The number of home loans increased in May, according to the latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). Despite the headline attached to the figures by the CML press office, actual lending year-on-year is down as is the amount home owners borrowed.

Car parking spaces in plush Knightsbridge are selling for more than the average price of a house in the rest of the UK. The underground spaces, measuring 19 feet by 8 feet regularly make more than the Land registry average for a home of £161,823, according to top people’s estate agent W A Ellis.

Property investors who can source backpacking youth hostels for a franchise holiday firm can pick up a £10,000 finders fee. Journeys specialises in budget accommodation for backpackers and runs six hostels in London, Brighton and Kent. The firm wants to open more hostels across the UK and is seeking properties of 10 bedrooms or more […]

London landlords are picking up rents that are double the average for the rest of the country. The capital is streets ahead of the rest in terms of rental costs – with average rents of £1,372 per month compared with an average £688 elsewhere.

Many property investors fail to tell the tax man about their property businesses and face mounting fines and penalties. Property investors run two types of business – renting and trading property. Each one has separate and specific tax rules. A property rental business covers buy to let, houses in multiple occupation and holiday lets.

Police are seeking a letting agent who has disappeared owing landlords and tenants hundreds of thousands in rents and deposits. Hothomes UK, based in Plymouth, is believed to manage around 2,000 rented homes and losses could mount up to £500,000 or more. One landlord claims he is owed £4,630 in rents collected but not paid […]

Illegal sub-letters have been given until July by A2Dominion Housing Group to hand over their keys in an amnesty announced today. The ‘tenancy cheats’ have been compounding the problem that has been denying families who need homes the chance to move into an appropriate property. Those who don’t comply by the end of the amnesty […]

Landlords seeking high yields need to focus their property businesses on students and young professionals. Students are clear leaders in the yield table – generating 6.45% a year – with young professionals following close behind at 6.22%, according to Paragon Mortgages research.

How a house is really valued is the subject of a seemingly never ending debate raging between economists, estate agents, surveyors and property professionals. The final figure is not that important to anyone other than a property investor or buy to let landlord looking to buy, sell or remortgage.

The latest HomeLet Rental index has shown that landlords in Greater London are charging 50% more than the rest of the country. The month on month index has also found an increase in younger renters, the opposite to last month. No age range saw an increase in renters except those under the age of 25. […]

The rollercoastering nature of the property market has been further confirmed by Halifax’s latest index. Over the past 12 months the average house price has dropped by 3.5%, but it could have been much worse since the average house price has increased by over £2,500 since March. The price increase between May and June alone […]

Let me answer this question directly, no. I am sure that many disabled and people suffering from a debilitating illness would trade every possession they had for wholeness and good health. I am no different. However, we play the hand we are given and one tries to make the best of it. So, there are […]

Around 1,000 letting agents have pledged to offer better protection to landlord and tenant monies by signing up to the SAFEagent scheme. Letting agents can only join the scheme if the can demonstrate they take special precautions to safeguard client monies. In return, SAFEagent lets them display the exclusive logo on shop fronts and marketing […]

The rise of buy to let as a major social phenomenon for households is reflected in the latest housing survey figures for England. The data, for 2009-10 from the Communities and Local Government Department (CLG) reveals a major shift in the housing sector away from owner-occupied homes.

A shared house landlord has lost control of his property after a council banned him from holding a house in multiple occupation licence. Ken Herring is not considered a ‘fit and proper’ person to run a house in multiple occupation (HMO) after an Oxford City Council inspection found the property housing six tenants in Marston […]

Buy to let landlords often wonder if paying their mortgage off early is a good investment. The answer is it depends on the borrower. Most of us prefer not to have debt – but as a property business, landlords need to recognise some debt is good and some is bad.

A Shelter commissioned YouGov survey has found many of Generation Rent are being failed by their landlord. Shelter are worried these rogue landlords may take on the many families that could be forced out of social housing. Their survey found that in the last decade, 7.5 million (16%) have had trouble with their landlord and […]

One of Britain’s largest landlord mortgage lenders has stepped up the pressure on Brussels not to regulate buy to let. Paragon Group director John Heron has just returned from a trip to the European Union headquarters to lobby for buy to let to stay outside of the proposed mortgage credit directive.

Buying a home for a son or daughter to live in while at university seems like a good plan for cash-strapped parents- but watch out for the tax traps. HM Revenue and Customs is lying in wait for the unwary who fail to set up owning and renting the property in the most tax effective […]

Squatters are losing the right to claim legal aid to fight landlords and other property owners in court. A clause in the new Sentencing, Legal Aid and Punishment of Offenders Bill will shut the door on squatters who combat efforts to evict them with free legal advice as the public purse foots the bill. Landlords […]

Buying a home or investing in a letting property are important financial decisions, but many buyers fall in to the trap of relying on the wrong information that could cost them dear. Findings from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) revealed around one in four homebuyers picked up bills averaging £1,800 for unplanned building […]