LandlordZONE joins stars of HMO sector to win at inaugural awards event

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LandlordZONE has won the Best HMO Media/Content award at an inaugural awards at Stowe House in Buckingham organised by property management platform COHO.

Ours was just one of the many categories up for grabs all of which were hotly contested by many of the best HMO property operators of all sizes across the UK.

The awards also ended with a Lifetime Achievement award for Richard White (pictured), who for decades has operated as an HMO landlord in many housing markets around the UK.

He was also instrumental in helping set up and/or run several of the key organisations within the sector including the National Landlords Association. It merged with the RLA two years ago to become the NRLA.

Hosted by Sky TV presenter Liz Warburton (pictured), the HMO Awards gave away 17 gongs following a day of talks and training sessions for the 400 HMO landlords who attended, several of whom travelled from as far away as Scotland and Malta to the jaw-dropping Stowe House near Buckingham.

“I think it is amazing that everyone has got behind the idea of pushing the HMO sector forward and celebrating people who are doing things well,” says COHO co-founder Vann Vogstad.

“The entries we received for the awards were just incredible and it just shows what the best of the industry has to offer.”

Here are some of the headline winners

Best HMO Technology Suppliers – Inventory Base (Steve Rad, Sȋan Hemming Metcalfe)

Best HMO Investor – Clay Properties (Michael Clay) 

The Best Student HMO Manager – Loc8teme (James Biddle)

Best Master Lease Operator – J.O. Property Group Ltd (Joe Duggan & Olivia Maher)

Best HMO Training Program – The Co-Living Revolution (Stuart Scott)

Best HMO Financial Services Supplier – Uplift Finance (Edward Clark)

Best Professional HMO Manager – Chester Homeshare (Caroline Pattinson)

Best Residential to HMO Conversion – Cosy Hauz (Xuan Meng)

Best Commercial to HMO Conversion – Elgie Group (Sam Elgie)

Best Shared Living Design – HMO Duchess (Maria-Luisa Coleman)

Creating a Sustainable Future’ award – Gold Assets Properties (Angela Soong)

Best Community Experience – B-Hive Living (Williams Johnson Mota)

Best Progressive Social Housing HMO Investor – Stepping Stones Northampton (Madelaine Norridge)

View Full Article: LandlordZONE joins stars of HMO sector to win at inaugural awards event

Property Investors Can Claim £1 Million In Super Tax Deduction

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You have until March 31st 2023 to spend £1 Million Pounds on Capital Allowances to benefit from the 130% super deduction.
Join me with Alex Norian, the property tax specialist, from Property 118 to discuss all the qualifying capital allowances.
Please click on the video below:

View Full Article: Property Investors Can Claim £1 Million In Super Tax Deduction

Campaigners put pressure on Governmnt to solve the ‘pets in lets conundrum’

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Pet rental reform campaigners are hopeful that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is taking their concerns on board following a recent Pets in Lets forum.

The meeting was attended by DHLUC officials who, LandlordZONE has been told, were in ‘listening mode’.

Fifteen groups including AdvoCATS, the Lettings Hub, Propertymark and property redress figures met the ministry officials to discuss ways to support landlords and tenants around the upcoming changes.

As part of the Fairer Renting White Paper, landlords will need a good reason to refuse permission for a tenant to have an animal in their home and if they do say no, tenants will get the power to challenge their decision. Landlords will also be able to request that tenants’ pets are fully insured.

Policy makers

Heidi Shackell, The Lettings Hub CEO, says: “As we open the lines of communication and work with policy makers, we look to continue leading the way on developing solutions which meet the needs of agents, landlords, tenants and pets to ensure the changes within legislation are effectively implemented within the industry.”

Timothy Douglas (pictured), head of policy and campaigns at Propertymark, adds: “We are keen to develop a solution that helps ensure more landlords and agents are happy to take on a tenant with a pet and look forward to continuing our work with the Pets in Lets forum to develop solutions to this issue that meet the needs of everyone involved.”

AdvoCATS recently wrote to housing minister Simon Clarke to make sure he was aware of its Heads for Tails campaign – calling for an amended Tenant Fees Act 2019 to allow for landlords to require pet insurance and/or by adding a pet deposit to permitted payments – and ongoing efforts to make proposed reforms work in practice.

View Full Article: Campaigners put pressure on Governmnt to solve the ‘pets in lets conundrum’

Invitation to participate in University of York landlord survey

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Research conducted by Dr Alison Wallace and Dr Julie Rugg has previously influenced Government legislation, so Property118 is always keen to help them wherever possible.

They are now inviting Property118 Members to complete the short survey linked below to assist their latest research to better understand the uptake of online tenant referencing by landlords in England.

View Full Article: Invitation to participate in University of York landlord survey

Government U-turns on top tax rate – update

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The government has unveiled a U-turn after its recent mini-budget saw the top rate of income tax of 45p being abolished and it will now reinstate the levy.

