DWP address for repayment?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Hi, Does anyone have the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) address for returning overpaid rental income?

I have seen a phone number advertised, but I would much rather write to them and then be able to transfer the overpayments via bacs bank transfer to ensure my repayment goes through and have a clear record of where it went.

View Full Article: DWP address for repayment?

Association mourns the death of PRS stalwart John Stewart

admin    Uncategorized     agents

The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) is sad to confirm that its deputy director for policy and research, John Stewart, has died after being diagnosed with cancer.

Ben Beadle, chief executive of the NRLA, says during his time there, and before that with the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), John was a popular and valued friend, colleague and mentor who worked tirelessly for the organisation and its members with passion and conviction.

Sense of humour

“Known for his love of Eurovision and Kilmarnock FC, John was well respected within the industry for his knowledge and experience and was committed to creating a fair and well-functioning private rented sector for landlords and tenants alike,” says Beadle. “He will be missed by many. Whilst we mourn his loss, we fondly remember his sense of humour and the kindness and support he showed towards those he met and worked with. These continued to be his hallmarks, even as he faced his devastating diagnosis.

“Our heartfelt sympathies go to John’s husband, Neil, and his wider family and friends at this difficult time.”

Manchester Pride

John had held his post since the NRLA was established in 2020, and before that was policy manager for the RLA for almost six years. Prior to joining the RLA he served as chief executive of Manchester Pride, having been a councillor in Aberdeen for nine years, including almost two years as its leader.

John is pictured at the Future Renting Wales conference at Jury’s Inn, Cardiff, on 28^th November 2018. Photo by Mark Hawkins for the Residential Landlords Association.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Association mourns the death of PRS stalwart John Stewart | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: Association mourns the death of PRS stalwart John Stewart

CMA free thousands more from doubling ground rents

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Fifteen businesses that had bought freeh­olds from housing developer Countryside have now given formal commitments, known as undertakings, to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to remove terms that cause ground rents to double in price. These terms, which kick in every 10 or 15 years

View Full Article: CMA free thousands more from doubling ground rents

Clampdown on landlords exploiting vulnerable tenants in supported housing sector

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Unscrupulous landlords who provide poor quality supported accommodation are set to be kicked out of the sector.

Housing Minister Eddie Hughes has announced new minimum standards to prevent landlords from exploiting some of the most vulnerable tenants and to help them live independently. Local authorities in England will also get new powers to better manage their local supported housing market so rogue landlords can’t exploit the system, while there will be changes to Housing Benefit regulations to define care, support and supervision and improve quality and value for money.

Unregulated housing

Exempt accommodation is non-commissioned and unregulated supported housing where tenants include ex-prisoners, addicts, rough sleepers and fleeing survivors of domestic abuse. Landlords can apply for provider status, exempting them from local licensing regulations and housing benefit caps, meaning that councils have few powers to act over the quality and safety of homes or how tenants are treated.

Hughes has pledged to provide £20 million for a three-year Supported Housing Improvement Programme and said: “We have no intention of penalising those providers who operate responsibly. We are clear that measures must be as targeted and proportionate as possible to protect supply of housing across the board.”

Successful campaign

Birmingham has campaigned for stronger measures in the city for years, pointing to a lack of regulatory powers that has led to soaring numbers of properties, prompting complaints about anti-social behaviour, drug use and safeguarding issues. Councillor Sharon Thompson, cabinet member for vulnerable children and families, says: “I am absolutely delighted, that after years of campaigning, the government has finally listened. I would like to thank our local communities that have been working with us on this campaign and have suffered on a daily basis, for many years, at the hands of rogue landlords and poorly managed properties.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Clampdown on landlords exploiting vulnerable tenants in supported housing sector | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: Clampdown on landlords exploiting vulnerable tenants in supported housing sector

Landlords urged to help improve the property tax system  

admin    Uncategorized     agents

The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has invited landlords to share their views on how to simplify property income taxation.

It has published an online survey and call for evidence and wants to hear directly from individual landlords and small businesses about which aspects are particularly complex and hard to get right, and welcomes any suggestions for improvements. It is looking into the current regimes for taxing residential property held by individuals, partnerships and micro companies, and will come up with recommendations and ways to address distortions.

Call for evidence

The call for evidence wants detailed comments on the technical and practical operation of the tax system while the OTS will also meet interested parties online. Questions in the survey include: what prompts landlords to incorporate their property rental businesses and to what extent such decisions are motivated by tax or non-tax reasons, and what factors influence the choice between using the cash basis and accruals basis accounting, where rental income is less than £150,000 a year.

