The Government has launched a make-or-break housing strategy designed to boost the economy, create jobs and help people buy homes – but seems to have forgotten buy to let landlords. The initiative has the backing of Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and lays out a blueprint for the future of […]

The much awaited Government housing strategy was unveiled today with many seeing it not as the “radical and unashamedly ambitious strategy” professed in the foreword, but as simply not radical enough. The private rented sector is set to be boosted by tax changes as stamp duty will be assessed on the average value of individual […]

Today the government announced a new initiative to provide 100,000 new low cost homes over the next four years creating 200,000 new jobs. Well it’s better than nothing some will argue, but it hardly scratches the surface in terms of meeting requirements. To do this, a similar number of properties to a City the size […]

This week we have reported on a variety of political issues affecting landlords, some of which have been picked up by the mainstream media. Fortunately, it’s not all politics in this Newsletter. Our guest authors have written some excellent articles to lighten the mood and provide useful insight too.

Answer? – When it’s an Assured Tenancy. Rubbish joke I know. Most conversations I read on Property 118 and other websites centre on ASTs and the rules and regulations that surround them, but did you know that actually there are around 16 different types of tenancy and licence agreement?

As you probably know, search engines rate websites by the number and rank of other websites that link to them. The higher you rank the better for SEO purposes. Please feel free to place a link on our site and a few lines about your business in the comments section below. All we ask in […]

This week I attended an unofficial Bank of England briefing. This article is based on that meeting and informal discussions with other attendees before and after. It is not intended to be representative of any official views of the Bank of England or Property118. These are my personal opinions and perceptions only.

The buy to let market will grind to a halt if EU proposals to change the way lenders hand out mortgages to landlords are approved, claim experts. Do not let this happen – sign the petition linked below. The new rules will stop landlords buying new property to rent and restrict mortgage lending that will […]

With people living longer and with less people per household, it is pretty obvious that more housing is needed. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The Office of National statistics has predicted that the UK population will grow to 71.6 million by the year 2033. But where will they all live?

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.