Buy-to-let lenders are back!

Hi guys, apparently we are spoilt for choice if the latest headlines from the FT are anything to go by.

They have announced that buy-to-let lenders are back with a vengeance.

There are now over 300 buy-to-let mortgages available compared to only 226 a year ago according to stats from Moneyfacts.

However, this is only a tenth of those available at the peak back in 2007.

More importantly, there are more lenders in the market. Last year there was only 45 now there are 54 to choose from. One of the big lenders before the crash Paragon has recently announced that they are back in the market and have a billion to advance to landlords.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that rates are now starting to drop as competition between lenders hots up.

The question is with big spending cuts coming down the line and house prices looking 'iffy' do we and is it a good time to increase our leveraging or expand our buy-to-let portfolios?

Unsafe post

In the ground floor foyer of a block where Property Sparrow has a flat, there's a purple plastic crate. It's the type you could buy at the market at £5 for a stack of five. It's about 18" high, with no lid and full to the brim with post.

As a rough estimate there's two years of unopened post in the crate. It's all correctly delivered but it's not for anyone who lives there. It's all for tenants who have moved out.

Has no one heard of identity theft? There's not much redirecting going on here. The current residents seem to chuck all of the post that's not for them into the crate but that's as far as it goes. There are envelopes from Aviva, British Gas, BT, Capital One, Domino Pizza - it's like an A-Z of landlord and tenant activities.

One of the non-resident leaseholders has, however, now taken on the crate. He's put his foot down, insisting that all of the other leaseholders give him the names of their current tenants. He recently spent a whole afternoon clearing out the crate, writing 'not known at this address' on all of the envelopes addressed to anyone who is not living there and stuffing them into the nearest postbox.

Good for him; the block looks neater and safer already.

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'Generation Rent' good news

Many housing experts are talking about Britain undergoing a cultural shift in housing tenure to a more 'continental' model where a much higher proportion of us rent.  Savills have recently suggested that the private rental sector could increase to providing 20% of accommodation by the end of the decade.

Further evidence of the so called 'generation rent' emerged when the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) released their latest figures on the number of tenants seeking to rent property.  ARLA's latest figures reveals that rental demand was at an 8 year high with more than 70% of renters renting property because they were unable to buy.
 
Demand for rental property is highest in the South East according to letting agents where 81 per cent of agents have indicated that there are more tenants than properties.  This compares to 67% in the rest of the UK and 73% in central London.

This level of demand is the highest since the survey began nearly a decade ago and indicates that for many landlords the letting prospects of buy-to-let are strong despite the spectre of a double dip in house prices.

Landlord insurance - professional rates

Tips On Tenancy Deposit Disputes 17: Video Evidence

Tip 17: Video Evidence

This is something I get asked about quite a lot. There is a great deal of variation in the quality of video evidence sent to adjudication, some of it very good, some of it very poor.

I have seen some horrific, wobbly, homemade videos submitted in evidence that proved absolutely nothing. They are often tiny, as if filmed with a mobile phone and move around so fast that if you attempt to freeze frame to get a better look at something, the picture is nothing but a blur. Another common problem is the length of the file. I have sat through films that were over 30 minutes long, waiting for something relevant to appear on the screen. Wasting the adjudicators time will never improve your chances of winning.

On the other hand, I have seen some excellent examples of video evidence, which have provided conclusive proof and resolved a claim in seconds. These have usually been produced professionally and always by someone who really knows what they are doing. The good videos are split into sensible sized files, so it is easy to navigate to the exact footage you require, and are shot in such a way as to give a clear image of the property even on freeze frame. Whereas photographs are useful, seeing the damaged area in the context of the rest of the property gives adjudicators much more to go on when deciding the value of the award.

A word of advice, though. Adjudicators will normally expect to see some evidence that the tenant accepted the video as an accurate record of the condition of the property.

Tom Derrett is the Principal of Deposit Claim, an ex-adjudicator and an expert on the Deposit Protection Schemes.

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Property price twitter - again

After a few months break from the property price twitter I feel it's time to bring it back.

Prices are looking pretty volatile again.

Dinner parties are a din with the chatter on property prices, especially those dinners attended by the public sector workers, with teachers chunterring over their roasted vegetables and council office staff pontificating over their pasta.

As for landlords, we seem rather resigned to the 'ebb and flow' and are focused very much on the inevitable continued rise in rents to sweeten any property price anxiety.

Conservatives re-shape housing market - Channel4
Your home is not an investment - Daily Mail
Remortgaging drops to decade low - Telegraph
Record 3.6 percent monthly fall - Telegraph
Housing market crash fears - Guardian
Shock 3.6 percent property price fall - ThisisMoney
North East see property price plunge - Journal
Central london see price falls - Housefund
Gazundering is back - Daily Mail
Will house prices fall or wages rise? - Guardian
London leads house prices to two year high - Bloomberg
Industry plays down house price drop - Scotsman
Northern Ireland property prices set to stay in doldrums - Belfast Telegraph
Falling house prices - don't panic - Independent
IMF warn of continued house price falls - FT Advisor
Brits expect their house price to fall by ten percent in next year - MSN news
UK property price falls in most areas - Telegraph

See all the property price tweets

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Dealing with troublesome tenants

It’s a landlord’s worst nightmare – you find a tenant who you think you can trust, who looks great on paper, but then who damages your investment property, behaves antisocially and doesn’t pay the rent.

In this situation, there is nothing that can be done to pre-empt this kind of tenant, especially if you have gone through the relevant employment, reference and perhaps even credit checks.

Unfortunately, there will always be troublesome tenants, but there are a number of ways that you can safeguard your investment.
As soon as you discover that there is trouble afoot your best course of action is to address the issue immediately, whilst at the same time avoiding confrontation. By bringing certain behaviours or issues with payments to light as soon as they occur, you may be able to alleviate any problems early on, before matters get worse.

Rent arrears can be a big issue, so if your tenant has missed payments, it’s always best to seek legal advice to ensure your interests as a landlord are protected, even if the problem has been addressed with your tenant.

Care needs to be taken in this circumstance, and you must ensure you do not contravene your tenant’s rights. If it does come to court action, your lawyer will be able to offer advice on proceedings, which may result in eviction.

Eviction of a tenant is obviously a last resort, and a decision that is not achieved lightly. By ensuring that you are up to date with current regulation and know your legal standing, you can protect your investment property and minimise the risk.

Alternatively, by employing the services of a property management company, any problems or issues with tenants can be dealt with for you, depending on the level of package you have.