Search Results for: hmo
-
Latest property news
NALS agents to get free legal helpline and services
Agent members of the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) can now use a free legal helpline supplied by London and South of England legal firm Moore Blatch. NALS says the move is designed to help letting agents tackle the 145 Acts of Parliament, health and safety requirements and 100s of regulations that now apply to the private rental sector. Agents can access the legal helpline both on the phone or via email between 10am and 5pm Monday to Friday, and will be offered advice and support by Moore Blatch’s team of specialist landlord and tenant lawyers. As well as the helpline, NALS members will be able to use a full range of standard documents, an online service that automates Section 8 and Section 21 notices covering possession, eviction and debt recovery. There will also be a separate and what NALS describes as a ‘simple’ system that will enable agents to produce legally-enforceable notices, letters and court documents on a solicitor’s headed paper. “There’s no doubt it’s a challenging time for agents, and we want to be able to support our firms in every way possible,” says Isobel Thomson, chief executive of NALS (pictured). “The legal landscape is constantly changing and…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Big three portal traffic approaches 200 million visits a month
Both Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) and OnTheMarket have reported record traffic during January while Righmove appears to have stopped reporting its traffic entirely, although total portal traffic to the three sites is likely to be just under 200 million visits a month. But both ZPG and OnTheMarket have at least stopped throwing brickbats at each other and neither of their traffic reports mention each other, a change from recent times when both sides have questioned their competitor’s figures. ZPG says visits to its property sites Zoopla and Primelocation increased to a record of 53 million during January driven largely by mobile-based searches, which now constitute 72% of its traffic. The company also says the number of leads it generated increased by 73% year-on-year which, it says, are worth £50 million to its partner agents. “This is a great start to the year for both the business and the property market,” says Mark Goddard, MD of ZPG’s property division (pictured, left). “The numbers demonstrate that we continue to deliver incredible exposure, value and results for our partners.” OnTheMarket also had a record January, it says, receiving 11.2 million visits, an increase of 85% on the same month last year, when just…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Heavy regulation has been good for Scottish rental market
Heavy regulation of the Scottish rental market in recent years has been a good thing for all concerned, says housing charity Crisis Scotland. After a clamp down on landlords and agents over the past ten years which has included four pieces of legislation, Crisis Scotland claims that all the potential downsides claimed by agents and landlords have failed to materialise. This has included increased responsibilities for and regulation of landlords and agents including an end to ‘no fault’ tenancy terminations, a Repairing Standard to enforce minimum property quality, strict HMO legislation, landlord registration and a ban on letting fees. Neil Guy (pictured), policy and practice manager at the charity, says the legislation has not restricted the growth of Scotland’s privatge rented sector (PRS) over the past ten years and that it has expanded faster than England’s, according to Scottish government housing data. Agents generally agree that the market is robust; for example Fiona Hindshaw of Clyde Property last month said that the “the general consensus across the board in Scotland is that the lettings market [during the final quarter of 2016] demonstrated continued strength and growth when compared to the same period in 2015 and we expect to see this growth…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Zoopla-backed Landbay launches landlord mortgages
Peer-to-peer (P2P) buy-to-let mortgage lender Landbay has launched a new range of products for professional landlords that meet new tighter lending regulations set by the Prudential Regulation Authority that came into force in this week. These require rent to be 125% of mortgage payments at 5.5% APR and are yet another squeeze on the buy-to-let sector. The move by Landbay, which gained full FCA authorisation on 22 December last year after launching in April, comes after Zoopla invested a ‘six figure sum’ in the company. Zoopla also now promotes Landbay’s P2P offering via its ‘investment channel’ on Zoopla.co.uk. “The buy to let market is set to become more complex in 2017, as landlords face an increasingly intricate lending landscape and tighter regulation,” says Landbay’s Chief Lending Officer Paul Clampin (pictured). “It’s in such a context that borrowers and brokers need solutions that meet their changing needs, so these new products have been designed to do just that for the growing number of professional landlords.” Landbay was one of four ‘promising and innovative start-ups’ that Zoopla pumped £1m into during February last year. The other three include online mortgage adviser Trussle, property management softwre company Fixflo and housing data firm Property…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Minister gives £1.2bn starter homes scheme green light
