The UK’s private rental market saw a 5% surge in rents in the year to May – with growth now outpacing the previous 12-month period, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals. That’s when average prices rose by 4.8% with England’s rents increasing by 4.9%, while Wales and Scotland experienced slightly higher growth of 5% […]

Hello, I was a London resident all my life but moved with my mother to Yorkshire when she became seriously ill. As my studio flat was empty in London, I rented it out while I was in Yorkshire. When my mum died I could not return to London so I decided to keep the property […]

Landlords are now scrambling to sell their high-yielding rental properties as rocketing mortgage rates hit profit margins on even the most lucrative investments, the Daily Telegraph reports. In data provided by Hamptons estate agents, the report reveals that 25% of buy to let properties sold this year have boasted yields of 7% or higher. That […]

In a pioneering move, one buy to let specialist lender says it will offer a £1,000 cashback incentive to landlord borrowers who upgrade their property’s Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) level to C or above. This limited-edition feature applies to Fleet Mortgages’ five- and seven-year fixed-rate products, excluding Green options, and is valid for completions from […]

Max Scott’s journey began in 2013 when he decided to spend some of his savings on a year’s property investment training programme. Now his firm, Star Property Group, has a portfolio that has grown by £30 million in the last 12 months and Max is the managing director – and now the winner of the […]

Landlords and property investors are being warned that a plan by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to introduce an Ultra-Low Emission Zone (Ulez) expansion could put the skids under house prices. A study by London-based estate agents Benham and Reeves has found that the Ulez expansion is already putting a damper on property values. […]

Hello, there is a tenant who has repeatedly used the ground floor communal hall in the block to store large pallets of building materials for his wood floor laying business for weeks on end. The lease for the long leaseholder excludes storage of anything in the communal hall. The tenant takes no notice of warning […]

Hello, I’d be really grateful for suggestions on what I could try next – Neighbouring property applied to planning for a change of use from residential to HMO (we’re an Article 4 area) and the council quite rightly, refused two times. Subsequently, the same owner went ahead and did it anyway and even registered for […]

Hello, we have roof repairs to undertake and have notified leaseholders through the Section 20 process this process is completed. There were no responses during the consultation process. After this, we have received payment from the leaseholders except one, who subsequently on the request for payment has then listed objections and is refusing to pay. […]

There is a consistent stream of private landlords leaving the UK’s property market – and it has been a steady flow since 2018 – but it is not an exodus, Zoopla says. The property platform says the overall number of privately rented homes has remained unchanged since 2016, thanks to increased investments from corporate landlords […]

The Welsh Minister for Climate Change, Julie James MS, has expressed her support for the National Residential Landlords’ Association (NRLA) proposal to conduct a comprehensive review of taxation in the private rental sector (PRS). The endorsement came during the launch event of NRLA’s State of the Welsh Private Rented Sector report, and she says suggestions […]

A study has exposed the vulnerability of millions of homeowners who may face mortgage defaults if interest rates continue to climb. Moneyhub’s research indicates that 26% of homeowners with a mortgage could struggle to make their payments if there were another rate hike. The study also found that 35% of these homeowners are worried about […]

A report revealing a significant increase in second home registrations in London has prompted leading figures to call for government intervention in the holiday lettings market. The data, collected by Generation Rent, indicates that the number of non-primary residences in the city has rocketed since 2019. And that’s despite pandemic-related travel restrictions and shifting domestic […]

As small buy-to-let landlords struggle to keep up with increasing interest rates, a wave of City investors is stepping in to fill the gap in the rental market, one property consultancy says. The firm, JLL, is predicting that within the next three years, the build-to-rent (BTR) sector will double in size, making up 20% of […]

Hello, like thousands of others, the monthly interest payments on my one and only rental property have more than doubled since this time last year, and regrettably, I feel I now need to pass some of this cost on to my tenants via a rent increase. They are now paying well below the market rate […]

Unless you’ve been travelling around on Jeff or Elon’s space rockets recently, you would not have missed the chaos and turmoil in the mortgage market. In just the last week or so, major lenders pulled all of their products from the market and did not replace them straight away. And when they did, yes, you’ve […]

In a market where interest rates are sky high, tax bills are extortionate and mortgage payments are higher than rents, coupled with a backlog of refurb costs and difficult tenant situations, landlords are rushing to cash in and sell their property portfolios. If you were a landlord on the fence about whether or not it’s […]

Hi, I am unsure of what actions we as a family need to take in the situation we are in now. I bought a property in 2009, transferred it to my two children 50/50 in 2010. However, I continued to manage the property, and both children received regular rent in their joint account and they […]

Hello, I’m considering buying my first HMO in an article 4 area where C4 planning is required. If the property I buy is already used as a HMO and has been since before article 4 came into place, would I still need to obtain C4 planning permission? Thank you, Josh

Hello fellow landlords. A year ago I was sold a ‘fully hands off’ rent-to-rent 5 year lease on a property to run as serviced accommodation, the ‘sourcing fee’ was paid to an investment arm of the letting agent which would be also acting as the Landlord in the agreement and charge a management commission fee. The […]

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) has teamed up with a group of charities and consumer organisations, dubbed ‘Warm this Winter’, to encourage the government to decide on a deadline for the implementation of EPC rules for the private rented sector (PRS). The Public Bill Committee is currently scrutinising the Energy Bill and it is […]