Buy to let rents are still rising – but not as fast as over recent months. In October, renters paid landlords an average £720 per month to let a home in England and Wales – 0.2% up compared with September.

Around 25% of landlords have invested in more buy to let property this year, says the Association of Residential Letting Agents. Letting agents also confirm demand for letting property from would-be tenants is outstripping the number of available homes in many areas.

Prices for homes sold at auction are running at about 20% below market value, according to the latest round-up of figures for homes that went under the hammer in October. Property buyers snapped up 1,759 homes for an average £126,580 each – compared to the Land Registry’s average home price for the month of £159,999.

Tenants need to know about how to cope in an emergency to protect rental properties from risk of damage in the cold weather, urges the National Landlords Association. Many rental properties were damaged by flooding after burst pipes because tenants did not know how to switch off the water supply, claims the NLA.

Buy to let mortgage lending is going from strength to strength, according to industry trade body the Council of Mortgage Lenders. In a lengthy review of the market, the CML discusses various reasons why buy to let is thriving while the rest of the mortgage market is in the doldrums – but fails to mention […]

Our second round up of the week includes a new guest writer, Nick Stott, along with headlines reporting on the latest property market activity, winter guidelines from the AIIC, moves by the Government to simplify calculating tax, a topical post from Frazer Fearnhead and some more Landlord’s Log entries from our very own Mark Alexander.

One thing I have learned from our experiences working with letting agents around the country is that they operate in many different ways. That’s not just between different agencies but also between different offices within the same company. Here in Altrincham, Cheshire, for example, they tend to operate in a very different way from letting […]

The Bank of England have released details of their latest inflation report, and despite the economy worsening and global economy slowing, they believe 2012 to be the year of the sharp inflation decline. They also expect GDP growth to continue to be weak until 2014. The discomfort in the Eurozone has created an air on […]

Why does the general public have such a poor perception of agents? Is it because they are often image-conscious, relatively young, and not recognisably qualified? Anyone who has tried to buy, sell, rent, or let a property in the UK has a negative story to tell about an Estate or Letting Agent, and with minimal […]

I was asked a very interesting question last weekend on an internet forum for landlords. The commentor was asking whether I thought he should invest into building a website and what the alternatives were. What I really wanted to say was that he didn’t need a website providing he had a Gold listing in the […]

Just last evening I received an email from Mary Latham, one of our most popular guest authors. Mary copied me in to correspondence that she was having with a lady called Sue who is a member of a group called Teeside Landlords. To summarise the conversation, Mary was excited that other landlords were talking about […]

There has been lots of talk of rogue traders and corrupt, so-called professionals in our industry, especially on the internet forums. What was needed was a platform to allow landlords and their agents to sort the wheat from the chaff.

More people will rent than buy their home in 15 years as attitudes to letting change, says Grainger, Britain’s biggest private landlord. Uncertainty over mortgages and jobs is steering people towards renting and, by 2026, 54% of Britons will rent, according to a survey by the company.

Being mid-November, the Christmas warnings are well on their way. The Association of Independent Inventory Clerks (AIIC) has put together guidelines for how landlords can avoid problems and save money. The AIIC has told landlords to beware of water damage as tenants attempt to save money themselves on heating bills. They believe tenants should be […]

The Government wants to make working out how much tax to pay less taxing by modernising the system, combining National Insurance and income tax. In a ground-breaking move, the Treasury has published two long-awaited consultation documents outlining a more straightforward tax system for workers and the self-employed.

Frustrated sellers have wiped £1.3 billion off the value of homes on the market in just one month as they bid to move home. More than 80,000 home prices were slashed by an average £16,632 in October as owners desperate to move before Christmas tried to promote interest in their properties, according to propertyhome.co.uk.

In this video I’m interviewing HMO Landlord and LHA expert Robin Pilley about his strategy for 2012 and beyond. Robin has featured in two of my previous video’s which have proven to be very popular, especially the one entitled “Landlord Defeats Council”. Since recording this video Robin’s co-Director Elaine Grubb has won a prestigious award […]

We now regularly produce more than 20 articles a week which is quite a lot to choose from and decide which to read all in one go. Therefore, due to popular request, we will now be sending our Newsletters out twice weekly as standard.

According to Homelet’s latest index, rents dropped a touch in October but were still 4.2% higher than they were at the same time last year. In London, the average is now a massive 23% higher than that of October 2009, and 8.8% higher than last year.

Continuing on the maintenance theme (somehow I think this could be ongoing!), I’m in the midst of a continuing dilemma: Tom has been a tenant for 4 years after being referred to me by the Salvation Army. He’s an asset to the house when sober but a pain in neck when drunk as he can […]

Business leaders are urging the government to make a major shift in pension rules to let retirement savers invest in property. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has suggested the change as part of a raft of ideas aimed at kick-starting the housing market.