Recent Articles in Buy to let property checklists

Is it a miracle the property market is performing so well?
Apr 16, 2019

Standing back from all the uncertainty in the news and looking at the property market indices this month, it’s a miracle the market is still performing so well. And despite some worries and wobbles from London and the South East, and of course Aberdeen’s continued decline in both prices and rents, it’s good to see that Hometrack is reporting “All cities recording positive house price growth” up by 2.8% year on year. And there seems to be more good news on the way with London prices turning positive (+0.4%) after a poor few years.

Are volumes heading back to 2009 levels?
Mar 26, 2019

Normally in the property market, if volumes fall, then price falls will quickly follow. During the credit crunch we saw volumes slip back by 50%, on average, while property prices fell by around 20% - although some areas performed worse and others better. In some recent market presentations, I was surprised to see how far transactions had fallen back versus previous years and I even spotted that in some areas, based on Land Registry data comparing volumes from January to October 2009 versus 2018, some transactions had fallen back as far as levels experienced in 2009.

Property update from Philip Hammond's Spring Statement 2019
Mar 14, 2019

The Spring Statement from Philip Hammond wasn't the most exiting event of the day, but at least it was a rare bit of 'respite' away from the disaster that is now Brexit - or maybe not! Much of the statement repeats pledges and consultations on more changes to property taxation from previous budgets, but there is some news on where investment is going into areas such as Nottingham, Derby, Portsmouth, Southampton and the likes of Stoke on Trent. 

Will Brexit crash the property market?
Mar 8, 2019

I was the 'midnight expert' on  BBC's 5Live between Wednesday and Thursday with the fabulous Phil Williams and, as always, in between the sport and news updates we managed to chat about the property market - especially chatting about the impact of Brexit on today's and the future market. But  I also answered questions on shared ownership,  should first time buyers invest first, are lenders adding additional monies to your outgoings, is it better to buy a property with a mortgage or with cash, and genuinely hopefully pointing buyers, sellers, renters and investors in the right direction. 

Kate's comprehensive property price update for February 2019 - data from the UK house price index
Mar 7, 2019

Nearly all the indices are now heading to a ‘zero’ increase year on year, bar UK HPI which measures the market some months behind the rest. These figures would normally relate to ‘talk’ in the media of a house price crash, but as most of the reports point out, the market is surprisingly resilient considering the level of uncertainty, not just from Brexit but this month from a poor economic performance.