House prices fell by a marginal 0.7% across most of the country in October, according to the latest data from the Nationwide. The average UK house price is now £167,354 – still up 4.5% in the year. Despite the small decrease, house prices in London, the South East, and Northern Ireland bucked the trend with […]

Property investors who manage their own lettings who have not registered under data protection laws may be breaking privacy laws. All businesses and organisations that handle personal data of customers must register with data protection watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), and follow strict rules or face prosecution.

Landlords and tenants often argue over who is entitled to keep a deposit when disputing who is responsible for damage to property at the end of a tenancy agreement. Some helpful light is thrown on how to negotiate a settlement for both sides in case studies published by The Disputes Service, a non-profit organisation that […]

Offices are standing empty across the country as the bleak economic outlook forces firms to put plans for expansion on hold. Demand for commercial property is declining across the board – but offices are seeing the biggest falls. Commercial letting agents say call for office space suffered worst in the last quarter, ending September 30, […]

The row over cutting housing benefits for tenants in private rented homes is rumbling on as the government is accused of fiddling the figures to make landlords look bad. Two landlord lobby groups are taking welfare reform minister Lord Freud to task over his comments about private landlords.

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/inflationreport/ir10novo.pdf

Mortgage lending by Britain’s banks and building societies hit a 10-year low last month – and the outlook is unlikely to improve.

Buy to let investors who lost money because properties failed to achieve prices and rents advised by valuers have had the right to sue them for compensation upheld.

Buy to let is likely to ride high for several years to come as the government reports house building in England is at the lowest level for a decade after falling nearly 23% in just 12 months.

A buy to let landlord with just one investment property beat a claim for failing to pay renewal commission under consumer protection law.

New guidelines for shared house owners have put a stop to most claims from property investors for capital allowances that can considerably slash income tax.

More than 30 million people in the UK do not have a will – even though nine out of 10 have a good idea who should inherit their wealth when they die.

The 30 million people in the UK who do not have a will are letting the government grab a large chunk of their wealth when they die, when some effective financial and tax planning could mean financial security for their family and loved ones.

Inheriting a property means making some important decisions that have lifestyle, tax and other financial consequences.

The mortgage squeeze is a double-edged sword for buy to let landlords as rentals surge but borrowing restrictions mean they cannot buy more homes to rent out.

By Neil Patterson, Partner of The Money Centre. Most mortgage lenders use credit scoring to determine whether an applicant is “good for credit”. However, unlike personal mortgage lending, which is based upon an applicant’s ability to service mortgage payment and repay the loan from earned income, buy to let lending is often based upon the […]

So few lenders are actually handing over cash to borrowers that the Council of Mortgage Lenders has had trouble finding enough firms to fill the slots in a top 30 lender’s table.

By Mark Alexander. On Thursday this week I am meeting the Vice President of Lake Buena Vista Resort to learn more about their EB5 visa scheme. This is a $500,000 investment into property which comes with a USA Green Card within 6 months, an exit opportunity after just two years and fully managed property producing […]

Most property investors think they have never had it so bad as spending cuts, lack of finance, and the prospect of tumbling house prices loom. Brits have an insular grin-and-bear-it tendency that tends to make their lives seem worse, but the truth is we are inching through a global recession and this country is by […]

Buy to let rents are surging to record highs as a shortage of properties and mortgage restrictions puts a brake on home sales. Average rents are now £698 per month, after straight months of rises that have pushed them up 3.1% in a year, according to the LSL Property Services Rent Index.

Wealthy families with complicated inheritance tax (IHT) avoidance schemes are the likely targets of tax ‘hit squads’. Property investors with portfolios with values exceeding the IHT single/married thresholds of £325,000 and £625,000 are expected to face higher levels of investigation from HM Revenue and Customs.