Recent Property News Updates
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NRLA campaigning secures £65m Covid fund
A £65million fund to cover rent arrears built during the Covid-19 pandemic has been announced today, following months of NRLA campaigning. See full article below. NRLA Funding |
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Fastest Rise in Rents Since 2008.
-Tenant demand doubles as supply of homes collapses, 43% below long term average. -Rents outside London rise 6% in year to Sept (4.6% in London). -Supply issues due to regulatory pressure and legislation. Source: Zoopla - view full article below - 'Rising Rents' Rising Rents |
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Spring 2019 Newsletter
Click opposite to see our updates for Spring '19
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May 18 Newsletter
Click opposite to see our updates for May 18
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April 18 Newsletter
Click opposite to see our updates for Apr 18
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March 18 Newsletter
Click opposite to see our updates for Mar 18
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February 18 Newsletter
Click opposite to see our updates for Feb 18
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January 18 Newsletter
Click opposite to see our updates for Jan 18
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29th January 2018
TDS (Tenant Deposit Scheme) Useful Guides We recently attended a course with TDS. They kindly published the attached guides on the left which help with deposit deductions as well as a guide to product lifespans. | ||||||
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6th April 2017
Tenants Bend Rules in Tenancy Agreement A Direct Line Survey reveals the top tenancy rules broken by tenants (see figure opposite). A professionally conducted inventory would capture 7 out of 10 of these issues. This reinforces why it is critical that Landlords have an independent inventory and check in followed by a comprehensive check out at the end of each tenancy. http://www.clearpropertyservice.co.uk/inventories.html Link to full article |
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21st March 2017
ARLA Private Rented Sector Report ARLA in their PRS report from January 2017 highlight a few interesting statistics. Some key highlights:
You can access the full report below or by clicking on the image opposite. ARLA PRS Report |
Source: Evening Standard Homes & Property Jan 2017
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22nd February 2017
London postcodes with the best rental yields. The Evening Standard Homes and Property Edition published an interesting table showing the postcodes in London with the best rental yields. See table opposite. 9 out of 14 of the areas listed are in East/South East London. |
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13th February 2017
Free article on the importance of a quality inventory. We have written a very useful article for Landlords, Agents and Tenants on the importance of getting a high quality inventory independently compiled for a property you are letting or about are about to let. Click the link below to download the article. 
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8th February 2017
Government Housing White Paper The Government have published their housing white paper. This sets out a broad range of reforms that government plans to introduce to help reform the housing market and increase the supply of new homes. Click on the link below or picture on the left to access the paper. Government Housing White Paper |
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3rd February 2017
Updated London Price Map Bloomberg have updated their London House Price Map with the latest statistics using Land Registry Data. Hover above each borough to see the price change in the last year. Click on the link below or picture on the left. London House Price Map |
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24th November 2016
Damp and Mould As the winter months become colder and we carry out check-out reports during this time of year it comes as no surprise that we continue to see evidence of mould and condensation prevalent in properties. This continues to cause issues when dealing with deposit deductions for Agents, Landlords and Tenants. Prevention is better than cure as we know so click below to see a useful guide that we have found. Damp and Mould Guide |
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10th October 2016
