Buy to let landlords should get extra tax breaks to encourage them to provide more homes lower rents and more stable tenancies, according to a new study. The action is needed to help a predicted 1.5 million young renters find a home because they are unlikely to ever afford to buy a property, says social […]

Property investors often have a key question – is my money better off in property or in some other form of investment? Many companies try and answer the question – mainly because they want to relieve property investors of their hard-earned cash in return for selling something.

Having agreed to buy my first intentional property investment I soon realised that it’s a bit like a visit to the loo, paperwork is important! I’d purchased my first home a few years before but to be honest I’d forgotten about all the paperwork I’d done at that time. All of a sudden it all […]

The housing market is still trying to shatter the glass ceiling imposed by mortgage lenders restricting home loans, but expectations are exceeding reality for most sellers as sales have plunged 40% since the 2007 boom. A number of surveys looking at the market all report more activity but less sales.

It’s likely that if you own a leasehold buy to let property that you have been a victim of the great service charge scam. Much publicity goes to fly-by-night letting agents whose businesses close leaving landlords and tenants out-of-pocket – but few dare to whisper the rip-off perpetrated by managing agents.

Buy to let is here to stay and even more families will have to rent if the economy does not improve, says new research. The number of private renters is expected to jump from 18% to 22% by 2025 – up from 7% in 1994 – reports a study from the Resolution Foundation for housing […]

The story began in 1989 when I purchased a property which I soon realised I couldn’t afford to live in. I suppose that was my first property investment and many landlords get started that way. I rented that property out when interest rates shot up and property values crashed leaving me in negative equity. I […]

85% loan to value borrowing is back with Kent Reliance Launching two new mortgage products. These are both variable rates at 5.49% for the two year, and 5.69% for the three year discounted rate. The ability to borrow 85% of the value or purchase price of a buy to let property has been a milestone ever […]

The Green Deal has fallen on deaf ears according to the latest research from the Association of Residential Letting Agents. The research found that half (51%) of the landlords questioned hadn’t heard of the Green Deal and over a third (33%) didn’t actually know the energy rating of their buy to lets.

Inconsistent planning policies for student landlords are making some cities no-go zones for property investors. The problems arise from ‘article 4 directions’ for small shared rental properties – where three to five tenants share a house.

An estate agent tried to make some money on the side by renting an empty home he was trying to sell. Your Move sales consultant Daniel Morriss, 25, advertised the two-bed house to let online as a furnished let for £500 per month without telling the owner.

House prices are stagnating and are expected to stay the same for the rest of the year, according to one of the UK’s largest mortgage lenders. May house prices increased 0.5% after a 2.3% drop in April to an average £160,941, says the Halifax.

Buy to let mortgage lenders are sighing with relief after the European parliament voted to exclude landlord loans from tough new lending rules. The UK’s Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has campaigned long and hard for buy to let to be treated as a commercial loan rather than a residential mortgage, which was the initial […]

Hardly surprising, but still good news for borrowers is that the Monetary Policy committee voted to keep the Bank Base rate at 0.5% today. Of more interest though is the decision not to increase the levels of quantitative easing.

BM Solutions are making semi-exclusive products available to their preferred broker sources showing they still have an appetite and spare funds available to lend. The two buy to let products launched recently are both two year fixed rates at 4.89% if you use BM Conveyancing and 5.04% if you use your own solicitor.

This article has nothing whatsoever to do with Property but I suspect several of our readers will be following the football over the next few weeks and may be interested in some alternative predictions for Euro 2012. Will England do better than we did in Eurovision I wonder? Several of my friends are lawyers, one […]

Buy to let rents slipped back 4.3% to an average £919 a month in May, according to letting agents haart. Average rents across the country fell, but slightly increased across the UK when excluding London – by around 0.7% to an average £791.

A landlord addicted to porn secretly watched couples having sex with a spy camera secreted in an alarm clock on a bedside table in a holiday cottage bedroom. A judge told Jonathan Waugh, 52, that he was disgusting and depraved, when jailing him for a year at York Crown Court.

We are witnessing a significant rise in the incidence of some banks refusal to offer new or extended terms to development loan facilities. In extreme cases, some banks are demanding early loan redemption. This often leaves the borrower with a major headache in a market where commercial lending is restricted and competitive alternatives are not […]

I have a suit but I hardly ever wear it. It’s only a cheap one, £100 from Zara’s a couple of years back, I use it for court sometimes. Some people were born to wear them; they carry them off, think George Clooney, Cary Grant. But do you know what I look like in a […]

Read the headlines from the past week featuring the latest columns and commentary from the buy to let and housing industry, as well as the latest news.