The Bank of England have withdrawn their support for the Funding for Lending Scheme, but only to the household market. The Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) has been successful in reducing the cost of lending for banks in the mortgage market and contributed to a fall in the cost of borrowing to homeowners. However the […]

Channel 4 TV have tracked down Daniel Burton of Unida Place in Scunthorpe. The self proclaimed “Rent to Rent Guru” vanished from London back in August this year leaving both landlords and tenants 10’s of thousands of pounds of of pocket. More details in this 5 minute News clip courtesy of Channel 4 TV.  Mark […]

First of all thank you for all your suggestions and opinions. I have a property in negative equity, which I don’t live in, in a different area of country to where I am now located. I owe the mortgage lender £130,000 and I have it on sale now for £103,000. I have a buyer and […]

I operate in what I think is fairly straightforward way; buy a distressed property, add value, get a valuation, mortgage and then buy the next. Recently I finished a 3 bed semi that I paid £60,000 for, I spent around £15,000 on the refurbishment and valued the finished product for around £100,000. I let the […]

I have become involved in a dispute with Freehold Managing Agents and seek advice from 118 readers. The base of the scenario is a residential housing estate where each property owner is a shareholder in the Management Company, it is a mix of private and landlord owned houses. The Management Company is responsible for maintaining […]

Hi again Quick question – I have raised equity through remortgaging my main residence. I have about £80-100K. I have the option of buying two or three flats in Manchester apparently 10% lower than market price – they are rented out currently and are getting 7.5-8% yield. My thoughts are that with the £800-million being […]

Agents show they back higher standards and support their new Council of Letting Agents (CLA) Almost half of SAL letting agent members signed up to the new CLA code of practice within 48 hours of being invited to do so. Far in advance of the mandatory regulation expected via the Housing (Scotland) Bill introduced to […]

Hi Mark, This is my first property and the initial 6 month tenancy agreement is finishing at the end of this month. As a newbie I am wondering if there is anything I should be aware of or actioning before I agree to a 12 month tenancy agreement. Although my tenant has been very good […]

I use letting agent to find my tenants and have recently used one of the big companies in my area. They found a tenant and carried out the vetting and paperwork etc, since the tenant moved in he hasn’t paid any rent. When I asked for a copy of the paperwork they had on file […]

Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, has sent a report to City regulators concerning RBS deliberately putting “good viable” businesses into default so it could make more profit. This is nothing new to the PRS as there have been many reports of banks calling in commercial loans of large portfolio landlords forcing them to sell in […]

Does undertaking energy efficiency of rental stock helps to increase income?  Is there any established research on this subject? Why should I undertake this work, even if a few of these measures are free? Thanks Das Debansu  

VIRGIN investor needs help (male sorry lol) – 6 questions incl – Always get new fixed BTL mortgages? And if so for 1,2,or 5 years? Always interest only? And other VERY important questions – HELP! I am new to doing this BTL thingie – I am now adding to my one BTL property in the […]

Scenario: I rent a terraced property, may consider selling in future, currently I overpay on mortgage to reduce the amount owed. Point 1; I was told that having a mortgage on a property wasn’t actually a bad thing as I would save on capital gains tax as the mortgage would have to be paid off […]

I am researching how Landlords and letting agents look at the best way to market a particular property, and make it stand out from the rest to achieve a higher rent. This is for a seminar I am presenting at the Landlord & Letting Show next week. So far I have been really surprised at […]

Mortgage brokers are furious that the West Brom Building Society are only targeting clients they introduced with a 1.9% hike of their tracker margins. Only 41% of borrowers are affected highly controversial rate rise, direct customers of the the building society are not currently being targeted. Further, the society has issued veiled threats in response […]

Sponsored Article: With a student population in excess of 53,000, Liverpool is one of the premier destinations in the country for Higher Education. Acutely under supplied and in need of high-spec accommodation for the growing number of students which flock to the city each year, Liverpool City Council has already approved the planning for X1 […]

Sponsored article Offering an assured NET rental yield of 6% for the first 5 years, and managed/let on-site by an experienced rental management company, these 1, 2 and 3-bed Buy to Let apartments are a fantastic investment opportunity for any property portfolio. Already in construction and on course to be completed in September 2014, these […]

The Property Ombudsman (TPO) is launching the Uk’s first Code of Practice specifically for the growing number of Buying Agents acting for consumers buying property in the UK. The Property Ombudsman provides a free and impartial dispute resolution service for consumers and will be implementing The Buying Agent Code of Practice on 1st January 2014. […]

I own a purpose-built first floor flat in a block of just 8 in St Albans, two bedrooms, 1 en-suite. It was purchased in 2001 for £140k. It is rented for £800 but the mortgage, which is BTL interest only is £724 and management fees are £113. It’s had the same tenant for seven years […]

One of our properties becomes vacant next month and I am very tempted to sell it. It has at least £50k equity in it and would nicely fund some opportunities in 2014 without affect our cash flow too much. The property is just in my name. If I put it in joint names with my […]

The role of the mortgage broker has changed significantly post credit crunch. During the buy to let boom years of 1996 to 2008 most buy to let borrowers were primarily focussed on getting deals done quickly. They knew that if they spent time with a financial adviser to complete a full review of their financial […]