whole market - expert advice

New tenancy agreement needs incentives

The Government proposal to promote a new longer term tenancy agreement is a great idea.  Having a longer term tenancy is good for tenants (greater security) and landlords in that it gives them long-term tenants and less chance of a costly void.  In my view it also needs an incentive for landlords to adopt it or else it is destined to fail. Landlords will not give up the opportunity to obtain vacant possession and raise the rent regularly unless their is a significant advantage in these tenancies to compensate them for this loss of control (why would we?!).  I would suggest that the Government should use so call 'Nudge Economics' to incentivise landlords to adopt longer-term tenancies.

A long-term tenancy
The Government could and should incentivise landlords to embrace a longer term tenancy agreement of say 3+ years by giving them certain tax advantages in return for granting these types of tenancy.  For example, one clear additional deduction would be to allow a landlord to offset the whole of their borrowing cost against rental profits (not just the interest charges).  This would incentivise landlords to buy and invest for longer-term tenants.  Something that many of us in the private rented sector recognise is a good thing for tenants, landlords and general housing policy.

Free property management software, Free tenancy agreements

Is this 2 bed worth £5,000 PCM?

I'm a great believer in free markets and minimal intervention.  I've seen all too often the law of unintended consequences as regulation in one way results in all kinds of often perverseness and unintended results else where (think financial Gaia Theory). Don't forget banks were regulated before the biggest financial bust in history.

Rental regulation?
However,  it does make you wonder sometimes when you see some of the rents landlords are trying to charge in the overheated South East.  I came across this 2 bed maisonette in Thornton Heath on the Streatham High Road.  Jokingly its called Heath House.  Now this ain't swanky London and the landlord is laughingly asking almost 5 grand a month for it.  In Nottingham and I"m guessing and in most provincial cities outside London a place like this would be likely to attract a rent of just over a tenth of this.  I'm dead against rent regulation of any sort but when you see landlords trying to charge rents like this you do wonder.

Is this overcharging on the rent or just an opportunistic landlord chancing his/her arm to bag a desperate tenant?

Landlord insurance - 5 star cover available

National rent index reveals massive falls

Property Hawk has been campaigning for a reliable rental index for some time.

Finally, the ONS has responded.  However, unfortunately they don't seem to be keen on putting actual rental data online.  The ONS’s Index of Private Housing Rental Prices (IPHRP) is described as “experimental”.  The first index showed that rents have risen by 1.3% nationally over the last year.

Long term rental increase masks 'real' fall in rents

Most interestingly from my point of view was the long term data which showed that nationally rents only rose by 8.4% in England during the 8 years from May 2005 to 2013. In London during this time things have been slightly better with rental increases of 11.0%.  Whilst in the North-East 5.2% and the East Midlands 5.3% rental increases have been pretty negligible.

The interesting thing for landlords is that if we take the national increase in rents of less than 1% per year this is considerably below the rate of inflation.  The rate of increase of inflation during the same period was a total of 30% or 3.4% per annum.  In other words rents would have had to risen by 30% not 8.4% just to have stayed the same in real terms.

This means two things:

1. Landlords have suffered a massive real term rental fall.  Completely the opposite to what the headlines have been shouting about.
2. Tenants who have been complaining about surging rents have actually been watching the real costs of their rents fall consistently over the last 8 years.

For all those talking about a buy-to-let boom the rental data seems to be painting a slightly contrary picture.

Landlord insurance - professional rates - expert brokers

Garage gold mine

Well it's been an interesting contrast in fortunes over several properties I'm currently trying to let.

One a 2 bed flat. Reasonably priced and in a good spot.

The other a double garage in exactly the same leafy suburban location.

To date I've had a couple of tentative enquiries about my flat and one viewing. Hardly a swarm of prospective tenants. In contrast from a single free advert in Gumtree I've been inundated with offers to rent my double garage with requirements ranging from storing a classic Ford Capri to somebody who wanted to use it to store equipment for a fledgling landscaping business. I even had one girl who appeared to be about to be evicted from a house boat and needed somewhere urgently to put her stuff.

I'm always wary about desperate tenants. Just like prospective tenants for my residential properties; I'd rather have stable and organised people. I have also shied away from people that are potentially moving house and want somewhere to unload their possession for a 'temporary' period. What happens if they suddenly decide that there 10 year old sofa isn't really worth lugging up to Scotland? You are left with it and they just simply stop paying rent. It's then your problem to get rid of it.

