Agencies & People
News covering the businesses, activities, people and personalities in estate agency and letting agency and wider residential property industry.
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Mandatory three-year tenancies questioned by leading lettings agent
The UK’s largest lettings agency Belvoir has set itself against all the mainstream political party manifestos and the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) by questioning the need for mandatory three-year tenancies. The Conservative Party seeks to “encourage landlords to offer longer tenancies as standard” while Labour goes much further, saying it will “make three-year tenancies the norm with an inflation cap on rent rises”. The Liberal Democrats advocate “longer tenancies of three years or more with an inflation-linked annual rent increase built in to give tenants security”. But Belvoir’s latest lettings index shows that 43% of tenants who rent through its branches stay for between 13-18 months, 29% for between 19-24 months and only 18.2% for more than two years. ‘Question the need’ “Looking at the manifestos of all political parties it would seem that all are looking to introduce three-year mandatory tenancy agreements although [our] figures question the need for this as our tenants can already rent with confidence, and most opt to leave when they wish to do so,” Belvoir says. But not all landlords agree with Belvoir’s point of view. As we reported last week, one of London’s largest Build to Rent landlords recently scrapped deposits…
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Govt lettings squeeze drives up rents as landlords exit
The number of properties available to rent has fallen and prices are rising as the government’s recent Stamp Duty and tax allowance changes take their toll on the the lettings market, says franchise giant Belvoir. “Belvoir’s Q1 rental index, which is prepared for us by property expert Kate Faulkner, has identified some interesting trends, which we believe are a direct result of recent changes to BTL legislation,” says Belvoir’s Chief Operating Officer, Dorian Gonsalves. This includes that the number of landlords bringing between six and ten properties to the market has declined while the number of landlords bringing up to three properties to market remained static. Dorian says the reasons for this include additional Stamp Duty for buy-to-let property buyers and the radical changes to the way mortgage interest tax relief is calculated, which has reduced or cancelled out profits for many landlords. Lettings To counter these measures, Belvoir says, landlords are seeking the highest rental prices for their properties and driving up rents across the UK which have risen year-on-year by 5.75%. “Since 2008 [when Belvoir began its index] rents have moved broadly in line with wages and large movements over and above +/-5% rarely happen,” says Belvoir’s Chief…
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Purplebricks shares jump by £45m in one day
Purplebricks shares rose by 4.32% or £45.8 million yesterday during trading on London’s AIM, valuing the hybrid estate agency at £1.11 billion. At the end of trading, Purplebricks shares price stood at £4.10p, nearly four times its price in mid-November last year and the highest it has been to date – a year ago they were trading at just £1.37p each. This means the company, which recently launched a new tranche of ‘commisery’ TV adverts, is now valued at nearly three times the market capitalisation of Countrywide, and almost as much as Savills although it still has some way to go before it reaches ZPG (£1.63 billion) or Righmove (£4 billion). Belvoir Lettings also saw its share price rise yesterday, by 2.34% to £1.06p but Countrywide’s share price dropped by nearly 3%. Encouraging results Purplebricks’ most recent trading statement on the 4th may saw its share price rise by 2% on the back of good news from its UK operation including instruction growth of 83%, and “encouraging” results from its fledgling Australian operation. At the time leading investment advice website Motley Fool pondered whether its then share price of £3.22p could ever reach £4, surmising that “Purplebricks could quite conceivably…
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New office for Douglas & Simmons
MPL Interiors completely refurbished the premises, with a contemporary front-of-house and a more quirky, individual back office...
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Maguire Jackson brings online to Birmingham
Maguire Jackson has launched an online residential sales service designed for Birmingham homeowners to combine the cost advantages of national online agents with the benefit of local market knowledge and offices.
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Moore Allen and Innocent’s £1m half hour
Charlcutt Barn near Calne was one of the highlights of an auction in Cirencester on 30th March, when nearly £1 million worth of property was sold in under 30 minutes by auctioneer Roy Bowyer of Moore Allen & Innocent.
