Housing Minister Grant Shapps has today launched plans to give tenants greater support to hold their landlords to account. The Housing Minister argued that new locally-run tenant panels will put power back into the hands of residents, helping them to build the Big Society in their neighbourhoods.

The Tenant Deposit Scheme recently released shocking figures showing that only 19 per cent of disputes over tenants’ deposits are won by landlords.  This statistic could be vastly improved if landlords better protected themselves at the start, during, and at the end of a tenancy agreement, according to the Association of Independent Inventory Clerks (AIIC).

Buy to let specialist Mortgage Express expects to write-off another £80 million to loan fraudsters and slack business practices this year. The former buy to let lender shut up shop for new business during the credit crunch and has already put aside around £200 million to pay for suspected fraud and negligence.

Millions of would-be householders will turn in to a generation of property paupers as all hope of buying a home slips away from them, according to a new study. The research says the property door will shut on around 2 million people who will have to rent instead of buy. The scenario is part of […]

Data from the recent Halifax Housing Market Confidence tracker reveals that a third of Britons expect house prices to rise over the next year, making this a good time to buy. Despite house prices falling by 1.2% on a quarterly basis in April, one in three of survey respondents predicted that average UK house prices […]

HM Revenue and Customs is planning to flood the courts with criminal and civil cases against tax cheats after the first round of amnesties has closed. The tax man has started 16 criminal investigations for tax evasion – six involving the medical profession and ten relating to failure to declare interest on offshore bank accounts. […]

Mortgage borrowers who have loan applications rejected when they have directly approached lenders should consider looking for help from a mortgage broker. Many borrowers are turned down for a loan at the first attempt because they do not know how to ‘package’ themselves as an attractive prospect for a lender, according to a study by […]

The Bank of England voted to keep base rates at 0.5% for another month and to keep quantative easing at £200 billion. The rate has not moved since March 2009 and quantative easing has remained locked at £200 billion since November 2009. Few financial pundits are surprised by the decision as in the past few […]

Britain is careering towards a housing crunch as an increasing number of home hunters cannot afford to rent or buy a property. A shortage of homes to rent is pushing up rents at the same time as worsening finances create an underclass of consumers who do not have the cash to buy while their poor […]

The British Property Federation has issued a word of caution over the distribution of the land set to be sold off by the Government. Housing minister Grant Shapps announced yesterday that thousands of acres of land will be sold off to create 100,000 new houses by 2015. Liz Peace, BPF’s chief executive backs the plans […]

A property investor set up a web of false identities as ghost tenants at shared houses as part of a huge bank and credit card scam. Paul Reppion, 49, funded buying two flats and two buy to let houses from his eight-year crime spree that involved 32 false identities, 200 credit cards and 50 bank […]

Housing minister Grant Shapps has signalled a new homes building bonanza by kicking off plans to hand over thousands of acres of public land to house builders. The grand scheme lays the foundations for building 100,000 new homes for private and social housing by 2015 as the government links up with builders to ease the […]

Knightstone, the south and west housing association, is looking to downsize its roster of properties they manage by trading with smaller regional associations. They are in talks to trade their properties in Swindon and Wiltshire for Somerset based properties as well as passing on their Dorset and Hampshire properties. They hope to have the trade […]

Yet another property index is churning out data in a crowded market – this time for buy to let from landlord insurance firm Homelet. The Homelet Rental Index lines up with four other established market surveys looking at the private residential letting sector.

Taxpayers who have fallen foul of HM Revenue and Customs policy of checking out property valuations targeting larger inheritance tax payments from estates can fight back with a little known loophole. Refunds on overpaid inheritance tax (IHT) can be claimed for homes that are worth less than the value on the deceased owner’s date of […]

The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) today issued top tips for landlords who are aiming to let their properties out on a short-term basis this summer. Short-term lets can be a great way for landlords to fill rental voids or make use of vacant properties, and usually last anywhere between one week and one […]

With buy to let landlords experiencing total rent arrears of £284million from tenants not paying each month, the closure of 140 courts all over the country could see even more properties being repossessed by lenders. The decision, aimed at saving £37million, has been met with dismay from landlords and eviction specialists. Despite the current court […]

The Halifax House Price Index shows that house prices are continuing to fall slowly but signs of “moderate improvement” in the economy suggest property values could stabilise later this year.

The soft launch of the Property118.com Business Directory is coming soon and we’re looking for businesses offering services to landlords to help us with our final tests. As a result of volunteering you will obviously be one of the first businesses listed in the Directory.  Your comments will also be search engine optimised, thus enhancing […]

Opposing groups of letting agents are lining up to fight over who takes the official title of industry regulator. In one corner is the reigning champion, the Association of Rental Letting Agents (ARLA), backed by around 6,500 members and the self-proclaimed ‘voice of the industry’.

A property investor spent a little more than a penny and bought a former public toilet to convert in to a family holiday home. The anonymous investor paid £104,000 for the two-storey loo with outline planning permission on the promenade at Sheringham, Norfolk. The guide price of between £30,000 and £40,000 was pushed up by […]