HMRC statistics suggest that there were about 2.9m individuals and 32,000 partnerships with property businesses filing tax returns in the 2018-19 tax year. Companies are subject to corporation tax on their profits from renting property and have no restrictions on the amount of mortgage interest they can deduct.

International landlords

In 2020, a record number of UK and international landlords registered as a limited company to take advantage of tax benefits; investment specialist Thirlmere Deacon reported a total of 41,700 buy-to-let incorporations, an increase of 23% on 2019, taking the total number of buy-to-let firms to 228,743.

Landlords can respond to the survey here – https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/0WQWWF/ – and email responses to the call for evidence to ots@ots.gov.uk before 5th June.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Landlords urged to help improve the property tax system   | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: Landlords urged to help improve the property tax system  

Homes for Ukraine scheme: FAQs

admin    Uncategorized     agents

This has been a very widely commented on topic with Mick Roberts’s article, Can I really house the Ukrainian People? I want to, however….., so the latest government FAQs have been included below: Click here

For sponsors:

Anyone registering online on Homes for Ukraine will be kept updated.

View Full Article: Homes for Ukraine scheme: FAQs

Isn’t it the same for Private Landlords?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Interesting article stating that social housing providers are having to divert money put aside for essential property maintenance to adhere to safety reforms: Click here

Have they forgotten about private landlords here too? This is going to cripple the private sector without adding in the fear of heavy fines and prosecution (for which SHP’s seem immune).

View Full Article: Isn’t it the same for Private Landlords?

NRLA mourns loss of John Stewart

admin    Uncategorized     agents

The National Residential Landlords Association is sad to confirm that its Deputy Director for Policy and Research, John Stewart, passed away over the weekend after being diagnosed with cancer.

Ben Beadle, Chief Executive of the NRLA said: “We are desperately sad to learn of John’s passing.

View Full Article: NRLA mourns loss of John Stewart

Specialist mortgage lender sees green shoots appearing

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Managing director Lucy Barrett told MortgageStrategy that confidence is retuning to the lending market and especially for specialist lending products such as bridging loans.

Barrett says that the market has been highly unpredictable over the last couple of years, yet now, with most restrictions being lifted, and the experience of 12 months of lending in the specialist commercial finance market, confidence and predictability is beginning to return for 2022.

Overall lending levels are still down compared to pre-pandemic levels, but the way the housing market bounced back driven predominantly by stamp duty relief, specialist finance provided by Barrett’s company, she says, came into its own, seeing in particular in “bridging” lending “a huge resurgence, helping buyers who needed money quickly.”

Surging demand

The fallout from the past 24 months, Barrett says, is likely to bring demand for more complex financing cases, which is where the specialist market excels. And the surging demand in the residential sector is now impacting on the commercial property market as well.

According to Vantage, in 2021 their bridging business was up 38% year on year. “I don’t think this demand will diminish soon,” she says. The housing shortage, exacerbated to some extent by the stamp duty holiday, has resulted in the current housing crunch, with demand outweighing supply and residential property price wars.

Such a situation has led to an increased demand for bridging loans. They’re one way to beat the homebuyer chains and delays in the market. Barrett sees bridging, and in particular regulated bridging, being in continued demand.

In 2021 it seems, regulated bridging loans accounted for an average of over 40% of all contributor transactions, while using the facility as a way to fund “a chain break’ was the second most popular use of bridging finance. It represented 18% of all lending, a figure that was up from 17% over the previous year.

With potential buyers currently significantly outnumbering sellers, therein lies the clear reason why residential bridging has come to the fore. To avoid missing their dream purchase, some buyers are willing to take that extra bit of risk and they are using bridging loans to purchase their next property before their own home is sold.

With house prices in some sought after locations rising at rates not seen for many years, it’s no wonder that some private buyers are willing to look to less conventional methods to secure their next home – the average advertised price of a home has risen by £40,000 since the pandemic started. This compares to just £9,000 in each of the previous two years.

A shortage of land

The UK market is not only suffering a housing shortage, there’s a land shortage as well. The inflated cost of building land has slowed the pace of new developments, limiting supply that would otherwise stabilise prices.

A Federation of Master Builders survey reveals that 63% of small builders are struggling to find viable building plots, and with planning system delays and materials shortages their ability to build the number of homes they would like is severely limited.

Home working along with remote working has increased the demand for homes with more space, but at the same time they have reduced the demand for office space. This has led to more re-purposing of commercial units, helped by changes in permitted development rights, the converting of offices and commercial premises into residential properties has seen a boom.

