Most experienced landlords are well aware of the statement made in the headline of my blog. Sometimes, however, it is easy to forget that especially in more difficult times. It is worth restating it so that we can all strengthen our resolve.

This week it was Mike Goddard, CEO of Belvoir, one of the UK’s biggest specialist lettings agencies, who chimed in with a timely reminder.

His statement was closely linked to yesterday’s topic the hot rumours of huge rises in capital gains tax. Mr Goddard preaches caution and patience as the sensible reaction the talk of the CGT hikes. In part this is what he had to say

“At present I don’t think we need to view the situation with the rental market as all doom and gloom, particularly for those investors who are in this business for the long haul. I strongly advise potential investors to always seek the advice of a specialist lettings agent who is able to provide realistic and unbiased advice about rental yields.”

This seems like sage advice and I believe that most landlords will have been thinking in these terms anyway. At the risk of stating the obvious capital gains tax only applies if you sell.

A report this week has indicated that house prices will be on the up an up for the whole of this year.

The indices published by nationwide show that property prices rose by a full one percent last month. The reasons are simple ones of supply and demand. Properties are in scarce supply and high demand in most parts of the country. Sending the price steadily higher. Nationwide predicted a stabilizing of prices through the coming months but also that movement even minor should all be upward.  Meanwhile, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) has also claimed that prices are set to grow a further five per cent over the course of the year.

For sure this means that those expanding their property portfolio will have to have deeper pockets to make a purchase but there is also a very bright side.

All of us landlords like to see the overall value of our investment increasing. We understand that we are in this for the long haul but in the end we love to see our money growing. Most landlords will be thrilled with Nationwide’s prediction.

In contradiction to what many experts have been saying there was an article on a popular property site this week that suggested that those who had predicted a tenant boom were being proven wrong.

This article took the attitude that the predictions pf plentiful supply of people wanting to rent had already proven false. It said that what was happening instead was that people were staying at home with parents much longer than we had ever seen before. This is in an effort to avoid having to make purchase in difficult times. The article goes even further and states that also very common is the situation where people who were already renting return home as the cost becomes prohibitive.

I am certainly not going to argue that none of this is happening. Clearly there is an element in today’s society. Many of us have long ago accepted that we will have our children on our hands much longer than we had anticipated. However, I think these young or youngish people who are unattached without families, in the main, are the tip of the housing iceberg.

I think this call is far too premature. I am still thinking that a tenant boom is on the cards if not a housing crisis.

Void periods are dreaded by all landlords. It is part of the nature of the business that occasionally you are going to suffer them but if they drag on and get out of hand they have the potential to seriously damage your financial position. It is with a great sense of relief that landlords greeted the news this week that figures show that average void periods are slowly improving in the UK.

There is no call yet to get too excited as void periods are still higher than we would like but are improving. The numbers for the national landlord’s association are encouraging. In March 2010 around 52% of landlords had experienced voids in the previous 12 month period, down from 55% in the last three months of 2009. There was also a fall in the average duration of voids from 19 days to 17 days.This is all good stuff and we can only hope that the trends continue. All signs seem to indicate that it will with many still claiming strongly that housing is going to become a scarce commodity in the near future. Of course none of us want to see a crisis but enough people to fill our properties would be great.