The mini-budget led to turmoil on the money markets and saw lenders withdrawing mortgage products across the board.

View Full Article: Government U-turns on top tax rate – update

Buy-to-let landlords with mortgages facing a crisis

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The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, with responsibility for making decisions about the bank rate, at its last meeting, raised interest rates by a further 0.5 per cent, to 2.25 per cent. That’s the highest level in 14 years.

This is the seventh consecutive bank rate rise in recent months as the Bank takes steps to curb what is now soaring inflation. The latest inflation figure of 9.9 per cent is a 40-year high but to get it under control and back to the Bank’s target figure of 2 per cent, interest rates are likely to go still higher. Two further large rises have been predicted by experts, expected when the MPC meets again on Thursday 3 November and Thursday 15 December.

Putting landlords under stress

All of this will put many buy-to-let landlords under severe strain over the coming months as these sharp increases in interest rates put up their mortgage interest charges, when it comes to refinancing. Profits will be hit, and if house values slump, some will find themselves in negative equity.

Some mortgage lenders previously offering buy-to-let mortgages to landlord investors have withdrawn their fixed-rate loans following the Chancellor’s mini Budget last week.

Sell up or increase rents?

Soaring mortgage rates will force some buy to let landlords to put their properties on the market for sale, while others will look to increase rents in an attempt to balance their books, otherwise they would be subsidising a mortgage payment deficit, that’s if they can afford to do that.

According to the Financial Times (FT) around 40 lenders have now withdrawn all their fixed-rate buy-to-let products following the Chancellor’s announcements. This reflects the rises in wholesale borrowing costs for lenders after the adverse market reaction the Chancellor’s plans, and their expectations that the Bank of England will raise interest rates further.

This will drastically reduce the choice that landlords have when remortgaging because as these mortgage products return to the market they will come back with considerably higher interest rates.

Jeni Browne, sales director at broker Mortgages for Business told the FT that, “…a handful of lenders had already repriced their fixed-rate deals, but at ‘incredibly expensive’ rates of interest at around 7 per cent, up from around 2 per cent earlier this year.”

Landlords have enjoyed rising rents and house prices

The UK’s small-scale landlords have, for many years, benefited greatly from steadily rising house prices and a shortage of rental accommodation, a dearth of supply in many locations which has kept rents rising as well.

Now, with a dramatic turn-around in many landlords’ fortunes as a result of rising inflation and interest rates, as we come out of Covid, and face an unprecedented energy crisis, some are facing a financial cliff edge.

While there are still mortgage deals in the market available at just under 5 per cent, this is a good 70 per cent higher than those available last year.

Aneisha Beveridge, the head of research at the estate agent Hamptons, told The Guardian newspaper, “I think there are more and more risks mounting for landlords. The landlords who will be most at risk are those that have bought in the last couple of years and taken out the maximum loan they could get against that property.”

London landlords could be hit hardest

These trends are going to hit those landlords hardest who bought in areas where property prices were highest and yields low, London and the south east being cases in point: London, is “likely to see their profits hit hardest”, adds Aneisha Beveridge.

Many small scale landlords have invested in buy-to-lets because they could not find a safe haven for their money, nothing they could find was approaching returns like a rental property. Banks and building society interest rates were almost non-existent. In an inflationary environment, with property asset prices seemingly well protected, property has always seemed like a safe place to get a good return.

Buy-to-lets represent many landlords’ main pension

More and more ordinary citizens have committed their life savings to the UK private rental sector, which as a stated overall value of around £1.4trillion. Many see their single let or small portfolio as their main pension pot.

The Bank of England has indicated that interest rates may have to rise as high as 6 per cent, while at the same time some experts are forecasting drops in property values as much as 20 per cent. It leaves some buy-to-let investors with a stark choice: sell up or raise rents to meet their obligations, at a time when they may be in negative equity.

The criteria that lenders use to judge buy-to-let affordability include a calculation of loan to values and rental income to repayment cost. Previously, rent levels and property values gave both lenders and borrowers the safety margin they needed. But given the recent changes some mortgage lenders have begun tightening-up on these criteria when it comes to remortgaging.

Remortgagers will still be able to get a new loan with their existing lender using a “product transfer”, but if they fail the tests their options will be severely limited when looking to move to a different lender.

The search for higher yields

There’s been a trend for some time now for London-based landlord investors to buy outside of the capital in locations where yields are much higher. According to Hamptons International, this year has seen a large increase in the number of London based buy-to-let investors buying buy-to-let property outside the capital.

Other investors have been seeking those higher yields by buying into the commercial end of residential investments – houses in multiple occupation (HMOs). These produce much higher yields than traditional vanilla buy-to-lets and if purchased through a limited company there can be considerable tax advantages.

