UK regeneration opportunities ranked

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Property Development:

Birmingham
is
the top council
area in
a new ranking of re-development opportunities
for
investment in empty residential and commercial properties.

New
research by UK fibre broadband specialist Glide, based on a series of
FOI requests to local councils, identifies the extent of empty
dwellings and commercial properties in these localities, and for
councils across the UK.

Collectively,
says
Glide, across
both categories of buildings,
in the month of September 2019 there were 617,527 empty properties
across the UK.

Of
those councils which held this
detailed
information, Birmingham has
been ranked by Glide as the
leading council
area offering
the most
potential space, with 8,086 residential properties and 7,622
commercial buildings in the city and its suburbs being empty.

Liverpool
comes second with 15,339 buildings currently unoccupied, while
regions across the north dominate the top five; Manchester, Leeds and
Bradford also ranking highly.

Bradford
has the highest number of commercial properties currently empty, with
7,908 business premises currently unoccupied, which means that 4.5%
of all empty commercial properties in the UK are located in that
council
area.

Birmingham
has the second highest number of empty commercial properties (7,622),
followed by Leeds (4,528) and Liverpool (4,266).

The
FOI requests found that there are a total of 172,217 empty business
units across the UK, which perhaps suggests a huge potential for
investment, particularly in cities and regions that have felt the
harshest effects of recent financial uncertainty.

Whilst
this information points to potential opportunities for investment,
redevelopment and re-purposing in many
cases, especially given the possibility of a post-election boost to
the economy, some locations are still
suffering
severe economic decline.

Nevertheless
opportunities still exist. To take one example, after
the government’s sell
off of county court buildings following moves to modernise
the court system, relying
more on IT to reduce the need for face to face hearings, and to
cut
down the need for travel to the court, many
were sold off at what now look to be bargain basement prices.

Between
2010 and 2017 the Ministry of Justice has sold off £223 million in
court real estate and in London alone £175 million has been raised
by selling these
buildings off, many of which have become hotels.

The
250-year-old
Bow Street Magistrates was
sold
to Qatari investment firm BTC, with planning permission to convert
into a 100 room hotel, and
both
Old Street and Tower Bridge courts are
already
converted into luxury hotels. The
Bloomsbury
and Central London County court have been demolished, to
be replaced with 73 homes, selling at
around £15
million each.

In
fact Bow
Street Magistrates was sold off
in
2008 for £17 million and
was re-sold
on again in 2016 without
the developer doing a thing for
£75 million, a
nice litter earner for them; but one should bear in mind, this was a
risky buy at the height of the great recession.

These are all large scale development but there have been plenty of smaller commercial buildings across the provinces sold for much smaller sums, and representing very lucrative opportunities for investor developers big and small.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – UK regeneration opportunities ranked | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: UK regeneration opportunities ranked

Landlords warned as rogue agents expelled from ombudsman scheme

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Three agents have been expelled from The Property Ombudsman after leaving landlords and tenants thousands of pounds out of pocket. Let365co Ltd (trading as 365 Residential) Soham, Cambs Soham estate and letting agent Let365co Ltd (trading as 365 Residential) has been expelled from The Property Ombudsman (TPO) scheme owing a landlord £1,895. The landlord made […]

The post Landlords warned as rogue agents expelled from ombudsman scheme appeared first on RLA Campaigns and News Centre.

View Full Article: Landlords warned as rogue agents expelled from ombudsman scheme

Rightmove predict 2% house price inflation and rising rents for 2020

admin    Uncategorized     agents

With increased political certainty post general election and the potential release of pent up demand, Rightmove are predicting 2% house price inflation for 2020. This is more than double the current annual rate of 0.8%, but it’s still a relatively marginal increase in a price sensitive market.

The post Rightmove predict 2% house price inflation and rising rents for 2020 appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: Rightmove predict 2% house price inflation and rising rents for 2020

Soham, Bristol and East London agents expelled from TPO

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Buyers, sellers, tenants and landlords in Soham, Cambridgeshire, are being warned that a local estate and letting agent Let365co Ltd (trading as 365 Residential) has been expelled from The Property Ombudsman (TPO) scheme owing a landlord £1,895 of a £3800 award made by the Ombudsman.

The post Soham, Bristol and East London agents expelled from TPO appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: Soham, Bristol and East London agents expelled from TPO

UK regeneration hotspots

admin    Uncategorized     agents

New research has revealed Birmingham as the Council area with the most opportunities for regeneration for investment in empty residential and commercial properties. UK fibre broadband specialist Glide made a series of FOI requests to local Councils in order to find the number of empty dwellings and commercial properties across the UK.

The post UK regeneration hotspots appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: UK regeneration hotspots

5 Reasons why a Boris Tory win is great news for property investors

admin    Uncategorized     agents

In the video below I provide five compelling reasons why this Tory election win will be great news for UK property investors and Buy to Let investors.

Do people agree?

Please Let me know in the comments below.

The post 5 Reasons why a Boris Tory win is great news for property investors appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: 5 Reasons why a Boris Tory win is great news for property investors

NLA urges victorious Tories to temper possession law changes…

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Section 21:

Following his landslide victory in the General Election the National Landlords’ Association is urging Boris Johnson and his strengthened Tory government to protect landlords’ rights of repossession when it comes to the planned legal changes to Section 21.

Having averted even more radical changes to buy-to-let from a defeated Labour, with their threats of rent controls and more, landlords are still fearful of the threats to their investments from a no-holds-barred removal of the shorhold tenancy, in force since 1980, and the no-fault eviction process known as Section 21.

Landlords fear that under present government plans, the current system which has given them confidence they can get their property back when things go wrong, their Section 21 protection would be replaced by what they see as a totally inadequate system (Section 8).

