Down trend in retail rents for the first time in 15 years

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 »

Bathroom Design - From Taps to Bath Panels

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.

Choosing the right furniture for a letting property

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.

Lenders issued warning to treat borrowers fairly

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.

70% of empty commercial properties to benefit from tax exemption

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.

Home sellers overestimating property value

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.

First time UK landlords beware of novice letting agents

The credit crunch and falling property prices have badly affected the housing market. UK homeowners who are unable to sell are choosing to become landlords.

First time landlords who are more interested in getting a steady income must be aware of novice letting agents who may not be in a position to provide the right advice due to lack of experience in the housing sector.

According to the ex-president of the Association of Residential Letting Agents, a number of desperate real estate agents have switched over their role to become letting agents or added lettings to their business.

According to Robert Jordan, chairman of Jordan, with 6 offices in the UK, more estate agents are becoming letting agents and being unqualified would be putting more tenants and landlords at risk. He said there were basic differences in being a letting agent and an estate agent.

According to Jordan, unqualified agents had no bonded client accounts hence there was greater risk of clients losing money. Landlords and tenants get protection for deposit and rent money by depositing an amount in a bonded account which is covered by the deposit compensation scheme.

Jordan’s advice is to use services of a reputable agent who should be a member of ARLA with bonded deposit scheme.

Overseas students urged to understand Tenant Deposit Protection Rules

Colleges and universities are being reminded by the online tenancy deposit firm, mydeposits.co.uk to make students understand Tenant Deposit Protection Rules to safeguard their deposit money.

The firm is concerned that most of the 48,000 overseas students in the UK may not be aware of their rights regarding tenancy deposit.

With effect from April 2007, landlords and letting agents are permitted to accept tenant deposit only if they follow Tenant Deposit Protection Rules laid down by the Government for the tenants in the UK.

The tenants have now got the resource in the form of new legislation to get back their deposit from the erring landlords who fail to refund deposit after the expiry of lease agreement.

The firm mydeposits.co.uk has suggested that students needed to be motivated to demand from landlord proof that their deposit money has been put in the Government-approved scheme. A student in the UK pays on an average £245 per month as rent. According to the firm’s chairman David Salusbury, educational institutions could play important role in making students understand laws governing their rented accommodation.

The firms dealing with tenant deposit protection usually render free impartial service in resolution of disputes over deduction of money by a landlord.

The new internet-only service makes tenancy deposit protection cheap

The UK’s Government-approved tenancy deposit protection scheme has introduced an internet-only service for the landlords for hassle free deposits.

The landlords would also benefit from reduced fees since the administrative costs of new service ‘mydeposits lite’ are comparatively much lower.

The landlords would not be required to hand over tenant’s deposit to a third party; instead they could pay just £17.50 fees including VAT and protect deposits up to £300 with ‘mydeposits.co.uk’ website. The website enables them to keep hold of their deposit amounts.

Since April 2007, it is mandatory for all landlords in Wales and England to protect their tenants’ deposits with a Government-approved scheme.

Chairman of the ‘mydeposits.co.uk’, David Salusbury, welcomed the launch of mydeposits lite saying that tenancy deposit protection is an essential part of a landlords’ legal responsibilities and the ‘mydeposits lite’ service will eliminate the need to hand over their deposits to a third party. He highlighted the fact that as it is an internet-only service, landlords would spend very little time in registering deposits. He also explained that low administrative costs of the service allowed mydeposits.co.uk to pass savings on to the landlords.

Landlords in England and Wales have been cautioned that failure to comply with the legislation would bring restrictions on their right to seek possession and they would be forced to shed compensation to the tenant three times the deposit amount.

On a similar note, places like London have a high ratio of letters and a good way to ensure a deposit is returned is to leave the property as it was when you arrived. Take notes of any problems you see when you arrive and have your landlord sign to agree.  You should also ensure you clean the property, utilising a service for end of tenancy cleaning in London for example ensures everywhere is left spic and span.

Falling house prices are creating investment opportunities

The fall in the property prices in the UK has continued for more than a year now. This was revealed in the findings of the survey conducted by leading estate agency Chesterton.

Chesterton’s “Poll of Polls” pointed out that there was drop to £184,333 in the average residential price in England and Wales.

According to the firm, figures indicated that prices have been falling for 13 months consecutively and were going down across all regions. Bigger falls were being witnessed in London and the South West during this time.

Chesterton appointed the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) to conduct survey on its behalf.

According to CEBR chief executive Douglas Mc Williams, the cautious approach of the financial institutions towards lending has impacted all levels and falls in house prices were also taking pace at the top end of the housing market.

The chief executive of Chesterton, Robert Bartlett, informed that some highly placed property professionals are making the most of the drop in prices. He remarked that cash rich buyers had good opportunity to take full advantage of the situation. The firm reported that five deals of cash sales were made in Kensington, London last month.