Following the recent appointment of another new Housing and Planning minister, Belvoir, which has over 300 High Street Offices in the UK, is suggesting the appointment of a cross-party housing tsar to work with industry experts, social housing providers and all housing stake holders to create a stable property market with long-term vision. Former Foreign […]

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) have voted 5 to 3 to hold the Bank of England base rate at 0.25%. This victory by the Doves over the Hawks was closer than expected even with inflation reaching a recent high of 2.9%. Current levels of inflation were not perceived by many to be […]

You may have read about the problems I’ve been having with a property I own in Halifax – LINK. Here’s an update  The local agents who it’s been let with for years still haven’t been able to get it rented. Despite owning a stake in LettingSupermarket.com and the fact that they manage most of my […]

Once again our great capital was struck by tragedy last night. At the time of writing there are 12 confirmed fatalities, 79 in hospital and 18 critical in this horrific tragedy. There are still residents unaccounted for, and this death toll may well rise. These deaths and injuries resulted from a catastrophic fire which engulfed […]

As a landlord, someone very much involved in housing, I could not fail to be affected by the Grenfell Tower disaster in West London. It raises questions to be answered including the old chestnut myself and many other private landlords raise: why do local authorities not always maintain their own housing to the same standards […]

This is a query best suited for members of this site who understand the state housing sector better than I. Do councils or housing associations operate HMOs? I’ve never heard of one, but perhaps there are a few scattered around. If the answer is no, why don’t they? Is there some legal restriction, or is […]

A Property118/YPN/Cotswold Barristers joint webinar will take place at 8pm on Thursday 22nd June 2017. The webinar will be hosted by Ant Lyons, founder of YPN and guest experts will be Mark Smith, Head of Chambers at Cotswold Barristers and Mark Alexander, founder of Property118 “The Landlords Union” Topics covered will include:   Who are […]

We have a tenant who, as of today, owes almost £2000 in rent. He has been on a monthly periodic tenancy since the end of his six month AST. Payment has been erratic, but with reminders, he had been keeping up until a few months ago. We could serve him with two months notice (presumably […]

Alok Sharma, MP for Reading West has replaced Gavin Barwell as the new Minister of State for Housing and Planning. However, this role is not deemed important enough under Theresa May to be a Cabinet position. Alok Sharma under the DCLG will now be responsible for: Housing supply policy Home ownership policy Planning policy Planning […]

If the general public borrow money to buy a car they don’t get tax relief on the finance costs. However, car rental businesses do, regardless of whether they are operated as a sole trader, a partnership or a company. They offset their finance costs off against their rental income on the basis that Ina few […]

I have 2 rental properties. One rental property is mortgage free and the other property has a mortgage. Both the rental properties are under my name. My wife has no income and hence doesn’t pay any tax.  I am considering transferring my mortgage free property to my wife and then getting a mortgage on this […]

New housing statistics published today show overall housing output in Scotland continuing to flatline with only 88 more homes ( 1%) built in 2016 than the year before.  Figures also indicate that things won’t be improving any time soon with a fall in the number of homes (279 / 2%) being started in the same […]

A recent Knight Frank report predicts that by 2021 there will be 5.79 million households renting from the Private Rental Sector (PRS). With declining home ownership this means UK PRS households will increase from a 21% share now to 24% of all households by 2021. Other statistics in the report show there are now 4.3 […]

I’m getting nervous about the SDLT exemption available for partnerships incorporating being withdrawn. Also, in the last two Budgets there has been mention of incorporation relief being “simplified” – what does that mean? Could it mean a withdrawal for businesses that don’t trade, or perhaps only property rental businesses if recent history is anything to […]

The is a lot of changing Legislation, Tax and property issues facing Landlords at we speak. I have noticed a lot of Sales in Auction of Property Portfolios and a lot of empty houses being sold off by landlords. With the Tenant Tax looming, potential for Agent No fees and No deposits What is the […]

Hi Guys, got an interesting one I am trying to work out the method to be used to review the rent. The residential property has a Lease of 43 years, with yearly reviews but I cannot workout from the clause what method is used to review the rent. The clause reads ‘On each of the […]

New ‘Expert Property Panel’ to address emerging industry issues at National Landlord Investment Show. Registrations for the flagship National Landlord Investment Show, taking place on Thursday 15th June at London Olympia, have reached an unprecedented level following the announcement of a new ‘expert property panel’, which has been added as part of the seminar programme. […]

This eBook is just five pages long, including the cover page. It is completely free for Property118 members to download (you must be logged in) and you are free to share it with whoever you wish. It explains how inexpensive it can be for landlords to incorporate their business, compared to most people’s perceptions. We also explain […]

Considering the Hung Parliament result in the general election last week, and the subsequent agreement in whatever format it evolves to for the Conservatives to work with the DUP, it is worth a closer look at the DUP policies that concern the Housing Market and the Private Rental Sector. From the DUP website on Policies […]

After 2 months I have received a response to my FOI request for more detailed information on the complaints received about private landlords / property in Nottingham City. To recap NCC are proposing a city wide licencing scheme at a cost of £600 per property(43,000 in the city) as they feel there is a problem […]

Food for thought if the next housing minister is in your constituency and this is a bit late in the day, but only dawned on me when Gavin Barwell lost his seat. These are really rough figures so take with a pinch of salt, but you’ll get the idea. In Croydon roughly 177k people voted. […]