Tenth monthly house price rise keeps growth in double digits

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Despite the UK’s cost of living crisis, lower affordability and high inflation, annual house prices reached double-digit growth in July, Nationwide has revealed.

However, one leading estate agent is predicting that the figures are pointing to an ‘apocalyptic

View Full Article: Tenth monthly house price rise keeps growth in double digits

BTL lenders asking for EPC C or above?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Just a heads up for everyone – I’ve recently remortgaged to fixed rate products due to the continual increase of the Bank of England Base Rate and, no doubt more to come on the 4th of August!

In every instance

View Full Article: BTL lenders asking for EPC C or above?

BREAKING: House prices rise for 12th month in a row to annual rate of 11%

admin    Uncategorized     agents

The Nationwide has recorded a ‘surprising’ 12^th consecutive rise in house prices, maintaining the year-on-year figure in double-digit territory.

Its index reveals that house prices increased by 0.1% last month, pushing annual house price inflation to 11% and the average price to £271,613.

Although the increase is small and price rises are slowing, the continuing imbalance between supply and demand will lead many experts to predict that such a large annual rise may lead to more landlords to quit the market as some cash-in on the equity sitting in their properties.

But Savills says this may be offset by new investors entering the buy-to-let market looking for an alternative to stock market volatility for their cash – although the current stock shortage within the private rented sector would indicate otherwise.

As we reported last month, some 46,000 properties have disappeared from the rental market so far this year.

“The housing market has retained a surprising degree of momentum given the mounting pressures on household budgets from high inflation, which has already driven consumer confidence to all-time lows,” says Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s Chief Economist (pictured).

“While there are tentative signs of a slowdown in activity, with a dip in the number of mortgage approvals for house purchases in June, this has yet to feed through to price growth.”

Jeremy Leaf, (pictured) north London estate agent and a former RICS residential chairman, says: “The only surprise in these figures is why it is taking so long for the slowdown we have noticed in our offices over the past few months to be reflected in the numbers.

“But don’t get me wrong – we are seeing a reduction in growth, not a major correction as prices continue to be supported by lack of choice and a strong labour market.”

View Full Article: BREAKING: House prices rise for 12th month in a row to annual rate of 11%

Should Buy To Let Landlords Incorporate Their Property Portfolio?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Property Investors holding their Buy To Let Properties in their own name, are going to be purged over the next 5 years due to interest rates and inflation.

In this video, Alex Norian from Property118 and I will tell you how you can protect yourself and solve this problem.

View Full Article: Should Buy To Let Landlords Incorporate Their Property Portfolio?

Deed of trust on US holiday let?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Hello everyone, My wife and I jointly own a holiday let in the USA. We have a small US Dollar mortgage but finance costs have risen sharply which looks set to continue with the Fed currently increasing interest rates on a monthly basis.

View Full Article: Deed of trust on US holiday let?

How to obtain Class MA Prior approval

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Yue was one of the first people to obtain a class MA prior approval with the help of Linda Wright and PLANiTWRIGHT.

In this video, we look and Vue’s project and find out how he used Class MA to do a commercial to residential conversion.

View Full Article: How to obtain Class MA Prior approval

LATEST: Landlord to pay tenants £12,000 after judge slams ‘bullying’ behaviour

admin    Uncategorized     agents

A landlord in East London is to pay two of her former tenants just over £12,000 after a rent repayment order (RRO) tribunal judge said she had ‘at times bullied’ the pair and ‘verged on threatening behaviour’.

Judge Shepherd awarded Flaviano Sogus and Ralitsa Nikolova the money, which would have been £2,000 higher but for utility bill payment deductions.

Sogus and Nikolova applied for the RRO after they moved out in late February 2021.

The pair applied for the order against former landlord Jennifer Bridge after realising that she had not applied for an HMO licence for their home on Langthorne Road (pictured) in Leyton within the borough of Waltham Forest.

The RRO claim followed several months of poor relations between Bridge and the two tenants, during which they recorded several fractious and ill-tempered conversations.

Leave the property

Bridge put the pair under significant pressure to leave the property rather than follow a more traditional eviction process, something Judge Shepherd admonished her for.

“It is clear that the premises were not licenced and should have been licensed for the relevant period under the selective licensing scheme in place in Waltham Forest accordingly the Respondent is prima facie liable for a RRO,” he said.

Read: Landlord fines - how to avoid them.

“In addition… the evidence shows that the landlord and her partner were harassing the applicants with the clear intention of getting them to leave the premises so that [as landlords] they did not have to commence legal possession proceedings.

“This conduct was clear from the recording that the Tribunal listened to and indeed from the transcripts of conversations that took place.”

The landlord now has 28 days in which to lodge an appeal the decision.

Read more about RROs.

Pic credit: Google Streetview

View Full Article: LATEST: Landlord to pay tenants £12,000 after judge slams ‘bullying’ behaviour

Does emergency work over-ride a S20?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Hi all, We are a block affected by the lack of fire stopping, cladding and other fire-related issues. The block is 5 years old and has numerous issues and defects and when we formed the Right to Manage (RTM) in March we took on all these issues and more that the managing agent had not dealt with.

View Full Article: Does emergency work over-ride a S20?

Liz Truss to help landlords reference tenants better via rent recording initiative

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Wannabe Prime Minister Liz Truss has announced that, if elected next month, she will introduce measures to enable tenants within the private rented sector to record their rent with the UK’s credit reference agencies.

This will both help tenants get on the property ladder via improved credit profiles, but also help landlords and letting agents vet tenants more easily.

The idea is not a new one – a bill to achieve much the same thing was introduced into parliament in 2019, backed by now former education minister Justine Greening and Lord Bird, founder of The Big Issue. The Private Members Bill ultimately failed to get through parliament.

For the system to work, tenants must enable Open Banking permissions via their current account provider, which then allows AI tech to ‘read’ their transaction history and record their payments.

This has put some tenants off, but it’s gaining traction and several providers including CreditLadder, Checkmyfile and Canopy already offer similar services, usually for a small monthly fee.

The three best-known credit reference agencies all of whom provide credit profiling data to lenders, now record rental payments if asked to do so.

Any policy would introduced by Truss would, most likely, involve compelling or incentivising these agencies (Equifax, Experience and TransUnion) to make rent recording the norm as it is for mortgage payments.

Landlord bonus

Such a scheme would be a major bonus for landlords. It would revolutionise tenant referencing, enabling landlords and letting agents to see, via a quick online check, if a prospective tenant has paid their rent on time in the past.

“Rent makes up over 30% of the average renters outgoings and given that the majority pay their rent in full and on time each month, it’s unfair that this doesn’t get taken into account when they are looking to secure a mortgage,” says Chris Hutchinson, CEO of Canopy.

“Renters are currently able to take advantage of credit building services such as Canopy’s, that track their rental payments and inform the credit bureaus in order to build credit over time, however we are hugely in favour of this becoming policy so more renters can benefit.”

“Whether a renter is working towards homeownership, or just wants more from their time living in a rental property, a better credit score is an important place to start. The difference between a ‘fair’ an ‘excellent’ credit score can be worth over £40k over the lifespan of a mortgage.”

View Full Article: Liz Truss to help landlords reference tenants better via rent recording initiative