Financial watchdog is alerting landlords to watch out for property hijacking by fraudsters and crooked mortgage brokers. The Financial Services Authority has circulated the warning to all small financial advice firms in the UK to pass on to clients.

Corporate investment in student letting was up 50% to £1.15 billion last year as rents and yields continue to go through the roof. The flood of institutional money into student accommodation has continued in the first three months of 2012 with nearly £250 million invested, according to property consultants CBRE.

Seven out of eight young adults do not believe they can buy a home of their own in the next five years, according to research by the Post office. Instead, they will rent buy to let homes or stay with friends, parents or relatives.

Sales of homes worth £2 million or more are rising – and most are in just four upmarket neighbourhoods of London. Just over half of all multimillion pound home sales last year were in swish Kensington, Chelsea, Westminster or Camden, while 76% (1,161) of £2 million plus sales were in London.

European politicians have delayed voting on buy to let regulation and other key home loan proposals. The vote was scheduled to go before the European Parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee today (April 25, 2012).

It’s not the money the government prints that triggers a resurgence in the economy, but the way everyone spends the cash, argues credit strategist Ben Bennett. The point of no return for the economy was when property investment stopped improving living standards and became pointless spending on renovations and idle speculation, he argues.

We are witnessing a significant rise in the incidence of some banks refusal to offer new or extended terms to commercial 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 […]

Housing minister Grant Shapps has accused Newham Council, East London, of ‘playing politics with peoples’ lives’ over a radical plan to shunt homeless families out of the capital because benefit caps do not allow them to move in to local buy to let properties. The council has a housing waiting list of 32,000 people and […]

Property investors targeted by fraudsters are about to receive a letter or email from financial watchdogs warning them crooks are trying to con them out of cash. More than 75,000 names are on a secret scam list recovered by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in an operation against firms selling worthless investments.

Tenants on housing benefits are struggling to rent buy to let homes as landlords withdraw from the market. The market is set to deteriorate further over the next three years as huge numbers of landlords say they will stop letting to tenants on benefits.

Landlords are the wrong target for buy to let regulation, according to the latest behind-the-scenes thinking. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the ‘rogue’ landlords debate, politicians and law makers are looking at tightening the rules for letting agents.

When it comes to being a Landlord, whether you self-manage or have a fully managed service, tenant referencing is a major priority and never a task to underestimate the importance of. A “bad” tenant should be avoided at all costs. They can stop paying the rent, damage your property, and their anti-social behaviour can cause […]

In this open letter to Tony Robbins I am proposing a no win no fee deal to massively improve his online popularity on an independently measured basis.

A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur – or if you prefer, A Tenancy Relations Officer at a Property Investor’s Show. Around 120 years ago Mark Twain wrote the classic fish out of water tale about a modern American transplanted to mediaeval Britain. Today I participated in my own version by delivering a […]

Whilst there were only 50 delegates at the event the speakers were all very high profile. The debating panel included CEO’s from ARLA, the NLA, The Property Ombudsman and Sir Robin Wales, the Mayor of Newham who sparked off controversial debates surrounding his plans to introduce compulsory licencing for Newham landlords (read my thoughts below the video). […]

Landlords who have switched personal property investments into a company cannot claim capital gains tax reliefs on the transfers, according to a landmark tax tribunal case. Traders have claimed incorporation relief on their business properties and assets for many years when changing their status from a partnership or sole trader to a limited company.

Tenants are facing a financial struggle to pay their rents, according to the latest survey by the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA). Around 40% of letting agents told their trade body that the number of tenants late with rents has increased over the past six months.

Principality has revised one of its two buy to let products upwards. The new rate at 4.99% has a low fixed product fee of £999 and includes a free valuation and remortgage service, reducing upfront costs for larger loan amounts up to a maximum of 70% Loan to Value.

Deposit protection keeper Steve Harriott is promoting a love-in between landlords and tenants over the myth that they are constantly at war over money. After five years of tenancy deposit protection laws, only 1% of tenancies have issues over the return of deposits at the end of an agreement, revealed Harriott, chief executive of The […]

HMRC is getting tougher with landlords who have ignored appeals to file their tax returns on time. From May 1st, late filers will have to pay £10 a day for up to 90 days on top of the £100 fine already imposed – making a possible maximum fine of £1,000.

Our most popular article to date in terms of both debate a viewers was the prospect of the EU regulation of buy to let and how it would affect the UK markets. The whole issue of buy to let regulation has been hot news over the last few days with Nationwide specialist lending arm “The […]