Having thought through the economic problems in Greece I have to ask the question, will Greeks mass migrate to the UK? In my opinion, Germany will eventually realise that supporting the Greek economy ad-infinitum just doesn’t make sense and will cut their losses and allow the Greek economy to fail. I also believe that point is very […]

Newham Council has completed stage one of a grandiose plan to licence 35,000 buy to let tenancies. The Labour-led council wants to become the first to achieve the milestone and is looking to extend a pilot scheme in the neighbourhood improvement zone of Little Ilford that has seen 257 licences issued.

A property firm’s claims that buy to let was a safe alternative to keeping money in a savings account were misleading, ruled the Advertising Standards Authority. THE ASA has banned the firm, Aldermartin Baines and Cuthbert, estate agents in Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire, from running the ads and ordered them to only broadcast unregulated investment ads […]

A few of you have talked about communication on here before, but today I wanted to talk about communication issues and the problems they can cause. I had a landlord friend once who swore blind that the more effective form of communication he had with his tenants was on the phone. He felt it added […]

I was recently asked about buy to rent and having thought about the conversation afterwards I was amazed at how indoctrinated into the jargon of the financial industry I have become. This was to the caller a simple mix of perfectly reasonable English e.g. I want to buy a property and rent it out. Buy […]

The state of the housing markets has led to many property people changing strategy to avoid losing money on sales. Property investors come in two types – buy to let investors and buy to sell traders. Both have a different set of rules to deal with the tax on selling a property. Developer is a […]

Letting agents are urging landlords to make sure they only do business with firms offering a money protection scheme. Firms signed up to the SAFEagent scheme are highlighting that landlords and tenants risk losing thousands of pounds in rents and deposits if an agent outside a money protection scheme shuts. The most recent firm to […]

As the sun begins to show its face, we’re all taking our first tentative steps around the garden and the majority of us will all be thinking the same thing; what a mess! If it makes you feel any better, you should know that we’re all in the same boat and, even though it will […]

“How much can I borrow?” is a question I am asked on a daily basis and thought I would assist by creating a written reference point. The first thing to bear in mind is that Lenders perceive a buy to let mortgage as a self funding commercial business proposition with the rental income covering the […]

This week is SAFEagent awareness week. Property118 has supported SAFEagent since its inception just two years ago. The concept is very simple, a Letting Agent displaying a current SAFEagent badge has purchased client money protection and is also a member of one of the 5 best recognised professional bodies in the UK Letting Industry. What this means […]

The government’s housing benefits policy is in disarray as judges have ruled a crucial test to confirm how big a house a tenant qualifies to rent discriminates against the disabled. The housing benefit regulations, which came into force in April 2012, were criticised as flawed in the Court of Appeal because they do not allow […]

Nearly a third of landlords have plans to buy more rental property this year, according to specialist buy to let lender CHL Mortgages. Landlord confidence is running high with just 1 in 10 aiming to sell property or leave buy to let, with 31% set to expand their portfolios, while the rest continue with business […]

Mortgage Trust will now consider remortgaging a property inside 6 months of the date of purchase, but only if there have been significant improvement works carried out which have enhanced the property’s value.

Calls to boost buy to let by upgrading pensions to include residential property are gathering momentum in Parliament. An influential select committee of MPs is urging the government to streamline pension and tax laws for landlords to stimulate investment in private rented housing.

Beds in sheds landlords are the target of a new government campaign to crack down on shoddy housing. Housing minister Grant Shapps is spearheading the battle against the spread of ‘suburban shanty towns’ by injecting £1.8 million into a fighting fund for nine councils.

Buy to let landlords filed nearly 6,000 claims to evict tenants in the first three months of the year, according to the latest Ministry of Justice figures. County courts handle around 65 new cases every day and lawyers are concerned that backlogs will cause financial problems for landlords as strikes and work-to-rules by public sector […]

Health and safety inspectors are cracking down on landlords who fail to manage building projects on their rental properties – even if they employ professional builders to do the work. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning that landlords face prosecution if they flout a little known construction regulation.

London has dropped to second in the rankings for most expensive capital to rent in as rents in Paris takes on the mantle. Rents in the French capital are now three times more than Shanghai and Mumbai. New York appears to have been the best performer though, with the highest yield and highest leap in […]

SAFEagent is launching a ‘week of activity’ beginning on May 14th until 20th May, aimed at raising awareness of the scheme with tenants and landlords. As part of the week there will be national and regional events to increase the knowledge of landlords- especially first-time landlords– and tenants of Client Money Protection Schemes and their […]

Landlords looking to install or purchase properties with solar panels using a 25 year lease agreement need to think twice if they require buy to let finance. We have had feedback from 3 of the major buy to let lenders asking if solar panels installed on a 25 year lease plan are considered suitable security for lending purposes

The Coventry Building Society has cut rates and fees on buy to let loans through subsidiary Godiva. Two year fixed rates are offered at 4.30% at 65% loan to value with a £250 booking fee and no arrangement fee, while another two-year fix is available at 3.99% with a £250 booking fee and a £749 […]