Good property investment is about picking the right home that attracts good tenants ready to pay a competitive rent. Plenty of advice on what to buy hits the headlines – but tips on what not to buy are rare. Sometimes it’s hard to spot a rough diamond when viewing properties.

The self-assessment clock is ticking now – 2 million taxpayers have to the end of October to file a paper tax return and hundreds of thousands of them will pick up a £100 fine for late submission. Another 4 million taxpayers have until the end of January to file their self-assessment online.

The summer holidays hit mortgage approvals for August as the Bank of England revealed total loans to buy a home dropped to 47,372 during the month. This is down on the July figure of 48,346 and the month-on-month average of 48,619 that had held since February 2010.

The first house price statistics for September have hit the streets – showing average prices have notched up just a superficial 0.1%. The figures from the Nationwide also show the three-month house price trend has slipped in to negative equity for the first time since May 2009 – down a modest 0.9%.

Councils are afraid of tackling shared housing problems because they fear landlords will sue them for loss of earnings, a senior planning councillor in a university town has revealed. In an exclusive interview, the planner disclosed his council abandoned taking on powers to give them more control over houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) after taking […]

Private landlords have no room for complacency and need to improve standards as the private rented sector changes, urges the National Landlords Association (NLA).

Debt management firms can make financial problems worse for those that owe money by giving poor advice and misleading consumers by claiming to offer free services while taking hidden fees. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has warned 129 firms that their credit licences will be withdrawn if they do not show immediate action has […]

The buy to let mortgage market is in a state of flux as key lenders have changed their criteria over recent weeks. This weekend, Lloyds Bank effectively shut up shop to portfolio landlords with more than three properties. From close of business Friday (September 24), the bank reshuffled buy to let mortgage products and lending […]

Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is not an opt-in process – if you have made a gain and do not already have a self-assessment tax return, the obligation is on you to report the matter to your tax office and not hope you have got away with it just because you have not had a bill. […]

The government is diverting £900 million over the next three years to beef up HM Revenue and Customs in a bid to clamp down on tax avoidance to make sure everyone hands over every penny they should to swell the Treasury coffers. Ministers demonise tax cheats in the media as immoral and illegal – and […]

The case highlighted the wording of Section 214 of The Housing Act 2004, which concerns courts making an order for landlords to protect a deposit or return the money in full to the tenant. The section also allows a court to penalise a landlord who fails to protect a deposit by imposing a penalty of […]

In a landmark case that could affect hundreds of similar actions waiting to go to court all over the country, Anthony Finlay was taken to court by developers AMA (New Town) for breach of contract. He is just one of many property investors and buyers who were forced to withdraw from buying new build properties […]

Switch on the TV or radio news, open the paper and log in to the internet and just about everyone is lamenting the price of a home. First time buyers can’t afford to step on to the property ladder, families can’t afford to move and banks aren’t lending.

We speak to many property developers who tell us that they are not doing any new developments now, “because the economy is weak and the margins charged by funders are too high”. Banks in the commercial and corporate sectors are paying low rates of interest on deposits which are way below the rate of inflation. […]

The most popular articles in Landlord News are undoubtedly those that relate to tax and accountancy advice. Steve Sims, author of the best selling book ‘Understanding and Paying Less Property Tax for Dummies’, runs our specialist tax and accountancy service. Steve also writes for tax and business magazines and web sites and was recently invited […]

The latest figures for uncollected tax reveal property investors owe £142million from undisclosed letting income and £55million evaded in undeclared Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on land and property sales. The HMRC report claims that half of the returns submitted by self-employed taxpayers and partnerships had under-stated the true tax liability.

Property investors looking for the best returns on their cash should look at the booming student letting sector. Student numbers are increasing as universities and colleges in towns and cities all over the UK expand. But while student populations are on the up, only one new bed space was created for every eight new students […]

Following the letter of the law is seemingly a problem for government solicitors as well as property investors over deposit protection rules starting on October 1. The Communities and Local Government Department (CLG) has already issued revised guidance about the regulations before they even come in to force.

Bank of England Agents’ Summary of Business Conditions September 2010

In the last week of August the new administrators of The Money Centre’s Landlords Insurance Scheme were overwhelmed with requests to switch to our new block policy for landlords insurance before the 1st of September. Sadly we couldn’t get back to them all in time to secure the business. We now have a process to […]

Peter Curran, Head of Intermediary Distribution at Lloyds Banking Group recently announced, “From 25 September, buy to let property portfolios will be limited to a maximum of three properties, or £2m worth of lending (whichever is exceeded first), across Lloyds Banking Group. At the same time, buy to let products will no longer be available […]