Property Management Software

Theresa May has effectively torn up the Conservative Party Manifesto in the 2017 Queen’s Speech. Previous high-profile bills, including policies on fox hunting, scrapping school dinners, and grammar schools, were excluded from the Queen’s Speech, but the Draft Tenant’s Fees Bill has made its way in.

The New Tenant’s Fees Bill introduced in Queen’s Speech
The new Tenant’s Fees Bill is designed to introduce “fairness and transparency in the housing market”. The proposal to ban letting agent fees was first mentioned in Philip Hammond’s Autumn Statement last year, but now landlords are also being prevented Read more…

Research carried out by a property investment marketplace has discovered that a new north-south divide has opened up in the UK, with landlords in the north of England enjoying far better returns than landlords in the south.

Property Hot Spots
All ten of the top buy to let hotspots are in the north. Stoke-on-Trent is top of the list with a magic combination of cheap house prices, low local salaries, and good rental returns. The average property in Stoke-on-Trent is only £117k, so all you need is a £29k deposit to buy a property on a 75% LTV mortgage. With an annual rental yield of 5.67%, this makes Stoke very attractive. Read more…

A Scottish landlord is taking Dundee Council to court over a row about rates on his properties. He says the council owes him more than £100k after they repeatedly billed him for rates that were not due. The landlord has described the council as “incompetent”. Graham Bradley told the local press that he has been forced to sue the council after repeated attempts to sort out the problem have come to nothing. Read more…

There is a lot of interest in landlords right now. The government seems determined to make it harder to be a profitable landlord and on the whole, the general public assume landlords are often rogues, out to take advantage of vulnerable tenants.

A new BBC TV documentary series is interested in exploring the life of a professional landlord. Producers are looking for experienced landlords and property investors with 10 or more properties. You need to be successful and at the top of your game to be in with a chance of TV fame.
Read more…

Lord Flight, the former Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury has criticised George Osborne’s private rental sector policies.

Government Legislation
When George Osborne was Chancellor, he introduced a number of policies designed to dampen down enthusiasm for investing in buy to let properties.  These policies were widely described as a ‘tax grab’ by the government. His justification was that landlords were pushing up house prices, which in turn was making it more difficult for first-time buyers to get a foothold on the property ladder. Read more…