'Fair Wear and Tear' & 'Apportionment' What is 'Fair Wear and Tear'? We come across and have to address this all the time when conducting check out reports. The House of Lords defines fair wear and tear as “reasonable use of the premises by the tenant and the ordinary operation of natural forces”. The word ‘reasonable’ can be interpreted differently, depending on the type of property and who occupies it. In addition, it is an established legal principle that a landlord is not entitled to charge his tenants the full cost for having any part of his property, or any fixture or fitting “…put back to the condition it was at the start of the tenancy.” Some things to consider when assessing fair wear and tear;
By utilising this method makes it clearer for landlords and agents to make a reasonable assessment of damages. The tenant will also appreciate that a fair and clear process has been applied. |
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5th September 2016
NAEA/CEBR Report on 'Bricks' The Centre for Economics and Business Research have published a report on the impact of the shortage of 'Bricks' on the housing market. Key aspects from the report,
You can access the report by clicking the below link or picture opposite. Bricks Report |
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23rd August 2016
House Price Changes along London Night Tube Routes The Telegraph published an interesting interactive map showing the change in house prices along aspects where the night tube will operate in London. Click on the picture opposite or the link below to view the detail on the map. When you click on each circle you can see the average annual house price change for that area and the average house price. The size of the circle being representative of the price increase. What we feel this demonstrates is the ever increasing value that is being attributed by being close to a tube stop. This value subsequently appears be enhanced further as a result of the night tube. Interactive Map Link |
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16th August 2016
Changes in home ownership by UK area - Resolution Foundation
Click on the image opposite or the link below to get access to the full article. Changes in home ownership |
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05th July 2016
Post-Brexit property predictions after the vote. The Sunday Times published a useful table showing predictions for the property market from various experts. Click the picture opposite to see the views of experts on the property market before and after Brexit. |
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04th July 2016
Useful guide to tenancy deposits and disputes provided by Deposit Protection Scheme (DPS). Key points from this report.
You can access the full document by clicking the picture opposite or via the below link. DPS Guide |
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10th June 2016
RICS Predicts short term dip in house prices due to EU referendum uncertainty.
You can access the full article via the below link. RICS Short Term Dip in Prices |
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02nd June 2016
Government Private Rental Market summary statistics as at 19 May 2016.
Click the below link or picture opposite to access the full bulletin. Private Rented Market Statistics |
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24th May 2016
CEBR Report for NAEA and ARLA on Brexit The Centre for Economics and Business Research have published a report on the impact of Brexit on the property market. It reviews;
You can access the report by clinking on the picture opposite or via the below link. CEBR Report |
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16th May 2016
Bloomberg House Price Change Map and HMRC Lettings Guide Bloomberg have published an annual price change map for London on their website you can view this via the link below or click on the map opposite. This shows annual house price changes by borough and postal district as well as the median sales price. London House Price map HMRC have also published a useful lettings guide via their website, link below. HMRC Lettings Guide |
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10th May 2016
ARLA Latest Statistics on the Private Rented Sector Key findings from the report - March 16
ARLA March 16 PRS Report |
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3rd May 2016
CEBR & L&G Report on Parents Helping Children Finance Property The CEBR and L&G have published a report titled 'The Bank of Mum and Dad'. This report highlights the extent to which parents are lending money to their children to finance property purchases. Some highlights.
You can read the full report here by clicking the below link. Legal & General Report - The Bank of Mum and Dad |
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Deciding if the 3% Stamp Duty surcharge is payable.