Parking opportunities

I've written before about the additional income that landlords can potentially earn from letting a garage or even a parking space. It makes me think that rather than buying or developing new buy to lets I should concentrate on investing in a block of garages or even building a few more in the extensive garden area I own.

Looks at the moment like garages not buy-to-lets are golden.

Landlord insurance - professional rates

Olympic gold rents

The Evening Standards outline some tips to maximise the rental for landlords and homeowners looking to rent out property during the Olympics.

Read article here

Free property management software

Massive increase in defaulting tenants

A report shows a massive increase in landlords having to claim on rent guarantee insurance because of defaulting tenants.

The Telegraph report a 58 percent increase in the second half of 2009.

Read full article here

Discounted landlord insurance

Rental data everywhere - but not a drop of truth

There are endless press releases from letting agents and letting sites claiming rents are up, rents are down, rents are up and down.

The majority of this rental data is absolute piffle, without substantial numbers of data, the figures will change with the wind, up 10% this month, down 5% next week.

Many are calculated from a few hundred advertised properties, some even less, they are a joke.

Closer to reality

Our Rental Index shows rents having dropped by 0.8 percent over the past 12 months, and this analysis comes from recording over 20,000 actual agreed new tenancies.

So as you can see, in the real world rents don't change with the wind, but most rental data press releases will blow around like paper in the wind and the best place for them is the bin.

Raise the Roof Campaigns to Increase the Rent a Room Tax Threshold

Landlords may want to support the 'Raise the Roof' campaign.

The campaign is aiming to increase the income threshold of the Rent a Room Scheme which has not seen an increase since 1997.

The threshold at present is £4,250 a year; the campaign would like to see this rise to £9,000 a year.

Click here to go to the Raise the Roof Site

Free property management software, Free tenancy agreements

It pays for landlords to be unfashionable

We all know that landlords are deeply unfashionable, but according to new data from Findaproperty the more unfashionable a landlord is, the better yield he can achieve.

Findaproperty have compiled a list of the top 100 yielding areas for BTL property investments.........and in at number 1 with a bullet is the deeply unfashionable ......Blackpool.

Here's the top ten BTL yielding areas.

1. Blackpool 5.34%
   
2. Kingston upon Thames 5.26%
   
3. Kirkcaldy 5.19%
   
4. East London 4.99%
   
5. Manchester 4.87%
   
6. Durham 4.86%
   
7. Romford 4.72%
   
8. Uxbridge 4.63%
   
9. London South East 4.62%
   
10. Sunderland 4.55%
    

I remember trying to find a restaurant in Blackpool about ten years ago, god it was grim, I felt more fussy than Michael Winner, is it any better these days?

Read the top 100 in Thisismoney

Landlord insurance quotes

East London offers best BTL returns in the Capital

Article in the Evening Standard pronounces East London as offering the best BTL investment returns in the capital according to research from Savills.

Free tenancy agreements

Flats see better rental demand than houses

The Findaproperty rental index has been released showing a demand shift away from houses and towards flats.

The increased demand for flats indicates that first-time buyers continue to be forced out of the sales market and therefore look to rent the cheapest options whilst gathering deposit funds to purchase their first property.

My tip for youngsters would be to cut out their daily cappucinos from Starbucks and start buying their jeans from Tesco at £3 a pop. Before they know it they would have enough money to put down on one of the Canary Wharf flats up for sale at the supposed 'Galliard Homes fire sale'.

The key points from the Findaproperty Rental Index are -

• Flats not houses in demand as tenants choose cheaper properties
• Flat rental prices rose by 0.4 per cent while house rental values fell by 2.9 per cent
• Average rents are now £804pcm, with rents for flats £752pcm and houses £829pcm
• Flat rents are 2.2 per cent lower than a year ago, whilst houses are 5.1 per cent below 2009
• Demand for flats grows as first-time buyers continue to be priced out of sales market

Go here to download the full pdf copy of the FP rental index

Landlord Insurance at Special Rates with Alan Boswell

Good 2010 or bad 2010 - can anyone predict what kind of year it will be for landlords?

Confidence is apparently returning to the buy-to-let property market after a rebound in annual returns according to LSL Property Services, the UK's biggest lettings agent group.

They are predicting that landlords will see annual returns averaging £16,000 next year as the housing market continues to stabilise.

However before landlords get too excited ARLA warned yesterday the market would be tougher next year.

Whose to know?

Full directory of landlord insurance brokers