How many property investors do you think are wishing they had done more due diligence before they went ahead and committed to a purchase? This post is to give you a heads up of where to begin, simply because I meet so many wannabe property investors and new landlords who just don’t know where to […]

Landlords are bracing for a flood of rent arrears cases as renters struggle with their bills over the festive period. Housing charity Shelter claims around one-in-three renters have to make a tough choice between paying their rent or spending on food.

A property developer and lawyer are starting jail sentences after admitting a series of buy to let frauds. Legal executive David Kitching and developer Franco Campagna hatched a plan to scam cash from buy to let mortgage lenders when Campagna’s property development company ran in to trouble when the property market collapsed. Campagna told Lancashire […]

In the previous article I tried to make the point that a Letting Agent should act like an Asset Manager, managing a landlord’s portfolio to maximise the benefit to the landlord. This could only happen if the interests of the landlord are directly aligned with the interests of the Letting Agent but if this did […]

News Sourced by Property118 News Team New figures from conveyancing solicitors reckon home sales are failing at twice the number of those that complete. The firm, In-Deed, claims that house sales are more likely to abort than succeed despite the claims of banks and building societies that the amount of lending to homebuyers is increasing.

The Queen is leading the Olympic rental gold rush by letting out part of the grounds of Kensington Palace to the Russians. Westminster Council is considering an application for a hospitality village on the site – and the Queen will bank a £250,000 deposit plus an undisclosed rental.

The latest news and views from the property market and private rented sector along with guest articles from industry experts. The Property Maverick brings us part two of his investment strategy and new guest columnist Roger Lancaster asks what a landlord should expect from  a 21st Century Letting Agent.

Developers are looking at renting their homes instead of selling them as demand for buy to let hots up. As property prices fall and buyers have trouble in tracking down mortgages, renting out homes gives developers a better financial return. The latest to consider switching from building or refurbishment to buy to let is Rushbond, […]

Landlords are losing cases when tenants complain about non-return of deposits because they are failing to take good property inventories. Most landlord inventories fail to stand up in court or dispute resolution, argues the Association of Independent Inventory Clerks (AIIC). The AIIC slams landlords for inventory failures and suggests they should employ professional inventory clerks […]

What should a landlord expect? ARLA have been complaining that the Government should regulate Letting Agents in the same way they have done for Estate Agents. They may have a case, but ARLA standards are still pretty minimal compared to what the best agents are providing already. Landlords often make their own bed by going […]

Buy to let lenders have fired the first shots in the battle to win the hearts and minds of property investors. Platform, the landlord loan subsidiary of the Co-operative Bank, is increasing funding in the sector by 33% from £450 million last year to £600 million in 2012.

Homes under the hammer at auctions ended the year with a widening gap compared with the prices of property sold by estate agents. December figures for homes sold at auction show 2,448 properties were sold for an average price of £139,401, according to auction monitor EI Group.

Following on from yesterday’s Property Investment Strategies part one. Assignment of Contract With “Assignment of Contract”, when done correctly, you don’t even take title of the property. It works like this. You close a deal on a below market value property, then you sell or assign your right to buy the property to another buyer […]

The latest property and landlord related news with guest articles from industry experts. New guest columnist Councillor Jeremy Moulton looks closely at the new planning rules governing HMO’s, Mary Latham hits out against penalising good landlords, Ben Reeve-Lewis tackles the tactical world of mortgage repossessions and the Property Maverick offers more investment strategies.

It’s a fact that more millionaires attain their wealth through property than any other type of investment, so by that virtue it makes sense for at least some of your investment portfolio should be in property. However, you need to exercise caution, people can- and have- lost huge amounts of money in property when their […]

Buy to let is expected to keep growing for the next few years as Britain faces a severe shortage of homes. As house building falters but the population keeps growing, the country is expected to have a shortfall of around a million homes by 2020, says builder Barratt Developments.

Buy to let property club fraudsters who raised more than £1 million from selling shoddy properties at inflated prices have picked up jail sentences. The con-men ran three property firms in the North West and scammed investors into parting with their cash on false promises of guaranteed rental incomes on below market value homes. The […]

By Guest Columnist Ben Reeve-Lewis We live at a time when mortgage repossessions are running at an all time high, last year saw 45,000 with a huge impending increase in 2012 and even more restrictions being placed on lenders by the FSA when offering alternatives to repossession. And all this without a rise in interest […]

I am writing this after reading an article with the opening line “A Labour MP says that every MP he knows “is desperate for help in dealing with rogue landlords”.” Here is a radical idea – penalise local authorities who do not use their legal powers to enforce the law! This is what happens to […]

The Bank of England has kept the base rate at 0.5% and pegged quantative easing at the previously agreed £275 billion. The decision means the base rate has sat at the record low for 34 months in a row and the £75 billion quantative easing top-up will complete around the end of the month.

Buy to let pundits fill acres of space online and in the media talking up property investment – but most of them have a vested interest in pushing products on landlords. The main offenders are mortgage lenders forever talking up the market in surveys and house price reports – and including sly details of their […]