Landlords and second home owners who leave their properties standing empty face a new tax blitz. The government is to introduce proposals to let local authorities raise an extra £420 million a year in Council Tax from homes left vacant for more than two years and second homes only used at weekends.

There has been a significant shift towards bridging finance, especially in the residential property market. The high street banks are curbing their lending making it more difficult to apply for finance, but with demand for borrowing on the increase, bridging finance lenders have moved into the market to fill the gap. Falling interest rates have also contributed to the […]

This week’s edition features an introduction to Tessa Shepperson’s course “Landlord law made easy”, a recession busting article on how to save stamp duty, criteria to consider when purchasing a flat, buy to let market updates and the start of a series of articles on the availability of commercial finance.

Property investors with buy to let rentals and holiday homes expect to supplement their pensions with cash from renting or selling, according to a new survey. Around 73% of over 55s expect to raise extra income or cash in their retirement from property, says the Equity Release Council, the trade body for equity release lenders.

Rent rises are fuelled by a mortgage famine that is forcing home owners that cannot sell to become reluctant landlords who have to rent themselves to move on. The latest lettings survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) shows rents have followed an increasing trend since 2009.

Buy to let mortgage borrowing is expected to increase even more as lenders switch funds away from movers and first time buyers to landlords. Several key lenders have already pledged more funds for buy to let – including the Co-op Bank and The Mortgage Works, the property investment subsidiary of the Nationwide Building Society.

Landlords are warned to check out that their letting agents protect their money as a new scheme helping tenants reclaim unfair fees threatens make some firms go bust. Housing charity Shelter Scotland is leading the campaign against rip-off letting agents – and has helped more than 100 tenants start claims for the repayment of thousands […]

Breaking up is hard to do – and that applies to a property portfolio as much as a marriage.  Luckily, if buy to let landlords divorce, some special tax rules can help minimise the taxes involved in any exchange of assets.

According to the latest Landlords Panel research by BDRC Continental, one in four buy to let landlords own their property portfolio outright, while a third have a mixed portfolio. The survey of NLA members showed something of a polarised investor community though. The investors who rely on buy to let mortgages believe the industry needs […]

Godiva the specialist buy to let arm of the Coventry Building society is bringing capped rates back into the market after their disappearance during the credit crunch. A capped rate is a variable mortgage that can move up or down with fluctuations in interest rates, but will not increase beyond the “capped” pay rate during the term of […]

Is Property Finance Available? This is the first of a series of articles looking at the availability of finance and how to access it in today’s market by Malcolm Jones and Cliff Verrill of Brooklands Commercial Finance. Lenders have come in for a lot of criticism, some of it deservedly so. However, in realigning their […]

Don’t you get fed up sometimes by the amount of law we are expected to know? We have to comply with complicated tenancy deposit regulations otherwise our tenants can sue us for a penalty payment and we won’t be able to serve a notice to evict them unless we pay their deposit back.

Thousands of buy to let and shared house landlords in Wales will have to sign up to a register before they can privately rent a home. The proposal was part of a housing white paper launched by the labour-controlled Welsh Assembly. The new law will mean private landlords will have to prove they are a […]

Here’s a timely warning for property people who believe the tax man is a friendly and benign helper. Gill Orsmann was buying a house and spent some time scrutinising the conveyancing documents drafted by her solicitor.

London rents are 78% higher than those in the rest of the country, according to the latest figures from landlord insurer Homelet. The firm’s monthly index of private rents revealed the UK has two separate rental markets – London and the rest.

Property taxes in the UK are the highest in Europe, according to the latest figures issued by the European Union. The latest figures are for 2010, and show revenue flowing in to government coffers from property taxes varies widely across the continent.

This week’s edition features Neil Patterson going through much of the buy to let market changes, and also offers advice for buy to let investors. Mark Alexander wonders about Greece’s impact on the PRS and two new columnists offer their own handy advice.

Possession orders have been on the rise again, hitting a four year high back in March. Landlords appear to be changing tack though as possession without obtaining a money order claims have shot up by over 30%. The change is nationwide, with significant rises in Chelmsford (67%) and Luton (56%) to name but two.

The government is failing low income householders as buy to let rents rise, despite cutting housing benefits to try to stem the increases. A private rental market analysis by a housing groups is warning the government that rents are unaffordable in some areas for poorer families – and propose building more homes and supporting landlords […]

Homes going under the hammer at auctions are going up in value, but are still significantly below average house prices. April figures for homes sold at auction show 1,479 properties were sold for an average price of £101,060, according to auction monitor EI Group.

“When is the Bank of England base rate going up?” is the most frequent question I am asked by property investors. Not this year or next is how I assess the latest figures from the May Bank of England inflation report. Below are some of the key factors affecting the UK and Euro-zone along with […]