The biggest reason for investing in property is to make good gains when we sell.  I doubt that anyone who buys property does so just for the sake of owning it.

Our agenda is to make big capital gains!

We know that if you buy a property, live in it as your main residence and then sell, no capital gains tax is due.

What people have started to do over the past few years is, rather than buying a property and renting it out, they buy a property, move into it themselves and let out their existing residence.  (more…)

Did you know that some of our European neighbours have longer term tenancies than here in the UK?

Well, France for example, the longer term tenancy is a well proven and widely used option for tenants.
Now there have been increasing demands in the UK too for the introduction of more long term tenancy agreements which are commonplace elsewhere in Europe.

Mike Goddard, the chief executive of Belvoir (UK letting agent), the UK’s largest specialist agency was explaining on the BBC2 Money Programme that how tenants and landlords could benefit from the security of long-term tenure. (more…)

OK, the news that seems to be hitting the property and landlord magazines is that in some places rents have stalled but in many places they are now on their way down. It gets even gloomier with forecasts that rents could drop next year with the ever increasing number of properties that can’t be sold coming on to the market.

So given that cashflow is still landlords number one issue, (and will be for a good while yet) what else can we do to help improve it?

Well, one thing for sure it to start scrutinising all your property related costs and really ask yourself the question ‘Do I really need to be incurring this cost for my property business’? (more…)

As I have pointed out in other blogs recently, more and more people are deciding to let out property because they are struggling to sell it or in some cases are not prepared to sell at heavily discounted prices. 

Amidst this changing trend, more experienced landlords and investors are calling on these novice landlords to take a good look at the financial implications and landlord obligations before they become a landlord overnight.

For instance not many new landlords know that if the property is still has a residential mortgage, then they will find that under the terms of this agreement they are not allowed to rent the property out. (more…)

Amidst all the economic doom and gloom, Chief investment officer of ING, Ian Whittock, told the 124 attendees at their annual investor seminar that the current property markets represented the investment ‘opportunity of the decade’ (source: property week).

During the seminar he went on to say that though on the surface things may not seem all that good for the housing market, there was less risk in the market now than there was 18 months ago. He is of the opinion that if you are sitting on cash reserves, then there is a brilliant opportunity waiting if one can be bold. (more…)

It always surprises me how people think that if their cashflow is not stacking up then the first thing they need to do is to look to increase rents. Normally when this approach is blindly taken it leads to more harm being done as the property then takes even longer to let.

You cannot just increase the rent if your property cash flow doesn’t stack up. You need to look closely at what YOUR property market is doing. By this I mean you need to assess properly how the property you are letting is bearing up in the current market in your area. For example, if you are letting out an apartment and the market is saturated in your local area then you would be crazy to increase the rents for this property.
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One month of lost rental income can knock your property cash flow and profitability for SIX! Minimising the void periods is essential if you want to maximise your property cash flow. There are three common instances when you are most likely to experience void periods:

a) when a property has first been purchased and is getting ready for let
b) when your current tenants are moving out and new tenants are due to move in i.e. between lets
c) in the quietest months i.e. summer holidays and Christmas time (more…)

If you are a self managing landlord then nothing is more irritating than tenants not turning up for a property viewing. After all, we are busy people and the last thing we need is a tenant who doesn’t turn up.

No doubt we have all been in the situation where we have arranged to meet a tenant at a certain time during the day, only to find that 15 minutes after the agreed time the tenant has still not arrived - how annoying! (more…)

A survey by The Deposit Protection Service (DPS) claims that a majority of tenants get on well with their residential landlord.

As I strongly believe – property is a people business and there is nobody more important to our property business than our tenants!

About 84 percent of tenants have a ‘harmonious’ relationship with their landlord and a quarter of these went on to call it a ‘fantastic’ relationship. Just 16 percent of those who completed the survey were not happy with their landlord relationship. (more…)

In the last blog I talked about typical costs you can offset to reduce your property tax liability that often get overlooked by us.

As you are aware, as landlords we are responsible for maintaining the property. Therefore, any property maintenance related costs can also be offset against our rental income. (more…)