Search Results for: Tenant Fees Act
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Latest property news
Rents rise and stock shrinks as landlords sell up
ARLA Propertymark (Association of Residential Letting Agents) has just published its March Private Rented Sector (PRS) Report and with rising rents and increasing sales, it’s not all good news. In March, agents reported a rise in the number of landlords selling their buy-to-let (BTL) properties, with an average of four selling up per branch, compared to three in February. The last time the number of landlords selling their BTL rose above three per branch was in November last year, when the letting agent fees ban was announced. Rising rents are also a concern. The number of tenants negotiating rent reductions rose month on month in March – in February, 2.2 per cent of agents witnessed successful rent reductions, whereas in March, 3.6 per cent reported this happening. On the other hand, a quarter (25 per cent) of letting agents saw landlords increasing rents in March – a figure which has not changed since January. Year on year, this is down by seven percentage points. In March 2016 almost a third (32 per cent) of agents were seeing rent increases. Rental stock levels steady but demand rises The number of properties managed per member branch remained the same as the previous month, with…
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Rent inflation dilemma for landlords
Rents are rising at a slower pace than general inflation, the new HomeLet Rental Index reveals, leaving landlords who are facing higher costs with a dilemma.
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Features
Is Buy to Rent really the future of the rental sector?
Home ownership is stagnant, as more people now rent their homes. Paul Staley, Director, Private Rental Sector at SDL Group, looks at future housing options.
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Latest property news
Build to Rent scheme gets green light
Bristol City Council has approved a 255 unit Build to Rent (BTR) scheme, ‘ND7’, in Bristol city centre...
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Latest property news
Belvoir confident 3.3m EU nationals will stay after Brexit
Property franchise giant Belvoir says the EU referendum vote last year failed to impact its business, unlike many of its rivals. It also believes that the 3.3m EU nationals living in the UK will continue to have the same right to live and rent in the UK after Brexit as they do now, so there will be “no foreseeable reduction in the current level of demand for housing”. The comments came in Belvoir’s 2016 annual report published today, which also reveals that it is now the largest UK property franchise firm following its purchase of rival Northwood GB in June. “The Belvoir Group has not suffered any negative effects as a result of the EU referendum result,” the annual reports says. Started in 1995 and floated on AIM in 2012, Belvoir now has 302 branches within its network, 110 ahead of its nearest rival, Martin & Co. This includes a handful of corporate offices, 150-plus Belvoir franchisees plus the branches within its recent acquisitions. These have been Newton Fallowell in the East Midlands with 30 branches and Goodchilds in the West Midlands with 14 branches, both in 2015. Then last year Belvoir acquired Nortwhood GB with 87 outlets. This buying…
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Latest property news
Client Money Protection to be made compulsory for all letting agents, says review
Membership of a Client Money Protection scheme must be made compulsory for all letting agents in England, a government working group has concluded following more than six months of written and spoken evidence. This has included evidence from landlords, tenants and letting agents, as well as the various industry bodies including NALS, ARLA, NLA, RLA, RICS and UKALA. The working group, which has been led by Baroness Hayter and Lord Palmer (pictured, right), has revealed in its report that 85% of respondents were in favour of making Client Money Protection compulsory for letting agents, saying that it would help drive up standards across the sector. It also says that efforts to introduce transparency into the industry by making agents publish and highlight their fees and Client Money Protection (CMP) scheme membership, have not worked. Several high profile cases of agents misplacing or spending landlord and tenants funds have come to light during the group’s work, and although it agrees that most agents already have CMP is place, “some mostly small letting agents do not”, the report says. “We heard some quite heart-rending stories from bot tenants and landlords of the losses they incurred.” The introduction of a compulsory scheme is…
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Latest property news
Spring Budget 2017: stunned industry wonders where the property went
Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond delivered a Spring Budget 2017 totally devoid of any help for the UK’s struggling housing market. It also failed to lessen or backtrack on recent Stamp Duty hikes for landlords or the lettings fees ban. The only palpable good news for agents includes a mooted extra tax for digital-only businesses to level the playing fields with their high-street competitors – something for agents facing competition from online-only and hybrid ones. Corporation tax Other business benefits within the budget include a reduction of corporation tax from 19% to 17% by 2020 and that businesses with turnovers below the VAT threshold will be given a year’s grace before having to start quarterly digital reporting. Business rates But for the industry’s 20,000 branches, a much-hoped-for reform of the business rates system did not materialise as major hikes loom for many high-street operators. Instead, and in order to see off a potential Tory rebellion, the Chancellor announced a fighting fund of £435m to help soften the blow. This will include a £300m discretionary fund to be shared out by councils to businesses least able to take the rates hit. Hammond also pledged that no business losing its small…
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Latest property news
Hybrid agent ‘concept’ for build-to-rent sector is launched
More proof that the build-to-rent sector is establishing a significant foothold in the UK property market has come today with the launch of what is claimed to be new kind of hybrid property company. Two London-based firms, specialist block management company James Andrew Residential and new-build property management and lettings outfit LiFE Residential, have combined their expertise to create The PRS Partnership to manage one-owner apartment blocks. The two firms say their new partnership is the first to be created specifically to offer a one-stop-shop service for this market. Both companies say they already have 6,000 properties under management between them in the capital. Although The PRS Partnership claims it a new kind of company, several of the larger agents including Savills and CBRE offer block management services. Also, several specialist property management companies such as Trinity, which until now have managed estates for house builders and management companies, are active in this market. According to build-to-rent consultant Dustin Fjeld (pictured, left), there is a growing market for these kinds of companies. This is because he says, some of the larger US build-to-rent operators are already in the UK managing their own apartment blocks. “One company running these blocks will become a requirement for…
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Rental price inflation heads for zero
Rental price inflation fell to 0.7 per cent in January and is on target to fall below zero within months, the January HomeLet Rental Index reveals.
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Features
Fixing our broken housing market
The UK housing market has very grave issues, affordability, supply, location… we have a housing crisis and we need urgent action to confront those issues and resolve them. The Housing White Paper: ‘Fixing our broken housing market’ was published on 7th February, introduced in Parliament by the Communities Secretary, Sajid Javid. The response from the housing industry was, in the main, lukewarm.
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