Landlords alerted over excess payment of building insurance

A customer friendly insurance broker has a word of advice for landlords possessing portfolios that contain blocks of flats and they may be overpaying for insurance without being aware of it.

Neil Cook, a broker employed at Ember JD Insurance, has cautioned about activities of certain brokers and managing agents. According to him some hidden commission charges are being collected by both at the expense of landlords. Read the rest of this entry »

Developer Persimmon suffers loss of £780 million

A prominent UK house developer Persimmon has registered whopping loss of £780 million for the year 2008 amid serious housing downturn, after being forced to write down its land bank value. Read the rest of this entry »

Rents drop further but yields remain unchanged

The latest rental index indicates market is flooded with excess stock. Number of advertisements of rental properties on websites has increased 43% in last 6 months with rise of 8% in January alone.

Rental prices have fallen by 4.8% over last year and 1.2% over January 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

Falling prices may push 5million homeowners into negative equity

5 million homeowners could land up with mortgage more than value of their property by end of 2009, as house prices continue falling, reveals research by the GfK NOP group.

It has estimated that 3.8 million homeowners are already in or likely to face negative equity with 1.2 million more to add to the number by end of 2009, if house prices go down further by 10 to 20%. Read the rest of this entry »

Doing away with agents will harm interests of property industry

The current downturn in house sales and extreme difficulty in selling houses has led to FSBO (Property For Sale By Owner-s) approach, rise in advertising on property portals and sacking of agents, predominantly for sale of second homes overseas. These measures give greater exposure to property and enhance chances of selling. Read the rest of this entry »

Lloyds and RBS to increase mortgage lending to homeowners and SMEs

Following Northern Rock’s announcement of lending £14 billion over next 2 years, Lloyds banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) are also increasing mortgage loans to SMEs and homeowners in exchange for taxpayers’ assistance of £500 billion. Read the rest of this entry »

Tps for finishing touches before letting property

Right, so we assume you have managed to attain a property, you might have done some work to the property to make it more presentable or to increase the return value and now you are wondering what to do next. Before you push your property straight on to the market, here are some finish touch tips to ensure you get the most from your investment.

Double Check Your Work

If you have had to perform any significant building or interior work, double check everything to make sure you haven’t missed anything. For example if you repainted, try to ensure you have painted every nook and cranny, including behind radiators and other fixtures.

Clean and Tidy

Clean every single part of the house. This can be tiresome and should be done properly, so if there are any doubts in your mind about your cleaning abilities, consider hiring some professional cleaners. In cities this can be quite cheap due to high levels of competition so you should definitely utilise the services house and carpet cleaners in London or Manchester.

Empty the Property

Leave any furniture or appliances you plan to let as part of the contract but try to move any of your own items to a different location, otherwise the property can look more cluttered and messy than is necessary.

Newly formed group asks for 100,000 affordable homes

A new lobby group has urged the Government to construct over 100,000 affordable homes in a span of next 2 years.

The 2020 Group, comprising of housing associations, local authorities and unions and headed by the ex-Government housing adviser, Kate Barker, is insisting that a construction programme on a massive scale, costing around £6.3 billion, can help kick-start sagging economy.  Read the rest of this entry »

Buy-to-let boom is getting over, as rents suffer big drop

The early predictions from analysts that buy-to-let boom will be short-lived are getting confirmed by the rental returns that are falling sharply and tenants, suffering job losses, are failing to pay rent. This in turn is making it extremely difficult for landlords to meet mortgage repayments. Read the rest of this entry »

Record 18% fall in house prices for year

According to the UK’s largest building society, Nationwide, house prices fell by 17.6% since February 2008, while the drop was 1.8% in February 2009. The mortgage lender informed that average cost of home now stands at £147,746 and predicted that the UK housing market would still be falling down. Read the rest of this entry »