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Watch out for increased high street agent fees following ban, Upad tells landlords
Online letting agent Upad has warned landlords to watch out for traditional high street agents who increase their fees to them in a bid to recoup lost revenues following the fees ban. “Landlords should look at ways to negotiate with their letting agent and be vigilant to agents trying to increase their commission or other fees, as they look to flesh out their profits following the ban on tenancy fees,” he says. The warning comes from Upad’s CEO James Davis (pictured, left), whose company has also published research today that shows a fifth of all landlords are likely to increase their rents to recoup the extra taxation they will have to pay this year as the new Section 24 rules kick in. The National Landlords Association has already highlighted how over half of all landlords will be pushed into a higher tax rate by the new rules. These rules, the first wave of which were introduced on April 6th this year, reduce the tax allowances landlords have been enjoying. The research also calculated that 13% more of landlords’ profits will not be taxed over the next 12 months as the new rules take effect. How much relief landlords can claim…
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Letting agent sentenced to 26 months in prison following £92,000 fraud
A letting agent who ran a franchised branch closed down in 2015 after police were called in to investigate financial irregularities at the business has been jailed for 26 months for theft and fraud. He has also been disqualified from being a company director for five years. Thirty-six-year-old Peter Bell (pictured, left) was jailed at Northampton Crown Court earlier this week after pleading guilty to 11 counts of theft and four counts of fraud while running his branch of Enfields in Northampton on Mercer’s Row. His letting agent branch of the franchise network was closed overnight in August 2015 after Enfields directors were informed of a complaint against the business to police in Northampton. It subsequently transpired that there was a £92,000 gap in the branch’s finances which he had defrauded from an “untold” number of tenants and landlords across the city. During the investigation it also transpired that Bell and his former partner Rebecca Kirton had used tenant deposits and landlords’ rent to finance a luxurious lifestyle including an expensive rental property, leased luxury cars and holidays, including a trip to watch the Monaco Grand Prix. Kirton was also sentenced by the judge after she pleaded guilty to five…
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Belvoir results reveal 19% revenue boost from Northwood purchase
Latest financial results from Belvoir, the UK’s largest franchise network, reveal that its recent acquisition of rival Northwood helped it boost group revenue by 19% during the first quarter of its financial year. Revenue from its franchise fees increased by 5% including an 8% rise in lettings fees but a drop in sales fees of 4% when compared to the same period last year. This, the company says, was caused mainly by the rush by investors and prime property owners to complete before last year’s Stamp Duty tax deadlines. Newton Fallowell This year-on-year reduction was more pronounce within its 31-branch East of England brand Newton Fallowell where the sales fall-off was 13%. But for investors, the galloping speed at which the Belvoir group is growing overall helped mitigate these sales reductions – Belvoir says its growth in sales was 33% as its rolls out sales across the UK. Revenue at Belvoir increased by £700,000 driven mainly by the Northwood acquisition although the franchising of six formerly corporate-owned offices has cost £200,000. “The Group has seen a healthy start to 201,” says Chairman and CEO Mike Goddard. “The Board has been working closely with franchisees providing the support they need to…
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Belvoir reported for ‘misleading’ tenant fees
Belvoir, one of the UK’s largest agency franchise operators, has been reported to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) by a prospective tenant for not displaying its fees fully. The member of the pubic complained about the ‘tenant fees’ section of the company’s website, which they said did not include full details of the extra inventory fees and check-out fees it charges tenants, and that therefore it was misleading. “We contacted the advertiser who agreed to add the missing fees,” the ASA says. It is not clear whether the ASA received a complaint about the company’s main national site or one of the individual branch fee pages. Prospective tenants But many of the company’s franchisees now run copy warning prospective tenants that “due to the recent ASA ruling regarding tenant fees, please find below a full list of charges which may apply to a tenant by Belvoir”. These include its Newcastle Central, Wigan, Wellingborough, Wirral, Birmingham Central, Coventry Central, Camberley, London Central, Sleaford, Harrogate and Portsmouth branches. Belvoir has 150 branches across the UK including a head office in Grantham, where the business was started in 1995. The company also acquired rival Northwood, at the time the largest remaining independent lettings…
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