The tenant deposit scheme was introduced in 2006 much to annoyance of many property investors, buy to let landlords and letting agents.
The schemes key objective was to act as a neutral arbitrator for tenants deposits to stop unscrupulous landlords from unjustifiably withholding tenant?s deposits. The scheme has of course got costs and it is a legal obligation that any landlord or letting agent holding a deposit is a member or has an agreed insurance or other agreed policy in place to hold and deal with tenant?s deposits.
The scheme has recently announced a new fee structure which has many in the residential property sector up in arms. What many fail to realise is that what is bad for landlords, property and buy to let investors is invariably bad for tenants. These costs or a best a proportion of these costs will of course end up filtering through to rental increases for tenants. Given that many tenants are facing challenges meeting their current rent obligations many in the industry find the timing at best staggering.
Many Landlords, buy to let investors and letting agents set for further costs as tenant deposit scheme alters fee structure
January 23, 2010
Property development sites and building plots
January 22, 2010
The world of house building and property development sites is awakening from its slumbers, there is the sound of the first tentative footsteps from the speculative property development funders. Land agents are starting to dust themselves down and pick themselves up after some of the knock out blows that the down turn in the property market has caused them.
Property and land deals are starting to be put together with the usual collaborations and joint ventures from the banks and funding agencies with property developer?s builders and main contractors. Land agents are starting to enjoy their finder?s fees and the professional fees for architects, commercial surveyors, and conveyances are starting to flow. Many of the professionals within the property sector are looking to build back there reserves and to recruit new staff. The designers and estate agents are watching for the first signs of new build properties coming to market.
The many private investors and investment consortiums are starting to flex their muscles after a long and unwelcomed break. The banks and development funding agents along with auction and bridging finance houses are starting to talk to the secondary and tertiary lenders to see if property deals stack up.
There are design statements, feasibility studies, and development appraisals being written with bankers and lawyers starting to prepare joint venture and funding contracts, project meetings and property development negotiations taking place and soon there will be site clearances, demolition, and ground works taking place. The companies that complete the preliminaries, main contractors and sub contractors will start to see their contract managers and quantity surveyors busily preparing tenders documents. Soon there could even be builders building, is some normality returning to the property development and property sector?
Commercial property bought for cash
January 21, 2010
There have been some very high profile professionals from the property sector who have put their reputation on the line and predicted positive growth for 2010. There are also other positive signs with many of the clever fund managers predicting that there is no bubble. Could this now be the first signs of the property market returning to historic levels of sensible and steady positive capital growth?
So as always with investments once more and more investors have convinced themselves that now is the time and they are on to a good thing, the cash and funding will start to flow in and balance the recent high returns from the best performing property funds.
Cheap houses, rush of mortgage lending
The Council of Mortgage Lending has released its figures for gross mortgage lending for December 09 and they have taken many in the property sector by surprise. The figures showed an incredible 14% rise in mortgage lending for December, which is at best normally a poor month.
Many believe that property buyers, property traders, and buy to let investors have decided to buy in 09 to take advantage of the reduced stamp duty. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find anyone in the mortgage market who believes that 2010 will not out perform 2009. So it will be very interesting to see January?s figures and the future path of interest rates.
Cash for houses, rent for offices, and funding for investment, property market recovery?
January 20, 2010
The top of the UK property sector is prime London office rentals and the cream of the London office lets are the City and the west end. So it is always worth while watching what is happening at the top of the tree. Some analysts are expecting rents in prime London offices to rise 10% in total from 2009 levels to 2011. There have been very limited new developments in the city as tighter planning and tighter bank lending criteria have slowed the pace of new property developments.
The return of instructional investors to the UK commercial property investment market has forced some buyers to relax their purchase criteria, so they cannot make the demands for security they could 12 months ago. With many now confident there will be no double dip in this most established of institutional investments it does give further encouraging signals for the wider UK economy.
With the first tentative whispers of some UK banks lending for speculative property development and residential landlords with cash buying houses the property sector enters 2010 in much better condition than many experts had expected.
