61 percent of UK landlords feel more confident about the buy-to-let sector for March 2010, compared to February. This is the major finding from Upad.co.uk’s latest Rental Confidence Index[1].

This figure is slightly higher than the result for the same poll conducted last month, which stood at 57 percent[2].

Survey respondents leaving comments stressed the increased positivity with the private rental sector, but continued to highlight issues such as student accommodation and Government funding. Statements included:

• “There are positive signs lending is returning to the market, which has been the biggest block in the past two years.”
• “Due to the University plans to build more Halls of Residence accommodation, there will be less demand for private rental accommodation.”
• “The industry needs to stop taking Government money and start lending sensibly again.”

For the 39 percent feeling less confident about the market, comments included:
• “There is still a lack of finance. What little bit of finance that is out there is too expensive and there are still too many bad debts and regulations.”
• “Worried about future interest rate rises.”

James Davis, founder and CEO of Upad, commented: “For the fourth consecutive month since we launched the Index, landlords have highlighted their growing confidence in the market.

“In the months to come, it will be interesting to monitor the lending capacity of the UK’s banks, and the impact this will have on the sector. Overall though, I feel that this month’s survey indicates the market is continuing to go from strength-to-strength.”

Upad.co.uk launched in October 2008, enabling landlords to advertise each property for a one-off cost of £59. The service then became available to the 1.5 million landlords across the UK in May 2009.

[1] Upad’s Rental Confidence Index – 6 March, 2010. 155 UK landlords questioned: ‘Are you more confident or less confident about the buy-to-let market than you were last month?’
[2] Finding for February 2010, compared to January 2010.

Nurses, teachers and a generation of young workers could be hit by a government plan to prohibit areas of shared housing for groups of unrelated tenants.

The legislation comes into force on 6 April when new powers will allow planning legislation to be used to control the renting of shared properties to people who are not families or related tenants.

“Landlords throughout the UK need to make their voices heard – urgently,” says Alan Ward, chairman of the Residential Landlords Association – whose members own over 100,000 private rented properties throughout the UK.

It will be the biggest mass landlord lobby of local MPs ever organised – with some 40,000 landlords receiving an email to contact their MPs, as well as the government, and make their protest heard.

“The government’s change to planning Use Classes Orders,” says Alan Ward, ”is bad not only for landlords but for the whole private rented sector not to mention the local economies that have traditionally grown around existing areas of shared housing.

“After 6 April planning permission will be needed if a landlord wants to rent what has been a family house or flat to three or more unrelated people such as nurses, students, young professionals, immigrant workers, a family with a lodger and even the elderly. It could wreck the private rented sector.

“And all because the Secretary of State, John Denham, will not listen to the combined voices of landlords, tenants, students, letting agents, local retailer organisations and bodies like the RLA, British Property Federation and National Union of Students – who are all against this.

“Everyone against this sorry attempt to use planning laws for social engineering purposes – to dictate who is allowed to live where – should make their voice heard by asking their local MP to oppose this very damaging and impractical proposal.

“The whole issue – often referred to as ‘studentification’ was stated in the government’s own commissioned ‘Rugg Report’, 17 months ago, to be a minor issued not requiring legislation. But, for some reason, the government has over-ruled this independent report and thinks it knows better.”

• The Residential Landlords Association is a leading national organisation with members owning over 100,000 properties in the UK’s professional private rented sector. The range of members’ services – on www.rla.org.uk – includes legal advice, insurance, financial services, credit referencing and training.

(London, 15/3/10)

For 8 years now, accommodationforstudents.com (afs), the UK’s No 1 student accommodation website, has been the premium online website for students to find accommodation and landlords to rent their properties. Now the company is further extending its service both to students and landlords and taking it to the streets!

accommodationforstudents.com is erecting 200 To Let boards outside key private landlord properties, mainly in the Fallowfield area of Manchester but extending as far afield as properties in Liverpool and Preston. Each board will have a unique property reference number that will take students directly to the full property and landlord contact details. Students can also reference these immediately via accommodationforstudents.com’s recently introduced iPhone App.

Simon Thompson, co-founder and director of accommodationforstudents.com, said:
“We are committed to giving our students and landlords the very best service and anything that makes it easier to identify and rent available properties can only be beneficial. Our new iPhone app means that students can even do this when they are out and about.

We are starting this new initiative regionally and with private landlords but we will extend it throughout the country and to our letting agency customers. Landlords and agents will even have the option of buying a board for regular use on their properties.”