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8th March 2016
3% Stamp Duty Surcharge on Second Homes The government has announced a new 3% surcharge on second homes from April 2016. There are certain cases where buyers of second homes may be exempt from this surcharge. Full details of this are given via the government published consultation document in the below link. Also see flow chart opposite. In particular if a buyer of a property is unable to sell their property quickly to proceed with a second purchase they still have a window of 18m to sell the first property and claim a refund of the 3% surcharge from HMRC. We thought this is very useful particularly for the completion of property chains where the buyer of a property feels they have to sell their property first before proceeding to purchase another property because of the 3% surcharge. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-higher-rates-of-stamp-duty-land-tax-sdlt-on-purchases-of-additional-residential-properties/higher-rates-of-stamp-duty-land-tax-sdlt-on-purchases-of-additional-residential-properties See section 2.9 Delay between sale of a previous main residence and purchase of a new one |
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22nd February 2016
Properties acquired by Landlords higher YoY compared to Jan 2015 Countrywide plc.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-18/u-k-landlords-rush-to-buy-homes-amid-bank-of-england-concerns |
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8th February 2016
Landlords forecast to sell 500,000 homes National Landlords Association - NLA In the NLA Landlord Quarterly Panel Survey for Q4 2015 RIchard Lambert the CEO of the NLA says that confidence in Landlords' business expectations had tumbled with a forecast that 500,000 homes will be sold off in the next 12m, followed by 100,000 for each of the next 5 years. The net effect being that the PRS will be smaller by 136,000 homes. He sights recent statements by the chancellor in 2015 which have led to this drop in confidence. You can read the full article by clicking on the link below. Landlords forecast to sell 500,000 homes |
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20th January 2016
Changes to Minimum Efficient Standards Department of Energy & Climate Change Key points from the proposal
You can read more about this via the below links. Government Response Official Statistics Release |
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5th January 2016
RICS Housing Update 2015 Highlights
The full report can be viewed from the RICS site via the link below. http://www.rics.org/uk/knowledge/market-analysis/market-forecast-updates/ |
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4th December 2015
Changes to Stamp Duty on BTL property We found a useful table recently showing the overall impact at different purchase levels of the changes to Stamp Duty on additional residential properties, such as second homes and buy-to-let properties from 1st April 2016. Below £500k the purchaser may pay upto 10x previous stamp duty levels. |
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2nd November 2015
Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm Legislation It has now been just over a month since new legislation (1st October 2015) has been introduced for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. In discussions with some clients there still appears to be some confusion as to these regulations, so we looked at the government issued guidelines for tenants and landlords to help demistify this. The key points taken directly from the guide are listed below to help.
You can access the full guide via the below link, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/464717/150929_SC_Explan_book_Annex_A_LandlordsTenants_REVISED.pdf |
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05th October 2015
The Telegraph published an article showing a 'Rent Underground' map of London created by Thrillist.com. This shows the average cost of renting a 1 bedroom flat per month within 1km of the tube stop. Click on the picture to the left to see a full size image. |
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21st August 2015
The Times presented an article today mentioning house prices are rising as new home numbers fall. Some key points. Demand for mortgages has hit a post-crash high as official figures revealed that the number of homes on which construction began fell by 14 per cent to 33,280 in the second quarter. There were 136,320 starts for the year to June. This was down 1 per cent on the year before and below the 240,000 homes that the industry believes is needed each year in order to start to address the housing crisis. New evidence has emerged that demand for homes has continued to grow amid record low mortgage rates and rising wages. Gross mortgage lending reached £22 billion in July. This was 9 per cent higher than June, 14 per cent higher than July last year and the highest figure since July 2008. The Council of Mortgage Lenders, which published the data, forecasted that lending would rise to £209 billion this year, up 3 per cent on 2014. That would be the highest annual mortgage lending figure for seven years. |
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30th July 2015
An interesting video from the Tenancy Deposit Scheme referencing not only the importance of having an inventory, but an inventory created with the right content to evidence dilapidations. |
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9th July 2015
Changes to Mortgage Tax relief for BTL Landlords In the budget speech on 8th July 2015 mortgage tax relief will be cut for BTL Landlords to 20% from 40 to 45%, this will be phased in gradually from 2017 in a hope to balance the interests of house buyers and BTL Landlords. As stated on the www.gov.uk website; "Currently, individual landlords can deduct their costs – including mortgage interest – from their profits before they pay tax, giving them an advantage over other home buyers. Wealthier landlords receive tax relief at 40% and 45%. This tax relief will be restricted to 20% for all individuals by April 2020." Additionally the 'fair wear and tear' allowance that can normally be used to offset gains will also be changed. A new system will be introduced that only allows tax relief when furnishings are replaced. "In addition, from April 2016, the ‘wear and tear allowance’, which allows landlords to reduce the tax they pay (regardless of whether they replace furnishings in their property) will also be replaced by a new system that only allows them to get tax relief when they replace furnishings." - www.gov.uk |