The Welsh Government has launched a consultation on new fire safety regulations for high-rise buildings, following the ban on some combustible materials in 2018. The new rules would cover more materials, buildings and emergency systems, but they would not apply to existing flats. Now Propertymark has expressed its support for the consultation, but also its […]

There has been a massive jump in the number of homeowners who are renting out their spare rooms to lodgers with an 89% rise in such listings between January 2021 and January 2024, one flat sharing site reveals. According to SpareRoom, January is usually a peak month for flat sharing as homeowners try to boost […]

The Scottish Government collected more than £600m from property taxes in the last year, a leading property firm has revealed. DJ Alexander Ltd, the country’s biggest lettings and estate agency, analysed the latest statistics and found that Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) and Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) revenues totalled £619.6m in the 12 months […]

The Department of Levelling Up has provided the opportunity for local authorities to roll out their own legislation under the umbrella of their more penal HMO regulations covering all kinds of bizarre areas. I have been caught out as I have 4 tenants (Parliament says 5 or more the London boroughs have reduced the number […]

MT Finance is the latest buy to let lender to announce a rate reduction on its 16 BTL products, effective immediately. The specialist lender has cut rates by 1% and now offers mortgages starting from 4.65% for two-year fixed standard residential BTL products. The interest cover ratio (ICR) stress testing remains at 125% on five-year […]

London and Wales have seen the biggest rise in letting agent numbers in the past year, with a 4% increase each, research reveals. The study from Zero Deposit shows this percentage translates to a much larger figure in London, where 232 more letting agents have joined the market, compared to only 36 in Wales. London […]

A survey has found that nearly 60% of UK landlords have seen a rise in late rent payments due to the current financial situation, and that landlords are each owed an average of £725 in arrears. The research from digital mortgage lender Molo also reveals that one of the main concerns for landlords in 2024 […]

Hello all, I am in the incredibly lucky position to soon have about £390k in cash, so no mortgage is needed. I want to invest and buy a flat in London and rent it out. I would like to ask for advice. I have read a lot online but every website says different things. Where […]

One region has outperformed all other regions of Britain in terms of house price growth since the Bank of England began to hike interest rates in December 2021, a study reveals. According to GetAgent.co.uk, it used seasonal adjustment to measure the true state of the housing market. Seasonal adjustment adjusts the data for the seasonal […]

The UK rental market is expected to see solid growth in 2024, despite a gradual recovery in supply, according to Knight Frank. The property consultancy said that landlords had exited the sector in recent years due to higher taxes and regulations, which had driven up rents. However, supply was improving as more sellers opted to […]

The property market saw a decline in the number of homes purchased by landlords in 2023, but this did not stop the growth of buy to let companies with a record 50,004 new limited companies being formed, research reveals. According to Hamptons, the number of firms being formed to hold buy to let properties in […]

Hello, we have a shop, which has a commercial lease in place for a 20 year term. The tenant has a post office inside the shop and the lease was in her personal name. The tenant attempted to pay the rent from an unrelated Ltd Company, for one month, which we said we would not […]

The council of Bath & North East Somerset (B&NES) has announced that landlords who do not maintain their rented properties to the required standards will have to pay more fees. This is part of the council’s Housing Services Charging Policy, which was updated last month to reflect the costs of providing various housing services. One […]

Ah, tax season. It’s a phrase that strikes fear into the hearts of even the most seasoned property portfolio owners. Mountains of receipts, baffling forms, and late-night calculations – it’s enough to make anyone yearn for a tropical island escape. But what if there was a way to navigate this annual ordeal with grace and […]

Propertymark has responded to a Welsh Government White Paper on Ending Homelessness which outlines its plans to reform the legislation on homelessness prevention. The organisation has expressed its support for some of the key proposals, while also highlighting the need for better collaboration with the private rented sector (PRS). Propertymark says: “We are pleased that […]

The UK’s property market has seen a surge of new sellers and buyers entering the market in January to boost prices by more than double the 20-year average of +0.6%, Rightmove says. The property platform adds that the average price of property listed for sale increased by 1.3% (+4,571) this month to £359,748, the highest […]

This week saw a cornucopia of stories that illustrate the current wrong thinking on the private rented sector – and that landlords are the fault for everything. First up is Andy Burnham’s political nonsense, the ‘groundbreaking’ Good Landlord Charter. Ostensibly it is for all rented homes in Greater Manchester but I’m willing to offer good […]

Landbay has reduced its rates for various buy to let mortgages twice in one week, offering more competitive deals for landlords. The specialist lender has lowered its rates for the standard two-year range by up to 0.35%, and for the two- and five-year small HMO/MUFB range by up to 0.40%. It has also lowered its […]

Hello, Please read this about the local housing allowance rates for 2024 to 2025: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-housing-allowance-indicative-rates-for-2024-to-2025/indicative-local-housing-allowance-rates-for-2024-to-2025 What will this mean for you? For my properties it will mean rent increases. I shall be raising rents to match the new LHA rates at the first possible opportunity after the increase is applied from 1 April. Some of […]

Hello, We have a property in the family that we have taken back into possession after a very long rental term, circa 50 years. As you could imagine it is now quite dated and run down inside. All still functional just in need of modernisation all the way through. No central heating, just electric heaters, […]

The UK’s rents for new tenancies dipped by 0.9% in December 2023, reaching £1,268 which is still 8.01% more than the same month in 2022, the HomeLet rental index reveals. The average rent, excluding London, was £1,061, a 0.5% decline from November 2023, but an 8.6% rise from December 2022. London saw a 2.2% drop […]