BTL mortgages - current popular products

Max LTV	Initial Rate	Term	Completion fee	Booking fee	Incentives	Overall Cost for Comparison
85%	5.49% Discount	2 Years	2.5%	£130.00	No	6.9% APR
85%	5.79% Discount	2 Years	2%	£130.00	No	6.9% APR
80%	4.69% Discount	2 Years	2%	£130.00	No	6.7% APR
75%	3.74% Discount	2 Years	£1999	£250.00	No	5.4% APR
75%	4.99% Fixed	Jan 31 2015	1%	£0.00	No	5.4% APR
75%	3.99% Tracker	2 Years	2.5%	£0.00	No	5.3% APR
75%	4.39% Fixed	Mar 31 2016	£995	£0.00	Free valuation and free legals for remortgages (properties valued up to £500,000).	5.7% APR
70%	4.25% Discount	2 Years	0%	£199.00	Free valuation up to £335 for purchases and remortgages and free legals on remortgages only.	6% APR
65%	3.99% Fixed	Mar 31 2016	£995	£0.00	Free valuation and free legals for remortgages (properties valued up to £500,000).	5.6% APR
60%	3.25% Discount	2 Years	£1750	£250.00	No	5.3% APR

Email: info@propertyhawkbtlmortgages.co.uk 

Tel: 029 2069 5446 

IMPORTANT! Due to current market conditions, lenders are withdrawing and replacing products with little or no notice. Please check our website regularly to see the most up-to-date products available.

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.

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Soggy buy-to-let properties

Damp is a fact of life for landlords at this time of year.  I know the rain has been particularly bad over the last few weeks and it does cause problems.  I've had several tenants contact me.  The main problems I find are:

1. Blocked gutters or leaking gutters causing water to gush and constantly wet an area of external brick work.  This results in damp occurring inside as the porous bricks allow water ingress over a period of time causing internal damp patches.

2. Drains and rising water table.  The constant rain has caused the water table to rise generally as the natural aquifers fill and leaks or inadequacies in the storm drains are exposed often resulting in problems with rising damp as water is absorbed through the superstructure of the building.

3. Condensation is the other major damp problem as tenants keep window tightly shut and crank up the heating.  The wonders of UPVC windows and our modern obsession with cleanliness (2 showers a day) mean there is no way for the high levels of moisture to escape resulting in condensation and then mould.

4. Expanding doors and windows that jam as a result of the absorption of increased humidity and moisture levels.

Landlord insurance - all risks

RICS calls for crackdown of rogue letting agents

RICS are calling for a 'clamp down' on the lettings sector to help kick out unscrupulous rogue agents turning it, in there words, into "the property industry's Wild West".

RICS has declared the sector as having "a total lack of effective regulation".

A turn up for the books then, a trade body asking for further regulation.... funny that.

Read their statistical concoction in the Telegraph

Rates to stay below 1% until 2018

Most landlords have borrowed heavily to purchase their buy-to-let property.  This means that mortgage charges are their biggest cost when it comes to financing their rental business dwarfing other costs such as insurance and maintenance.

Most landlords are rightly pretty obsessed with what is going to happen to the Base Rate.  Rates have been on the floor now for over 3 years and the latest predictions are that even a quarter percent rise to 0.75% will not happen until April 2014 at the earliest.  This gives landlords another year of record rental profits.  The projections are even pointing to the fact that the base rate will not get to 1% until 2018 at the earliest.  Unbelievable but fantastic if you are as I am with a large proportion of my mortgages on base rate trackers!

Have a look at what the experts are saying about interest rates.  A word of caution though.  Experts have been wrong before so bet your house on it...

Mortgage Finance - expert brokers

Property pension

A recent survey of landlords reveals that more than 80% of private landlords intend to us their property portfolio to fund their pension.

The Survey by BDRC Continental found that 4 out of 5 landlords interviewed intended to live off rental income or sell off their properties to fund their retirement years.

Mark Long, director at BDRC Continental, said: "Landlords consistently tell us that they see their property portfolio as forming a critical part of their pension provision for the future."

Property Hawk has been advocating for years the long-term benefits of residential property investment and it's use as part of an overall retirement plan.  We have also urged government to give this asset class the same tax advantages as other investment products held within personal pension schemes such as SIPPs.  So far to no avail!
 
Landlord insurance - professional rates

Should I let to desperate tenants?

I'm having real problems letting a property at the moment.  Despite the place being advertised with two very good letting agents in different parts of town there has been no suitable takers.  I have just had one couple with child that are desperate to rent.  The letting agent maintaining that the couple are lovely (I've not met them so it's a difficult one to verify) I am concerned.  Why?  Well it turns out that the couple and child are currently living in a hotel.  They have moved from down south with the husband starting work whilst the wife is currently on maternity leave.  Now call me old fashioned but if I had a job offer you normally know several month in advance when you will be starting work and therefore will sort out a place to live in advance (especially if you have a child).  I'm not comfortable.  I don't understand the back story and that make me uneasy.  I like to have organised well ordered tenants not ones that appear to lead chaotic lives.  To me this spell trouble even if the tenants appear to be earning a decent wage.

Currently, I'm awaiting the reference and credit check but unless I get to the bottom of why they are staying in a hotel I'm not going to hand over the keys whatever the agents assurances are?  After all it will be me that is left trying to deal with the fall out if things go wrong.  What would you do?  I'd be interested in how other landlords would approach this dilemma.

Landlords insurance - expert brokers