The To-Let signs are a further extension of accommodationforstudents.com’s on-street presence. Its recently-introduced Landlord Pack, sent by post to landlords, features a property for rent window acetate, again with its unique property reference number providing full property and contact details. These are particularly relevant and popular in the many very strong student areas in major university cities.

Estate Agent Today – 8th March 2010

The ban suggested by the Government could come in as early as 2015. At the same time, EPCs would have to be shown on all letting adverts.

The plans are part of the Household Energy Management Strategy published last week by the Department of Energy and Climate Change. This sets out how homes will contribute towards a reduction in carbon use over the next decade.

Other proposals include a roll-out of ‘smart’ meters in every home, and RICS valuers having to take account of the energy efficiency of properties when making their valuations.

The document makes much of the fact that private rental stock is not nearly as energy efficient as social housing stock.

However, as the document itself says, this is because 40% of private rental stock is pre-1919, whereas social rental stock is much newer. Even so, private rental properties are acknowledged as being more energy-efficient that the average owner-occupied house.

Full Article

And with news last week of a national letting agent being taken to court for scamming landlords with unclear contracts and high management costs, a local property management company is taking a stand.

Base Lettings & Management, based on the High Street in Lincoln, supports the High Court ruling against Foxton’s Estate Agents, as it believes that landlords should have a clear and transparent understanding of their charges.

Jonathan Lee, managing director of Base Lettings & Management said: “It’s so important that landlords know exactly what to expect when entering into an agreement with a management company. Based on the latest census* figures, letting agents have been taking up to £200,000 per year in unethical practices. This is simply unacceptable.

“In our experience, contracts can often be complex and difficult to understand, especially for first time landlords, so we are offering a free drop-in contract comparison where current landlords can bring their contracts along, and we can highlight and explain exactly what certain terms and clauses mean. We’ll also beat their current management company fees.”

Particular clauses highlighted by the High Court ruling included landlord charges if tenants decide to buy the property or when tenants extend their contracts and extra charges if tenants chose to extend their initial agreements, even if they were no longer managing the property.

“Some of Foxton’s contractual clauses are completely unethical!” added Jonathan. “Particularly the fees incurred if the tenants decided to buy the property. I personally do not agree with this being written into any agreement. At the end of the day, the lettings agent will have introduced the tenant to the property with a view to them renting the house, not buying it. To then claim a fee is completely unreasonable.

“For longer term landlords, on average it is two years from signing the contract, before they look at their contracts again. So we are actively encouraging all landlords to dig out their contracts, go through them with a fine toothcomb or bring them to us to go through, so we can ensure they are still getting the best possible offer.”

To organise a contract comparison, please call 01522 842550, drop into 453 High Street, Lincoln or visit www.baseletting.co.uk

The seminar, held in response to an increasing number of calls received by Landlord Action from frustrated landlords regarding issues with Local Housing Allowance tenants, was the first in a series offering advice on how to get housing benefit rent paid quicker, protocol for managing claims, the role of the letting agent and the latest updates on Local Housing Allowance.

Paul Shamplina, Director and co-founder of Landlord Action was delighted with the numbers, commenting, “Although primarily attended by letting and managing agents and Housing Trust representatives, there were also a percentage of private landlords. For a first event, and with the subject being so specific, we tried to strike a balance between being informative whilst not overloading the delegates with unnecessary information and, from feedback received so far, we achieved just that.”

Paul was joined by experts Alan Elborough, who has previously held a senior position in a London local housing authority, and Jim McLaughlin who has held a senior position within the housing sector, both currently with Settled Housing Solutions and who were on hand to answer questions.

Delegate Sailesh Shingadia, Procurement Manager, Commercial Services for Notting Hill Housing found the seminar both educational and instructive, “although we already work with the new Local Housing Allowance regime, there were certain parts of the Local Housing Allowance workings which I was not fully aware of. The content of the day, together with the interaction and question answering session, was excellent and I will definitely be looking for the rest of my team to attend this course in the near future.”

Victoria Brewerton-Owen from Belvoir Lettings in Northampton agrees, “Dealing with Local Authorities can be confusing and time consuming so it’s useful to have the rules and regulations in black and white. This seminar would be beneficial to any landlords who are unsure of the process and benefits to the system.”

Future seminars are planned for 14th May at Crowne Plaza, Manchester City Centre; 11th June at Crowne Plaza, Birmingham NEC and 2nd July at Holiday Inn, London Kensington Forum.

Further information can be found on www.landlordaction.co.uk/LHA or by telephoning Landlord Action on 020 8906 3838.

Landlord Action is a UK based tenant eviction trouble shooting agency, focused on helping landlords with bad tenants, problem tenants and tenant evictions.

