Property developers, investors, and letting agents running limited companies face a shake-up in the way they file financial reports with the taxman from April.

Despite uncertain house prices, a staggering 35 new property millionaires woke up every day last year to find their homes had hit the seven-digit landmark.

Two out of three law firms dealing with conveyancing and property are expected to leave the market during the next 12 months. Some fear the lack of competition in the market may lead to rising costs that will hamper an already fragile housing recovery. Lawyers are feeling the squeeze from three sides –

Property investors find the complicated rules that govern licensing and planning for shared housing – legally termed a ‘house in multiple occupation’ or an ‘HMO’ – a nightmare to navigate.

Property investors refurbishing and furnishing homes to let can cut costs by searching online for bargains. Savvy property people are already buying big ticket items like kitchens and bathrooms from online stores. E-Bay is the traditional home of the penny-pincher and still attracts millions of buyers and sellers.

Inheritance Tax is unfair and unpopular and should be scrapped in favour of a new ‘gift tax’, argues an influential think-tank. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) claims inheritance tax (IHT) is too easy to sidestep for the wealthy and estates are rarely charged at the IHT rate of 40%.

I recently picked up on an interesting debate on this subject between two investors, to protect their identities I will refer to them as The Bull and The Bear. The Bear was arguing “Younger peoples desire to spend money on consumption, travel and lifestyle and rent rather than home purchase should theoretically lead to lower […]

Lenders and commentators – including the influential Paul Fisher, the Bank of England’s director of markets – are warning that the natural interest rate in a well-functioning economy is around the 5% mark. With the Bank of England base rate stuck firmly at 0.5% since March 2009, many are worried that buy to let landlords […]

Grant Shapps recently revealed the government is looking at ways to take the heat out of the property market by stabilising the boom-or-bust trends that have crippled the sector since the 1970s. Speaking on BBC Radio’s Today program, he said ministers wanted to see the removal of the ‘imbalance’ between wages and house prices and […]

For married couples and civil partnerships. EXAMPLE You sell shares in your family company to your spouse for an amount equivalent to your personal mortgage, or more if additional capital raising is required.

PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM MARK ALEXANDER If you have a good property story to tell we may want to share it.

From the heart, not a chart. I’m not really into fancy graphs, I don’t have a private school or university education and I don’t have a posh accent so if that’s what you were hoping for this post might dissapoint you.

It’s coming up to that time of year when I have to pay my taxes again. That means I have made a profit so I should be happy right? WRONG!

This question was recently asked on a property forum and inspired me to write this post. A spreadsheet could be written to crunch the numbers and I will explain how I do this further into this post.

  1)  Create or update property schedule 2) Consider impact of higher interest rates 3) Look at ways to reduce cost (e.g. insurance, accounting, advertising costs) 4) Make/update Will

I ask this question purely out of interest.  I am NOT looking for JV partners. 

Click here to download the report As many of you wll know, I report to BoE voluntarily and regularly meet their economists and MPC members.

Picked up in a conversation at the Property Tribes forum.  It was just too good not to share.

“I measure my business related success by how much I improve my cashflow and my bank balance every year.” The beginning of my career was spent working in financial rescue and the underwriting of risk.  It was the late 1980’s, property values had plummeted and interest rates had soared to 15%. Property investors who faced […]

In January 2008 I refinanced my entire portfolio in line with my ongoing strategy.  There was an opportunity to release equity and I took it.