Halifax House Price Index for August

Halifax have released their House Price Index for August 2014.

Their data reports a 0.1% rise over the month, bringing the annual increase to a very healthy 9.7% and the quarterly figure in at 3.0%.

The average property price is now at £186,270.


Martin Ellis, an economist for the Halifax commented that "Housing demand is supported by continuing economic recovery, growth in employment, improving consumer confidence and low mortgage rates. Nonetheless, earnings growth that remains below consumer price inflation, and the prospect of an interest rate rise at some point over the coming months, are likely to curb demand."

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The death of 'Let to Buy'

Worrying news for those 'accidental landlords' out there. It appears the Treasury are going to enforce the forth-coming European Mortgage Credit Directive on those BTL mortgages classified as 'unplanned'.

This will mean those homeowners who find themselves wanting to switch a residential mortgage to a BTL mortgage on a home they are unable to sell will find themselves subject to increased regulation and affordability checks.

As it stands, BTL mortgages are not regulated in the same way as residential homebuyer mortgages, landlords are perceived as 'businesses', so presumed to better understand the risks, unlike owner- occupiers, who are considered innocent lambs who need protection from lending wolves. 

In recent years, post 2007 credit crunch, a slowed property market has lead many homeowners to swap unsold properties onto a BTL loan with their lenders. The practice, known as 'Let to buy' might come to an end with the introduction of this European Mortgage Credit Directive in 2016.

The Treasury said: "There are some situations where borrowers do not seem to be acting in a business capacity. Examples of this may be where the property has been inherited or where a borrower has previously lived in a property, but is unable to sell it so resorts to a buy-to-let arrangement. In these cases, the borrower is a landlord as a result of circumstance rather than through their own active business decision."

The Council of Mortgage Lenders are arguing against the proposal.

Read the Consultation Document on the Implementation of the EU Mortgage Directive

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Britain's smallest house for sale

Described as " an ideal buy to let or pied-à-terre" the countries smalls house has gone up for sale for £275,000.

At just 188sq feet the Islington house provides an open plan living space, shower room and mezzanine sleeping level.

For those landlords wanting to learn a few tricks on how to maximise space take a look at its details on Zoopla.

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CBI and BCC call for more housebuilding

The CBI employers’ organisation and the British Chambers of Commerce are calling for 240,000 homes a year to tackle the “chronic” housing shortage.

The CBI is calling for MPs to stop “putting off big decisions until they’re overdue”.

Katja Hall, CBI deputy director-general, said that housing shortage should be a Government priority otherwise there will be “huge implications” for the country's competitiveness as the nations workforce becomes increasingly inflexible due to a lack of affordable housing and the high costs of re-locating.

However, despite house building over the last 12 months hitting a post 2007 crunch high, the  137,000 new starts continues to fall far short of the forecasted demand.

More on the CBI calls for housebuilding in the Financial Times

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How to bet on the success of BTL

One of the founders of the online betting website Betfair is taking a punt on the continued success and popularity of buy-to-let from as little as £50.  Ed Wray, founder of Betfair hopes to get lucky with his equity investment.

What does it do?

Property Partner allows investors to obtain direct exposure to the direct buy-to-let let and residential investment market and for them to hold directly a property investment in their portfolio without all the work involved in buying and managing property.

Is it different?

The latest venture is the latest addition to the property crowdfunding band wagon.  Does it have a point of difference?  Not really other than perhaps it has some well known backers when & if it launches.

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The secret to successful letting is...

The secret of easy stress free letting I can reveal comes down to one simple thing.

Getting a good tenant in the first place.  For me a good tenant is intelligent.  Speak to them even better meet them in person. If they can't string a sentence together are they really going to be able to manage the tenancy and all the little problems that come along the way.  Answer....probably not.

I'm still recovering from the throws of letting a 'dumm arse' tenant thrust upon me by a cocky amateur letting agent who thought there was nothing to the process of letting property ( correct if you do it badly).

Never underestimate the time taken to recover from a bad let

I'm finding out to my cost just how long the process takes to recover from a bad let.  Getting possession and then the time and costs of completing your claim for the outstanding rent from the rental guarantor.

On top of this there are all the time and costs of getting the property renewed.  A rental void is painful but believe you me letting your property to the wrong tenant costs a lot more.  So my advice to landlords is think before you let & if you are unsure just walk away.  There are plenty more tenant fish in the sea!

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