Landlord Action was set up by landlords for landlords, offering Landlords fixed fees to evict bad tenants nationwide, with a free advice line. Landlord Action have successfully evicted 15,000 bad tenants since the company started in 1999.

Paul Shamplina is co founder and co director of Landlord Action and has more than 20 years experience in the legal field, originally working as a clerk, private investigator, debt collector and certified bailiff. He has appeared regularly on TV and radio and travels the country speaking, giving advice and presenting “How to avoid a bad tenant” seminars. He believes passionately in the rights of the landlord and is always available for comment on any landlord/tenant related matters.

Landlord Action website www.landlordaction.co.uk free advice line 0800 856 7878 to landlords

The service allows landlords to access the buy-to-let mortgage finder which, based on a landlord’s personal circumstances, will search all of the available buy-to-let mortgage schemes from all leaders in the market, to find the best deal for them.

“We are always looking to develop new services that add value to our clients. With the launch of Martin & Co Mortgages we can now offer landlords one of the most comprehensive services in the industry.” commented Mark Burdge, Sales and Marketing Director.

“The mortgage finder is not just a marketing gimmick. Landlords can search all of the available deals and get full details of any scheme they wish. The mortgage finder will also tell you how much monthly income you have in surplus or shortfall with a particular scheme!” added Burdge.

“We are confident that the service will help landlords across the UK save time, and more importantly money. The service is completely free of charge and also has a free helpline, giving landlords access to our buy-to-let mortgage specialists, who will be happy to help.

We are not re-inventing buy-to-let mortgages, we’re just re-inventing how landlords search for them.” concluded Burdge.

Landlords wishing to access the buy-to-let mortgage service should visit www.martinco.com

PropertyTalkLive.co.uk – Thursday 4 March 2010

Garrington said it had witnessed a widening gap last month between “on the ground” market activity and quantitative data issued in reports which analyse historical trends.

Latest market data issued by Nationwide’s House Price Index reports a monthly fall of 1% in February, bringing nine months of consecutive growth to an end.

This reported fall in values comes days after the news that Gross Mortgage Lending declined to an estimated £9.1billion in January, a 32% fall from £13.4billion in December and a 21% fall from £11.5billion in January 2009, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

Garrington said it believed the fall could be explained by the spike in market activity in December, which in part was bolstered by purchasers wanting to complete their transactions before the end of the Stamp Duty holiday. A proportion of these transactions would have, under normal circumstances, rolled into January and Garrington said this factor, together with the adverse weather conditions, compounded the loss of momentum in the market in early 2010.

Despite this, the latest Land Registry data released in February (which covers all market transactions) reports that the annual house price movement continued to move in a positive direction standing annually at 5.2% during the reporting period up to the end of January.

Full Article

Claire McNeilly, BelfastTelegraph.co.uk – Thursday, 4 March 2010

Thousands of home owners in Northern Ireland are facing massive mortgage payment shortfalls, financial experts have warned. Some householders who took out endowment policies when they bought their properties could even be forced to sell up because of the stock market slump.

Analysts have said that older people who are no longer working and have limited savings may be forced out of their homes after the value of policies plummeted.

It is estimated that up to 10,000 endowment polices will mature in Northern Ireland between now and 2015, with a staggering 99% of those expected to miss their target maturity payout.

Joe Maxwell, financial adviser at Belfast firm Maxwell McKeown, said householders could be facing a mortgage time-bomb.

Full Article

PropertyWire.co.uk, Thursday, 04 March 2010

An explosion of grey hair has significant implications for the future of retirement properties in the UK and the wider residential real estate market, it is claimed.

Retired people form the country’s fastest growing demographic group and older households will represent half of all household growth between now and 2026, according to the Retirement Housing Report 2010 from consultants Knight Frank.

It points out that it is important the development, construction and care industries recognise the trend as thinking and practice in the UK retirement sector has long lagged behind innovation in Australia, Scandinavia, the US and New Zealand.

‘Retirement villages have been popular for decades in these countries. However in the UK, there are still relatively few implying there are strong prospects for growth as the concept becomes better understood,’ said Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank.

‘The growth in popularity of retirement villages stems, fairly obviously, from our increasingly ageing population and the growing assets its holds, but also from a growing tendency for older people to place a positive emphasis on the need for security, socialising opportunities and convenience. The need to release equity through a downsizing move may also impel a greater shift towards specialised retirement housing,’ he added.

In the UK, the majority of the over 65s, some 89%, live in mainstream housing. Just 6%, that is some 500,000 households, live in specialist retirement housing and 5%, 400,000, live in institutions for example residential care or nursing care accommodation.

Full Article