Mark Alexander, Property118 founder and landlord since 1989 is updating his lettings strategy to utilise two free tenant referencing services to protect his properties from bad tenants. While tenants on the whole will rent without any problems and leave the property in the state they signed for, sadly there are always going to be a […]

Calls for regulating letting agents have met with a clear message from the government that it’s up to the businesses to clear up their own sector. Letting agent organisations like the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) have pushed for a long time for a tightening of the rules governing how letting agents handle client […]

Buy to let rents are still rising and are unlikely to stop any time soon despite hitting a record high after increasing for the sixth month in a row. The average private rented home in England and Wales costs a tenant £705 a month – according to LSL Property Services, the UK’s biggest letting agent […]

Remortgaging is keeping the mortgage market ticking over as lending figures for July slumped again. Gross mortgage lending for the month was £12.6 billion, says the Council of Mortgage Lenders, speaking for Britain’s top banks and building societies. The figure was a 1% from June – but 6% down on July 2010, which was also […]

Landlords who let homes they have previously lived in are urged to tidy up their finances and redirect mail before they leave to prevent identity theft. The warning came from a judge after a tenant faced a court charged with fraud and theft after a landlord stumbled across a demand from a credit card company […]

The plight of a landlord who had a buy to let home trashed by tenants who faced eviction for failing to pay the rent has highlighted the unfairness of proposed new laws. Housing minister Grant Shapps is readying new powers for social housing groups to fast track evictions – but these will not include private […]

Tenant demand for buy to let homes is showing some signs of peaking, according to the latest figures from one of the UK’s leading letting agents. Although rental property viewings were up for four months in a row in July – by 6% – the year-on-year figure was 2.8% down on July 2010. Tenants signing […]

The UK is seeing a rising number of people uprooting to France while at the same time seeing more relocating to here, according to two relocation companies. MyFrenchHouse.com has seen a rise in business for relocations and self-sufficiency, a marked shift from the holiday home getaway they are used to. Conversely, furniture solutions provider Fully […]

Bank of England have released their Agents’ Summary of Business Conditions for August, and they have found a ‘subdued’ housing market except for in London. Again confirming the numerous surveys published each month. Read and download the Bank of England Agents’ Summary of Business Conditions August 2011 What do you think of their findings?

I know there are still 130 shopping days until Christmas…… ….. but I think these could do quite well with 1.3 million hits in 3 weeks

Landlords who say no to tenants who want to install satellite TV or broadband could infringe their human rights. Following a landmark ruling in the European Court of Human Rights, a family in Sweden won the right to add a satellite TV dish to their rented home after the landlord declined permission. The family complained […]

Around 2 million consumers are not paying for gas and electricity due to mix ups over the suppliers. The main culprits are tenants and home owners who move on without settling their final bills – leaving the new occupants with no clue about who their utility suppliers are. Two-thirds of consumers are not paying for […]

Landlords who carry out work to upgrade buy to let properties under the Green Deal could be paying out up to £1,000 in ‘referral’ fees wrapped up in the price of the work. The National EPC Company has recruited James Dodd as regional development director with a brief to encourage letting agents to earn commission […]

House prices in university towns are increasing faster than average – with property values in ‘new’ university towns rising the fastest. In 10 years, despite the house price slump, values have risen by 70% in towns and cities that have established universities since 1960. Average prices have soared from £91,612 in 2001 to £155,953 in […]

Not much is said about the Serviced Apartment rental market. At about the same cost per person as staying in a good quality hotel, this area is a good viable option for both landlords and larger companies who are constantly sourcing hotel accommodation for consultants or staff.  An average consultant’s stay can be  a week away from […]

With house prices dropping everywhere but London, Knight Frank has sold £158million of top end property in North Surrey since April. The mammoth figure has come from each home selling for in excess of £4million each, with nearly half the buyers coming from Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (43%). The UK has provided […]

A thug landlord who ruled his tenants with threats and intimidation lent them cash at more than 5,600% APR. Loan shark Derrick Morgan, of Neath, South Wales, was jailed for a year after admitting six charges of illegal money lending and dishonestly claiming benefits in the names of his tenants at Swansea Crown Court. Morgan […]

The latest home price survey reveals a no-holds-barred analysis of the property market. Prices in England and Wales fell for the fourth month running in July – by 0.1% on prices in June, according to the Acadametrics house price index. The average home value is now £217,300 and in the 12 months to July, prices […]

Based on the rapid growth and popularity of our Property News (UK Alexa rank 3,407 today) and our Testimonials Based Directory (launched this week) we are looking to develop a sister site for the USA market. The new website will require private investment which we will look to raise via private financing and a stake […]

After receiving the highest number of complaints against letting agents for 20 years, the Association of Independent Inventory Clerks have issued advice for landlords, tenants and letting agents to combat problems. The AIIC say letting agents are often stuck in the middle of tenant and landlord disputes, but admit a tenant’s life could be made […]

Buy to let landlords are realigning their property finances rather than purchasing more homes for their portfolios. The latest buy to let mortgage figures show borrowing increased as 32,000 loans worth £3.5 billion were agreed with lenders in the three months ending June 30 – but two thirds of the business was remortgaging.