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Recent Articles in Renting Property Checklists

Is the future bleak for renters? Sep 3, 2015: For a while now we have been hearing about ‘generation rent’ and the terrible time they are having. And it’s true that there are some areas where things are bleak at the moment, such as zones two and three in London where it’s pretty tough to find anything to rent for less than £1,000 a month for one person, meaning a cost of £12k in rent and another £5k a year in council tax, utility bills, insurance etc so total costs of £17k, quite hard to afford on a decent salary, but impossible to meet on £6.50 minimum wage. So anyone on this kind of wage is still going to have to spend around £6k a year just renting a room, or stay at home with mum and dad.

London Rental Standard and Property Expert Kate Faulkner work together to educate landlords Sep 3, 2015: The LRS is a great initiative to make sure landlords are well educated and keep up to date with the law in London. It is really important landlords and letting agents join and make sure they get accredited.

Kate Faulkner's London borough price analysis - data from Land Registry Sep 1, 2015

Each month we track the performance of each of the 32 London boroughs to establish:-

How are they performing this year versus last?
Is the growth/decline more or less than the long term average?
What and when was the highest house price growth ever?
How much did prices fall during the last recession?
Are current property values more or less than the 2007/08 peak?

Out of the 32 London boroughs, these tend to fall into five brackets ranging from properties between £250k-£300K to those above £1,000,000 (although this only includes Kensington and Chelsea).

Kate's top 3 stories - Should rural house prices be capped? Aug 20, 2015: Campaigners this week have said that radical action may be needed to help house prices in rural areas. The Telegraph writes that said campaigners warned that the lack of affordable housing in such areas will only continue to be a “prominent issue”. They also warn that city dwellers are buying up second homes in the countryside at inflated prices, thus leaving locals out in the cold.

Buy to let Analysis – how will the loss of mortgage relief affect your earnings? Aug 17, 2015: I have been working through the numbers to better understand how the impact of the BTL loss of tax relief will – or won’t affect buy to let investors. There is no doubt that some investors have seen some terrific returns from their property investment. But it’s also a risky investment and even hefty returns can be wiped out pretty fast. Most of the so called ‘property gurus’ I remember seeing on the circuit over the last 15 years have disappeared, or I am hearing stories of them being in trouble!