LATEST: Birmingham rubber stamps launch of UK’s biggest selective licensing scheme

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Birmingham Council has approved the UK’s biggest selective licensing scheme and is now waiting for Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove to give it the go-ahead.

Landlords across 25 wards including North Edgbaston (pictured), South Yardley and Sparkhill are set to need a licence as the city bids to tackle crime and deprivation. 

The scheme covers 40,000 properties, meaning that the £700 licence fee would generate an income of £28 million for the authority.

A previously suggested £670 fee was increased to meet extra staffing costs.

Birmingham hopes that selective licensing will improve 1,000 properties in the private rented sector each year as a result of the intervention and believes it will reduce the deprivation gap between the 25 proposed wards and the rest of the city.

Rights and responsbillities

A council report explains: “It may be that tenants in these properties are wary of complaining or may not know their rights or the responsibilities of their landlords.”

The council’s report adds that its scheme will contribute to alleviating fuel poverty because measures to improve standards will ensure that heating appliances are properly checked, maintained and working efficiently.

It says: “Improvements in the housing standards should also make properties more secure which should assist with minimising crime, particularly burglary. The availability of and living in improved housing conditions should contribute to a reduction in homelessness.”

Arbitration

As a result of its consultation, the council will consider if it can provide support or signposting for arbitration between landlord and tenant disputes and has also promised to investigate providing online annual updates on the delivery of outcomes for the scheme.

Its consultation showed that only a minority of landlords and letting agents believed that a selective licensing scheme would address crime and deprivation while the majority of other respondents agreed it would.

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Renters union ACORN apologises unreservedly to Landlord

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Renters union ACORN apologises unreservedly to Landlord: Click here 

Apology and Correction: “We provide this Apology and Correction in order to apologise to Zobia Rafique and Century One Estates Ltd in relation to very serious, defamatory and false allegations that we made about them in publications dated 20 December 2020

View Full Article: Renters union ACORN apologises unreservedly to Landlord

Paying for major works in March – which tax year?

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Hi, my managing agents to a flat I rent are asking for a £2k payment for major works, which is fine as they have done the section 20.

The question I have is if I paid it now (March 2022)

View Full Article: Paying for major works in March – which tax year?

The Ukraine Crisis and Its Affects On UK Property Prices

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The Ongoing Ukraine Crisis has changed the property investment market. It’s important to know how this will affect UK Property Prices now and in the future, so you can be savvy with your money.

Join me for this month’s property market update as I will provide my best recommendations for the future of Property Investment.

View Full Article: The Ukraine Crisis and Its Affects On UK Property Prices

Can selling property at 80 or 90% of its market value ever make sense financially?

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You may have read the recent article about why a private Landlord with a portfolio of 200+ buy-to-lets would choose to sell his properties for 80-90% of the market value. Now it’s time to hear from him in his own words.

When Alasdair decided it was the right time to scale back from his full-time business of being a private landlord, he tried to sell his properties for 100% of the market value through traditional estate agents and treaty sales.

But through experience he realised that the higher price he thought he was getting took far longer, increasing the amount of time that the properties stood empty before, during and after a sale, ultimately costing him more than accepting a sale at 80 – 90% of their value which only took 28 days. That’s when he turned to Landlord Sales Agency.

“Having 200+ property portfolio can sound very exotic and what have you but in reality it’s all-consuming,” he says.

“So we’ve got to a point now where we think it’s time to downsize.”

Alasdair is not alone. Across the UK landlords are looking to sell their portfolios in full, so they can cash in and retire.

With taxes, new regulations, and an uncertain economy, prices may never be this high again. The window to sell is closing, the time to act is now, and the team at Landlord Sales Agency have proven they can get the job done.

Watch Alistair talk more about why he sold up

CONTACT LANDLORD SALES AGENCY TODAY

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BLOG: Can selling property at 80 or 90% of its market value ever make sense financially?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

You may have read the recent article about why a private Landlord with a portfolio of 200+ buy-to-lets would choose to sell his properties for 80-90% of the market value. Now it’s time to hear from him in his own words.

When Alasdair decided it was the right time to scale back from his full-time business of being a private landlord, he tried to sell his properties for 100% of the market value through traditional estate agents and treaty sales.

But through experience he realised that the higher price he thought he was getting took far longer, increasing the amount of time that the properties stood empty before, during and after a sale, ultimately costing him more than accepting a sale at 80 – 90% of their value which only took 28 days. That’s when he turned to Landlord Sales Agency.

