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Saturday, October 12, 2013

Buy-to-let lending down over Summer

It seem us landlords were taking it easy over the Summer.  Well you can't work all the time?  You obviously do a little time to spend the rental profits.

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) there was a small decrease in buy-to-let mortgages in August compared to July down from 15,200 to 14,900 with a total value of £1.9 bn.  The reduction was mainly due to a fall in landlords remortgaging which fell from £1.1 bn in July to £1 bn in August.

New buy-to-let mortgage still outnumbered remortgages in August with new purchases coming out at 7,900 compared to 6,900 remortgage loans.

It looks like us landlords like a bit a sun.  A distant memory now.  Summer over - looking at my Winter to-do list and I'm starting to feel quite daunted!

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Wednesday, October 09, 2013

New Housing Minister

The cabinet reshuffle has thrown another 'bod' into the role of Housing Minister. Unsurprisingly Kris Hopkins, has no particular relevant property experience.

What is interesting however is his introduction to the post by his fellow Tory MP, Nadine Dorries. She described her colleague as 'one of parliaments, nastiest, slimiest MPs'.

Kris has a military/media background.

When I went to his website krishopkins.co.uk I got the message 'this website is currently being rebuilt', ... now that doesn't bode well, especially when his last blog post was back in 2010.

Kris you're going to have get things built a lot faster than that.

Well anyway ... welcome to your new post Kris, and good luck with the crisis.

Read more in the Guardian

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A full and proper evaluation of HTB

This article in Mindful Money tries to give a fair assessment of the new Help to Buy Scheme - worth a read if you've got five minutes.

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London rents to fall thanks to HTB

London estate agency, Chesterton Humberts, is predicting that London rents could fall by five percent during the three year period the Help to Buy Scheme is set to run.

I'm not particularly convinced by the logic, but Chesterton Humberts are theorising that the increased supply of FTBs will free up rental property, therefore better fulfilling demand with the increased supply, leading to a downward pressure of rents.

Richard Davies, residential operations director at Chesterton Humberts, said: "More landlords may find their tenant(s) giving notice as they move away from the private rented sector and into home ownership."

Well, it's a theory.

Or at least a guess.

Does anyone else have any theory/guess on the effects of the Help to Buy on the property market?

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World building of the year

For those landlords who enjoy architecture the Telegraph have a photos of the finalists for this years 'World Building of the Year'.

And the winner is ... Auckland Art Gallery, designed by Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp and Archimedia.

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Rents continue to surge

Buy-to-let rents continue to surge according to our very own Rentindex.  They seem set to break the £640 pcm for the very first time having climbed steadily during the year.  Rents have gained 2.7% over the last 12 months and are up over 3% alone over the last 3 months.

Why we like the Rentindex

There are plenty of other residential rent indices which give average figures for rents and chart their changes over the last few month.  However, we particular like our rent index because it gives we feel a realistic representation of rents across the whole of England & Wales.  Most landlords outside London would only dream at an average rent of £743.  Obviously, the likes of LSL property services who prepare a rent index with data using their landlords who have opted to use a letting agent to at least let if not manage their property.  The Rentindex uses data from landlords who rent out their property themselves.  These DIY landlords sometimes reflect more realistically what is going on across the regions and for landlords of all walks of life not just high rolling landlords from Central London.

Seasonal rent changes

We are preparing ourselves for the seasonal drop in residential rents which normally turns down from late Autumn until recovering in Spring.  So don't panic it looks like that rents will continue their rise even if in real terms rents have been falling.

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