Could base rate stay at 0.5% until 2014?
26th July 2010
A leading economic forecaster today said UK interest rates will have to stay at their record low of 0.5% for much longer than currently expected. The Ernst & Young ITEM Club, which bases forecasts on the Treasury's model of the economy, says the Bank of England's base rate will remain on ...
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Can I blacklist tenant who won't pay?
21st July 2010
Every month my tenant has been one or two weeks late paying the rent and has now stopped paying altogether. WANT TO KNOW MORE?Are you paying enough rent? If you're confused by your finances and think the answer maybe of interest to a wider audience, ask our panel of experts: What is ...
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Record tenant demand outpaces supply
21st July 2010
 Rocketing demand for rental accommodation has prompted the UK’s largest letting agent to call for more incentives to encourage buy-to-let landlords to invest in the market. According to Countrywide, tenant demand is at a record high, with up to nine tenants competing for properties.   The 211 branches had 50,480 new tenants register ...
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Letting agents 'to see demand for rented property increase'
21st July 2010
 Letting agents and landlords could see rents rise over the coming months, as a drying up of available housing stock is being predicted.   According to landlord community LettingZone, more and more tenants will be looking for rental accommodation over the next five years.   Mark Garner, the site's managing director, stated that more ...
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Buying Rental Property To Let in 2010
21st July 2010
 Not so long ago it seemed just about everybody was jumping on the bandwagon, looking to make their fortune from property. Every time we turned on the television there was another program telling us what we should and shouldn’t do and how to get rich quick.   Then along came the banking ...
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Housing Association funding cuts 'could leave thousands homeless'
14th July 2010
 Cuts in government support for housing associations in England risks pushing them deeper into debt and enforced property sales, says Moody's in a post-Budget assessment of the social housing sector. But the agency has stopped short of downgrading the investment grade ratings on the 10 associations it covers because it feels ...
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Home sellers hit 3-year high
14th July 2010
 The number of home sellers has hit a three-year high, raising further fears that house prices are set for a fall. In the respected monthly survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, fears have been raised that sellers are outnumbering buyers. This is the reverse of last year, when a ...
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China's property market braced for 30pc drop
7th July 2010
 Standard Chartered has told clients to prepare for a fall in property prices of up to 30pc in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzen, and other large cities in China as the delayed effects of monetary tightening begin to bite. Please click here for full details. ...
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Mortgage fears erode housing market confidence
7th July 2010
 Concerns over mortgage finance are gnawing away at confidence in the UK housing market, according to Zoopla.co.uk. In a recent survey by the property website, 78% of respondents expected house prices to rise by the end of the year, down from 81% three moths ago. Please click here for full details. ...
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House builder Persimmon achieves 16% rise in sales
7th July 2010
 House builder, Persimmon, has reported a rise in sales during the six months to the end of June 2010, with legal completions increasing by over 16% compared with a year earlier, to 4,657. Since early May, private sales have slowed down, partly in line with seasonal trends and partly due to ...
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With the US trapped in depression, this really is starting to feel like 1932
7th July 2010
 The US workforce shrank by 652,000 in June, one of the sharpest contractions ever. The rate of hourly earnings fell 0.1pc. Wages are flirting with deflation. Please click here for full details. ...
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UK house price rebound grinds to a halt
2nd July 2010
 The recovery in Britain's housing market almost ground to a halt in June, with prices rising by just 0.1pc according to the latest figures from Nationwide. It took the average house price to £170,111 and was the smallest rise in prices since February. It followed a 0.5pc rise in May. The Royal ...
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Changes to Planning Use Laws
2nd July 2010
 So, what’s changed?  The Government has introduced a new specific Use Class for Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) into planning law, using the Housing Act 2004 definition.  From 6 April 2010 any residential property let to three or more unrelated sharers, forming two or more households, will be deemed to be an ...
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New LHA Rates Have Huge Implications for All Landlords
2nd July 2010
 .New Local Housing Allowance Rates and Landlords – How the New LHA Rates Have Huge Implications for All Landlords  The whole issue of the government’s reform of the levels of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates has raised a lot of heat on the various discussion forums. In some of these, private ...
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CGT: house price recovery will end, estate agents say
18th June 2010
 The recent recovery in house prices could be reversed if rates of capital gains tax are increased, leading members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors have warned. Some owners of second homes and buy-to-let investors could sell, while the proposed changes might deter many potential purchasers from investing in property, ...
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