A scheme outlined a year ago while David Cameron was still in power that enables first time buyers to purchase discounted starter homes has been given the green light by housing minister Gavin Barwell (pictured). He told Sky News yesterday that up to 500 brownfield sites within 30 local authorities will create up to 30,000 new homes during the current parliament, funded via a £1.2 billion Starter Homes Land Fund. The sites will include several town centres and, the government says, will support wider regeneration and growth of local areas. Barwell says construction will “start quickly” and that planning permission for the sites will be streamlined, simplified and therefore much less expensive than for normal developments, enabling the properties to be sold ‘at least’ 20% below market value. The homes will only be available to first time buyers between 23 and 40 years old and the scheme only applies to properties selling for a maximum of £250,000 outside London and £450,000 within the capital. Each of the 30 local authorities (see list below) has been selected because, the government believes, they can implement the new scheme the fastest. Authorities must now identify potential brownfield sites working in partnership with the…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Fees complaint to ASA highlights new ‘hybrid’ landlord
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) today published a complaint about Ace Relocations, a hybrid HMO landlord that offers professional renters in London rooms within shared properties and blocks of flats and calls itself a ‘house share company’. The complaint was about an advert that the company had place on Spareroom.com, which stated that all bills were included and a cleaner provided. The ASA considered that the advert was likely to have breached its advertising code because “it does not make it clear that the cleaner, and some other costs, are not included in the monthly rent despite the main claim made in the ad”, the ASA said. Ace Relocations agreed to amend both its current website listings and any future adverts, and the ASA file case was closed. What this highlights is the emerging world of hybrid-landlords-cum-property-managers like Ace Relocations. It offers agents and indirectly landlords the opportunity to rent properties outside the traditional tenancy model. Ace Relocations says it is ‘not an estate agent’. It rents properties directly from agents via a ‘commercial contract’ and then rents them to professional tenants. The company doesn’t describe itself as a landlord but, like one, collects the rent and holds the deposit while, like an…
Read More » -
Features
Why I don’t think Airbnb rentals are legal, reliable or safe
Demand for short-term residential lettings is rising, particularly in city centres, says Jeremy Leaf, but what are the risks for landlords?
Read More » -
Charity
Tayler and Fletcher’s 100 mile ride
Jessica Bates BSc and Edward Bagnall FRICS, colleagues at Tayler and Fletcher in Stow-on-the-Wold took part in the Ride London 100 mile sportive in July raising £5,000 for their nominated charities.
Read More » -
Latest property news
Brighton leads campaign to charge landlords business rates
Agents with landlord clients operating HMOs beware – Brighton and Hove Council is urging the government to treat them as enterprises and enable councils to charge business rates on their ‘premises’. The city’s Labour administration has just announced that it is preparing to write to the government to introduce such measures as it struggles to finance the policing of its huge HMO property market, which is driven largely by the city’s 30,00-strong student population. Business rates last year brought in in £2.7 billion for the government, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, which means the average charge was £1,516 for each of the UK’s 1.8 million eligible premises. According to Brighton and Hove’s Labour group a new levy would create a level taxation playing field for HMOs with hotels, self-catering holiday homes and short-term lets while helping to control the city’s vast HMO market of more than 15,000 properties. A Labour party spokesperson told The Evening Argus that the support of rival political parties in the area would be sought before presenting the proposals to central government. The chances of that happening look relatively slim, though. Conservative group leader Geoffrey Theobald believes landlords will pass the extra costs on to tenants,…
Read More » -
Features
Will resi rise?
Property investment doesn’t appear to be the safe house that it used to be, says Andrea Kirkby, but is it still a better bet than other options?
Read More »