“Having 200+ property portfolio can sound very exotic and what have you but in reality it’s all-consuming,” he says.

“So we’ve got to a point now where we think it’s time to downsize.”

Alasdair is not alone. Across the UK landlords are looking to sell their portfolios in full, so they can cash in and retire.

With taxes, new regulations, and an uncertain economy, prices may never be this high again. The window to sell is closing, the time to act is now, and the team at Landlord Sales Agency have proven they can get the job done.

Watch Duncan talk more about why he sold up

CONTACT LANDLORD SALES AGENCY TODAY

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OPINION: Ministers, be careful what you wish for

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Some six or so years ago George Osborne, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer made a clear, politically-led move to reign in the growth of the buy-to-let market.

Two key decisions were made which have had significant consequences for the private rental sector (PRS), not least for many landlords and their service providers.

Over a four year period from 2017 onwards, private landlords with property in their personal name saw a gradual annual reduction in their ability to offset against tax the interest on their mortgage finance costs.

The second decision by Osborne was to increase by 3% the stamp duty payable by anyone purchasing an ‘additional’ residential property.

The impact of these measures has been exactly as Osborne and his government advisors at the Treasury intended: to gradually reduce the attractiveness of buy-to-let investment.

Pro-tenant lobbing

This is of course what the pro-tenant lobbying groups, Generation Rent and Shelter wanted but as some more experienced commentators forecast back in 2016 accurately predicted: ‘be careful what you wish for’.

Capital Economics, a respected consultancy, recently produced a report for the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) which highlights a reduction in the number of rental properties now available to let.

Many reading this column will themselves be aware of the increasingly acute shortage of rental accommodation in many UK regions alongside rising rental price inflation.

Across the Irish Sea, a similar initiative to the section 24 tax imposed here in the UK by Osborne, was introduced some years ago to limit the offset of mortgage interest against rental income and was imposed on Irish landlords.

But it was subsequently repealed by the Irish government as an acute shortage of rental accommodation gradually emerged, just as is occurring here on the UK mainland.

What did Osborne and his UK government think back then would happen if the supply of rented accommodation was gradually restricted?

Any student of economics at GCSE level would confirm that when demand increases and supply is choked off, inevitably prices will rise and that is exactly what has been occurring in the last 18 months.

BTR solution?

For some, the concept of new purpose-built rental accommodation would provide the supply-side solution.

I recall myself attending an event in Westminster organised by the British Property Federation some years ago where Brandon Lewis, then the Housing Minister, spoke glowingly about the forecast growth of the Build to Rent sector (BTR) and how it would be the future of the PRS.

To date after some seventeen years of gestation and billions of pounds of investment and government financial incentives some 70,785 units are now completed, according to the BPF website.

Capital Economics found that if owner-occupation and social housing continue at their ten-year average rate of growth, then the private rented sector supply would have to increase by 227,000 per year to hit government targets. It also noted that “even if the other [housing] tenures doubled their rate of growth, 105,000 homes for private rental would be needed each year, which is well above current rates of (supply) growth.”

As we regularly report in our upcoming developments section in Property Investor News magazine the pipeline of Build to Rent units is increasing but it is woefully short of providing the numbers of rental homes needed to meet government targets.

And unfortunately for those on low to middle incomes, a substantial majority of rents paid by tenants in the large scale BTR blocks are in the top quartile of rents paid.

This should not be any great surprise given the rising cost of land with planning approval and now of course with build cost inflation rampant, the providers of BTR units find themselves with a product which is increasingly priced out of the reach of many prospective tenants.

The key question of course is, will this government as was the case in Ireland, belatedly recognise the folly of the decisions made by Osborne and reverse the taxation policies he brought in?

The author: Richard Bowser is the editor and founder of the monthly print magazine Property Investor News, which he launched back in 2002. He is an experienced private landlord and long term property investor with a diverse portfolio in London and the north east of England.

He can be contacted via www.property-investor-news.com

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – OPINION: Ministers, be careful what you wish for | LandlordZONE.

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Testimonial from Landlord who sold 200+ portfolio and how it made financial sense

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You may have read the recent article on why a private Landlord with a portfolio of 200+ Buy-to-Lets would choose to sell his properties for 80-90% of the market value. Now it’s time to hear from him in his own words.

View Full Article: Testimonial from Landlord who sold 200+ portfolio and how it made financial sense