Most buy to let mortgages are on fixed rates and only a small proportion of the total 2 million or so outstanding will come up for renewal over the next 12 months. What’s more, lenders have for some time now restricted landlords from borrowing more than 75 per cent of their property’s value, making them less vulnerable to falls in house prices than a first-time buyer on a 90 per cent LTV mortgage.

Another development is that the financial industry regulator, The Financial Conduct Authority, is instructing those mortgage lenders who have pulled their products to come back to the market as soon as possible.

View Full Article: Buy-to-let landlords with mortgages facing a crisis

LATEST: New Smoke and CO alarms rules go live TODAY!

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Landlords must repair or replace any smoke and carbon monoxide alarms as soon as their tenant reports a problem, under amended rules taking effect tomorrow (1^st October).

They are currently responsible for installing and testing alarms at the start of the tenancy – with tenants tasked with repairing or replacing them – but under the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm regulations, landlords will take over responsibility, although they will still rely on tenants to report issues.

The regulations require at least one smoke alarm on each storey of the home that has a room used as living accommodation and for a carbon monoxide alarm in any room that contains a fixed combustion appliance (such as log-burning stoves or gas or oil boilers but excluding gas cookers) and which is used as living accommodation.

All alarms must comply with British Standards BS 5839-6 (smoke alarms) and British Standards BS 50291 (carbon monoxide alarms). The government advises that for a battery-powered alarm, tenants should replace the batteries themselves but if it still doesn’t work, or a tenant can’t replace the batteries, they should report it to the landlord.

“Landlords should be aware of their changing responsibilities,” warns Jonathan Daines (pictured), CEO at LettingaProperty.com.

“While the majority will already have compliant smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, they may not realise the additional requirement to repair and replace these during the tenancy. These changes may seem small versus other legislation in the pipeline, but it’s more important than ever for landlords to be clued-up on all their legal obligations.”

Landlords must continue to make sure that alarms work on the first day of a tenancy and keep a record. Local councils will enforce the rules and can fine failing landlords up to £5,000.

Read the official guidance.

View Full Article: LATEST: New Smoke and CO alarms rules go live TODAY!

Fellow landlords – Get ready for Section 21 Day!

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I cannot stay silent any longer because the continued attack on landlords will end in tears for us, tenants and the government.

I was taken aback when the Scottish government announced that it was introducing legislation for a rent freeze without any negotiation or discussion with the private rental sector in the country.

View Full Article: Fellow landlords – Get ready for Section 21 Day!

Meet Mark Smith (Barrister-At-Law) Landlord tax planning strategies – pin Birmingham Central

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Our Hon. Legal Counsel, Mark Smith, Head of Chambers at Cotswold Barristers, will be presenting in person an overview of several landlord tax strategies at the pin Birmingham Central meeting Thursday 6th October.

The Birmingham Central pin Meeting will be held at The Birmingham Conference &

View Full Article: Meet Mark Smith (Barrister-At-Law) Landlord tax planning strategies – pin Birmingham Central

CRISIS: Mortgage brokers call for calm as lenders withdraw 30% of BTL loans

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Landlords have been advised not to panic after lenders pulled hundreds of buy-to-let mortgage products this week in response to the Chancellor’s mini-budget.

Moneyfacts BTL product availability data shows 507 deals were withdrawn, reducing the number to 1,221 on Tuesday, a Moneyfacts record and the highest overnight product fall it has ever recorded.

HSBC UK, Virgin Money and Skipton Building Society all ditched buy-to-let mortgages for new customers, while The Mortgage Works withdrew its fixed rate BTL mortgages.

Daniel Lee (pictured), principal at Total Landlord Mortgages, says lenders are expected to re-price products this week and that we could see a 1 to 1.5% jump; the new rates are all above 5% on a fixed rate.

He tells LandlordZONE: “Landlords will be wondering whether to lock into a five-year rate or ride the wave, but while those low rates are gone for now, the key thing is not to panic – they could come back down again in six months to a year”.

Claire Flynn, mortgage expert at money.co.uk, says that the withdrawal of buy-to-let deals over the last week is arguably reminiscent of the credit crunch in 2008.

“The restriction of finance costs relief over the past few years means the increased interest rates will be felt directly by landlords up and down the country,” she tells LandlordZONE.

“Continuously rising rates could force them to either sell up or increase rents, in order to stand a chance of turning over a profit.” 

Jeni Browne (pictured), director of BTL broker Mortgages for Business, is more positive. She adds: “Projections for house prices and yields remain strong due to the ongoing demand for properties from both renters and buyers. The pound will stabilize, energy prices will drop, and landlords are unlikely to see the value of their property crash.”

View Full Article: CRISIS: Mortgage brokers call for calm as lenders withdraw 30% of BTL loans