The NLA says, “the Conservative government must start a new housing court and reform Section 8 “fault-based” evictions to end the logjam of repossession cases that will follow the abolition of Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions”

Having promised to
strengthen landlords’ rights of possession, the NLA calls on the
new Boris Johnson-led Conservative government to take urgent action
to deliver by reforming the law courts, which it says would otherwise
lead to a full blown crisis in the private rented sector.

There is already
evidence that some landlords are selling-up in the face of these
threats, and given the demand for rental accommodation in the country
at present, any reduction in supply would inevitably lead to hardship
for tenants.

A recent
NLA-commissioned study carried out for them by the international
consultancy, Capital Economics, concluded that if the government’s
planned abolition of Section 21 is carried through without additional
safeguards, then the supply of private rented houses in England would
fall by 20 percent (960,000 dwellings).

In addition, there
would be a 59 percent reduction in the number of private rented
dwellings available to households which claim local housing allowance
or universal credit (770,000 fewer dwellings) because landlords would
choose not to rent their property to people with an unreliable record
on paying their rent

Also, the number of
homes facing rental increases would amount to 600,000 homes (13
percent of the sector) because the reduced supply of rented housing
would force up rental costs.

The Conservative
Party had already committed in its election manifesto to go ahead
with plans to abolish Section 21 if it were elected, but it also
pledged to at the same time “strengthen” landlords’ rights of
possession. However, landlords are fearful that relying on the
existing under-resourced and overworked court system, and a few
tweeks to the Section 8 grounds for possession, would not be enough
to re-assure landlords and prevent a new crisis in housing.

Richard Lambert, the
NLA’s chief executive, said:

“We congratulate
Boris Johnson on his return to No. 10 Downing Street as prime
minister of a new Conservative government. We now stand ready to work
with him and his team on the reform of housing regulations in a way
that does not do long term damage to the supply of private rented
housing.

“No-one should be in any doubt about the dire consequences for the supply of private rented housing in this country if the government abolishes Section 21 without any effort to reform the law courts and strengthen landlords’ rights of possession. There would be nearly 1 million fewer houses available for rent and the people who would be hardest hit would be some of the most vulnerable in our society: those in receipt of state benefits.”

A new deal for renting: resetting the balance of rights and responsibilities between landlords and tenants

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – NLA urges victorious Tories to temper possession law changes… | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: NLA urges victorious Tories to temper possession law changes…

Conservatives need to get PRS reform right

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Landlords are calling on the government to ensure comprehensive reforms are made to the way good landlords can repossess properties in legitimate circumstances. Whilst the Conservative Party pledged in its manifesto to end Section 21 repossessions in the rental market, it also promised also to strengthen the rights of good landlords to repossess properties where […]

The post Conservatives need to get PRS reform right appeared first on RLA Campaigns and News Centre.

View Full Article: Conservatives need to get PRS reform right

Yields – Long term let vs holiday let?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

I have inherited some money and am looking at advice about the best investment vehicle for it. I was initially interested in buying a place in North Wales / Anglesey (we live just over an hour from the area) with a view to renting it out as a holiday let with us having the option of using it during quiet times.

The post Yields – Long term let vs holiday let? appeared first on Property118.

View Full Article: Yields – Long term let vs holiday let?

Labour plans to buy back £1bn of social housing from landlords

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Social Housing:

As well as its plans
to build thousands of council homes, Labour says it’s setting aside
£1bn to buy back properties which have been sold to private
landlords, through right to buy.

Homelessness housing
charities such as Shelter, dealing day-to-day with people who are
struggling with unaffordable and unsuitable housing, have long argued
that there’s a desperate need to build social housing on a big
scale. This is something that even previous Labour governments under
Blair and Brown failed to do.

Many blame Margaret
Thatcher’s right to buy council houses scheme, and all local
councils’ failures to replace these homes when sold, for causing
Britain’s current housing crisis, but the problem is a complex one.

Many years ago, the
UK housing sector began to rely more and more on the private rented
sector (buy-to-let landlords) to take up the slack when social
housing provision declined. Enticed into the market by increasing
demand and growing market rents, due to under supply, private
landlords invested and provided much needed rental accommodation.

But the resulting
structural change in the housing market, with steadily rising rents,
coupled with a cap on the local housing allowance (LHA), meant that
many low income families were finding it an increasingly difficult to
keep a roof over their heads.

Shadow Housing
Secretary John Healey says this will change, that when Labour takes
power there will be a “housing revolution”: “We need all parts
of the housing industry firing on all cylinders.”

Alongside the Lib
Dem promise to build 100,000 homes for the social sector, Labour’s
plan is far more radical: setting aside £75bn over five years, they
say they will build 100,000 new social homes every year for five
years. These policies contrast sharply with the The Conservative
Party policy of increasing private sector home ownership.

Labour’s
proposals, billed as “social housing for the many” by those
charities and providers in the social housing sector, have been
universally welcomed by all its stakeholders: the offer would bring
council housing to the fore again, as opposed to the social housing
which is currently seen to be delivered by the housing associations.
Councils would once again have a big role to play in house building.

Strongly critical of
the Conservatives’s free market model, Mr Healey, who was briefly
Housing Minister under Gordon Brown, says that what is needed is
that, “…instead of government stepping back from these problems,
its a government that’s willing to step up.”

The biggest question
surrounding the solving of these problems at the bottom quartile of
the housing market is not so much the difference in the various
party’s proposals and doctrines, but whether Labour really can
afford the vast sums of money involved, given all the other promises
and commitments they have made.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Labour plans to buy back £1bn of social housing from landlords | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: Labour plans to buy back £1bn of social housing from landlords