Making money from buy to let
Last year proved surprisingly profitable for many buy to let landlords, figures estimate that the average UK buy to let landlord enjoyed around 3% of capital growth to the value of their property, with a further 4.6% of rental yield after voids.
This will have helped absorb most of the losses of the previous year when they suffered a drop in capital values of their property investments.
Further good news for property investors and buy to let landlords is the reduction of the amount of tenants in arrears. Many believed as unemployment has risen and the economy has suffered challenges that many tenants would have fallen behind with their rents. The number of first time buyers trapped in rental property because of the banks stricter lending criteria has help landlords find better paying tenants. This has not only has a positive effect on arrears it has even lead to increased rental yields as the supply of rental property has struggled to keep pace. The number of tenants has risen and accidental landlords have sold out at the first sign of a housing market recovery, leaving market share for professional property investors.
Cash for land with planning permission
January 19, 2010
It is looking like the values of residential development sites could increase dramatically if they benefit from planning permission. There is fear amongst many in the house building industry that plans from both the conservative and labor governments could reduce the number of suitable building plots that are going through the planning system.
Many believe there are simply too many different groups and guidelines affecting the UK planning policy guidance notes. There seems to be a new spanner thrown in the works every few weeks, with many of the UK?s largest house builders and developers joining forces to oppose further complexities to the planning permissions systems.
With the property market showing some signs of recovery, house builders and property developers would usual have a high level of positivity. The challenges facing the property sector is the drought in speculative development funding and mezzanine funding. With the few property developers who are enjoying fluid funds deeply entrenched in various planning applications.
Will the private rented sector make up for the funding issues of Housing associations?
January 18, 2010
There is ever increasing concern that the number of available properties for households on lower incomes will be reduced as the funding crisis for Housing associations continued to cause concern.
Many Housing associations are using their limited resources to create shared ownership schemes but this leaves the most vulnerable families forced to look to the private rented sector for their housing requirements. Many Housing associations and private rented Landlords are facing funding challenges after surveyors have ?written down?, the value of their property portfolios.
Putting your ideas into action
Thanks to a small inheritance and the expiry of an insurance policy, you find yourself in the wonderful position of achieving your life-long ambition, that is, having a home built to your own specifications.
Having moved four times in the last twenty years, and always having to settle for second best (e.g. large lounge – small kitchen, or large kitchen -small bedrooms etc.) the thought that you could actually end up with exactly what you want is overwhelming.
You love the small town you live in and have many friends, so you do not want to move too far away. You spend weeks looking round the town for possible sites, without luck, So how do you go about it? After doing some research on the internet, you realise that there is a lot more to it then you first thought. On good advice, you contact a Property Developer. Research has told you that you need one that has a good Consultancy Service that will work with the client through every stage to ensure success of the development.
Their Property Acquisition Service should include liaising with legal advisors, market analysis, strategic planning, site surveys which could include flood risk, contamination and subsoil conditions, portfolio review and management and demographic/labour supply.
Their Disposals Service should offer negotiation of agreements between landowner and developer for the disposal of the potential development land and agreements for the disposal of land with existing planning permission and site assemblies.
All this seems a lot, but a good Property Developer will offer you this and a lot more. If your ideas prove a little more costly, then the Developer should have access to funding with a choice of terms to suit you.
Having consulted you through every stage of the development, when completed, your dream home will feel personal and extra special.
For Property Developers with years of experience and expertise contact Property Development and Investment Solutions who can help you with Property Acquisitions.
Cash for land
January 17, 2010
Some of the UK?s largest house builders are quietly refinancing to raise cash, and they want the cash to buy more land. This means that house builders, their backers and investors are confident that at least in the medium term residential land values will raise. Some commercial surveyors now believe that many residential development sites are undervalued. The world and values of speculative residential development sites has been greatly constrained by bank lending. Long gone are the heady days when some developments were mezzanine funded at 15% and banks lent without personnel guarantees on many speculative residential development schemes.
So where will the cash end up? Most probably in the hands of those whom are fortunate enough to hold the absolute title of freehold residential development sites in London and the south east. So the question for many involved in the midlands property sector is when the ?ripple effect? will, make its way up from London and the south east of England up to the Midlands?