Many commercial buildings are currently for sale at reasonable prices says Barrett, and “although I think the property market will begin to settle this year in the wake of the impact of the stamp duty holiday, I also believe the specialist finance market will return to pre-pandemic levels of lending.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Specialist mortgage lender sees green shoots appearing | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: Specialist mortgage lender sees green shoots appearing

Signs of post-Covid normalisation in retail and leisure activity

admin    Uncategorized     agents

According to research data released by the Local Data Company (LDC), Britain’s retail and leisure sector is beginning to stabilise, suggesting that the worst of the pandemic impact is over. Their figures show that as vacancy rates rose slightly in the first half of 2021, in the second half this trend was reversed, most noticeably in the leisure sector.

The second half of 2021 saw the first vacancy rates in retail and leisure decline for the first time since the first half of 2018, a sure sign says LDC that the market is stabilising. Over the full year 2021, however, national vacancy rates increased by 0.7%, though this figure is still lower than expected given the lack of activity in the first 3 months, due to the lockdown – see the chart below.

The retail vacancy rate hit a record high in 2021, but peaking in the first half of the year at 15.8%, coming down again in the second half, with a 0.1% decrease. The retail vacancy rate currently sits at 15.7%, a figure that now looks set to decline further as more retail and leisure units are taken off the market, converting to other uses. Businesses are also returning to acquiring new sites.

The leisure sector is showing the most promise, with definite signs of recovery, despite restrictions on hospitality continuing well into 2021. The leisure vacancy rate figure has dropped from 11.3% to 11.0% over 6 months— the largest decrease says LDC since its records began in the first half of 2013.

Expanding chains and independent food and beverage operators are assisting growth, while increasing freedom from Covid, pent up demand from the various lockdowns, national sports activity such as England’s run in the Euros, and the return of office workers later in the year have all contributed to boosting demand in hospitality venues.

Shopping centres, hit hard by the Covid lockdowns and online shopping, previously seeing the greatest increase in vacancies since the onset of the pandemic, saw a reduction in vacancy rates of 0.3%. It brought the shopping centre vacancy rate figure down to 19.1% at the end of 2021.

Out of town and edge of town retail parks are continuing their trend of carrying the lowest vacancy rates of any retail / leisure location type since 2013, seeing a 0.2% decline in vacancy rates in the second half of 2021.

Britain’s High streets continued to prove more stable than other location types. The vacancy rate for high streets fell by 0.1% in the second half of 2021. However, high street vacancy rates were only up 2.3% on H2 2019, compared to increases of 3.2% for retail parks and 4.8% for shopping centres over the same period.

These figures suggest that high streets were not as heavily impacted by Covid as the other location types due to being less exposed to “at-risk” brands and having a higher percentage of independent occupiers who benefited from additional government support throughout the pandemic.

Vacancy rates are not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels yet though, but they are projected to continue to decline further over 2022, due to the continuing redevelopment and repurposing of retail space.

The year 2021 saw a record increase in the amount re-purposing and redevelopment activity, with an increase of 49%, suggesting that the worst of the pandemic-related closures is over and the industry has shifted its focus from survival to recovery, says LDC.

Lucy Stainton, Commercial Director, Local Data Company says:

“This latest analysis is significant because the figures finally point to a reversal of the structural decline we had seen accelerate with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Going into this, the physical retail market had already been plagued by a number of other headwinds such as online and digital adoption, but the coronavirus brought about long periods of restricted trading and this proved insurmountable for many chains across both retail and hospitality.

“Vacancy rates peaked halfway through 2021 as a result of this but, as we come into 2022, these latest statistics are cause for cautious optimism, with the number of empty shops finally coming down as consumers return to high streets and shopping centres.

“Our analysis points towards this trend continuing as the final shakeout from various CVAs and insolvencies is hopefully behind us and independent operators continue to open new sites. With many chains re-looking at their strategy for growth, the independent sector proving buoyant and an unprecedented level of repurposing and redevelopment, we could be seeing the start of a new phase of physical retailing and we will be tracking this very closely.”

Below – Historical vacancy rates by occupier type across GB, 2013-2021 (Source: Local Data Company)

Below – Redevelopment activity across GB, 2015 – 2021 (Source: Local Data Company)

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Signs of post-Covid normalisation in retail and leisure activity | LandlordZONE.

View Full Article: Signs of post-Covid normalisation in retail and leisure activity