So you have a property and you think that during this time of hardship and the current gloomy economic situation surrounding us all, it might be a good idea to let out said property.
The title of this topic is a common question asked by budding landlords. If you are planning on letting a property with a fireplace (or several fireplaces for that matter) what should you do with it?
The problem is of course that your potential clients are a mixed bag of needs and wants. Some might like a fireplace some might not. Read the rest of this entry »
Year 2009 is going to be another tough year for buy-to-let landlords, predicts the Association of Residential Lettings Agents (ARLA).
The Association has forecast increase in rate of repossessions due to likely failure of large number of landlords in payments of their mortgage. Read the rest of this entry »
The Nationwide Building Society in its latest survey has confirmed 16% fall in house prices in the UK in 2008 and reported average price down to £153,048.
December 2008 witnessed 14th consecutive fall of 2.5% in house prices, making it 18% lower than peak in October 2007. Read the rest of this entry »
It is blessing in disguise for retail stores as rents have started falling in 2008 for the first time in 15 years and are unlikely to go up until 2013.
The fall in annual rents and opening of 2.5 million sq ft area of new shopping centre would substantially strengthen retailers’ bargaining power with landlords during their toughest struggle for survival in hostile trading conditions. Read the rest of this entry »
If you are considering putting a house or apartment on the letting market it is important to have everything looking its best. Especially with the market how it is at the moment, with a record number of new landlords joining the fray every week. With the market becoming so saturated, competitiveness is at its highest.
For the reasons mentioned above it is imperative that your property is done up to the highest quality it can be. This article will look at the bathroom in particular to discuss some of the things you should remember.
First of all, it is important to ensure you choose cool and/or neutral colours for your bathroom, light shades of green or blue are common and even white is used a lot. Choosing these simple colours can help to prevent putting potential tenants off.
Another key factor to take in to account is the furnishings. Opting for minimalistic and simple furnishings ensures a broader appeal, so you won’t be turning as many (if any) viewers away.
The bathroom equipment is important, anything from the use of tiles or laminate flooring to choosing the type of shower and bath panels. As long as you keep in mind a “less is more” approach and keep things simple then you stand a better chance of pleasing everyone.
This can be quite a difficult task for most landlords. As most letting properties come fully furnished, you have to be careful when choosing the furnishings, style and colours of all the rooms in the building.
If you go for the modern look, you might put people off who want somewhere with a little uniqueness.
Whereas if you opt for a more traditional approach, this can be too specific for some peoples likings.
One way is to furnish the home with current trends, for instance a popular style at the moment is Eastern Asian, such as oriental furniture. Opting for something like this ensures you will get custom now, but if you think you will have a rapidly changing clientele then it is best to go for the ‘ess is more’ approach.
Keeping things simple doesn’t necessarily mean going modern. You can go for natural colours but use wallpaper with a small and tasteful pattern. This will appease both fans of simplicity and tradition. Even though I mentioned it above as quite trend-specific, oriental furniture has quite a sleek and modern style, whilst retaining a sense of something different.
Many people are opting for Swedish furniture due to the development of budget-furniture stores like Ikea, although it has a nice simple style it lacks imagination in many respects and can be seen as dull by many.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has issued stern warning to mortgage lenders with 31 January 2009 deadline to prove that they have given fair treatment to customers facing repossessions or arrears.
The FSA rules pertaining to treatment of customers in mortgage arrears demand a written policy from lenders defining efforts being put in to enable customers in paying back arrears over mutually agreed time frame. Customers are required to be provided independent advice and repossession has to be used only as the last resort.
The FSA initiative has been welcomed by the director general of the Building Societies. He emphasised that borrowers struggling to make payments should be heard sympathetically and offered proper advice by the lenders. The borrowers are advised to take all necessary steps to retain their properties and think of repossessions only as last alternative.
FSA had conducted a survey earlier this year and found that there were serious concerns about lenders’ high handedness in dealing with repossessions and arrears. The Council of Mortgage Lenders had reported that 168,000 borrowers were a minimum of three months in arrears by end of September.
In the coming two months from now, lenders are required to inform FSA about the measures taken by them in implementing the guidelines laid down by FSA and would have to sign up their commitment for implementation of guidelines.
With effect from April 2009, empty commercial properties having rateable value below £15,000 will be entitled for business rates exemption. The exemption is expected to bring big relief for nearly 70% of properties in the UK.
The exemption from rate tax was announced in the Pre-Budget Report presented by Chancellor Alistair Darling.
Many firms had demolished their empty commercial properties after withdrawal of tax relief by the Government in April 2008 as they were struggling to continue with rate payment without any income from their empty properties. Payment of tax was mandatory for buildings lying empty for more than 3 months.
The commercial property owners were demanding the Government to reconsider its withdrawal of tax relief. A motion, supporting abolition of tax was introduced by 60 Labour MPs to prevent a collapse of the property market and restrain owners and property developers from denying letting to thousand of potential tenants for the sake of higher rents.
At a time when there is sharp fall in demand for commercial property due to economic downturn, the announcement of relief has come as blessings in disguise. Investment Property Databank figures indicate 4.3% decline in commercial property capital value in last month.
Desperate cash strapped home sellers, in their attempt to extract more return from their property, were overestimating its value, claimed an industry expert.
According to the president of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), the unrealistic approach of the home sellers over price was a problem, since they were overlooking the asking price of homes while trying to attract buyers.
The property market has experienced its biggest slump in prices since the onset of the credit crunch and is likely to suffer for a few more months. The drop in prices is over 12% as revealed by figures from lenders Nationwide and Halifax.
Analysts are predicting that the price fall is going to continue, with some experts even suggesting that it could drop to nearly 35%. At the same time the International Monetary Fund has claimed that the property market in the UK was 30% overvalued at its peak.
The NAEA president, Chris Brown commented that what somebody was ready to pay today was truth of the matter and not what somebody would have agreed to pay yesterday.
Brown added that professionals and estate agents were devoting more time to evaluation of property value to show what was then and what is now. He said the problem was that people were not going to get what they were expecting since they were not looking at the asking price.