Written By Em

Em Morley

Best Way to Prepare Your Property as a Landlord to Rent to Students

Published On: November 1, 2016 at 11:38 am

Tags: decor,interiors,rental property,student landlords,students,tenants

Renting property to students is a path trodden by many landlords for several reasons. Firstly, students tend to rent for the entire duration of their programme. This translates to constantly occupied property and consistent income for landlords. Secondly, there is a lower risk of rent default amongst students, as the norm is to include rent in calculated academic expenses for the year.

However, as much as renting your property to students might be profitable, only properties adequately prepared to cater to the student audience will be inhabited.

It doesn’t matter whether you are planning to rent your property to students for the first time, or you’ve had student tenants for decades and your property needs to be renovated, here are the best ways to prepare your property:

Provide white goods

You student tenants will prefer properties with items such as washing and drying machines, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners and others. Providing them with such items increases comfort and makes cleaning easy. In addition, this helps the students save the money they would have spent on cleaning and maintenance bill at the end of the year. Most students will ignore your property if they have to use a laundrette or go through the inconvenience of doing laundry at a friend’s house.

Embrace quality furnishings

Best Way to Prepare Your Property as a Landlord to Rent to Students

For the modern day student, shabby and chic no longer work. Your property will command more attention if it has higher quality finish. You should focus on providing simple, easy to clean and modern furnishing.

Look beyond installing the typical furniture (think bed, wardrobe and desks) and consider adding utensils and gadgets. Extras like flatscreen TVs are not out of place. They are now common in modern student accommodation, especially where rent is marketed as all-inclusive. These little extras will not eat deep into your income and can impact positively on the attractiveness of your property on property advert sites like The House Shop. You can also comfortably charge a little bit more on a monthly basis.

Consider providing free wifi

You can stay on top of your competitors by offering free wifi for your student tenants. Fast and cheap broadband is a big draw for tenants. The internet is more important than ever for modern day students. Saving them the hassle of finding their own internet service will surely impress most of them.

Stick to dark colours

It’s a good idea to choose darker paint colours for students, even though it is common knowledge that using neutral colours may appeal to the average tenant. You can avoid wear and tear while keeping your property looking clean and smart by using dark colours such as dark brown and grey.

Keep privacy in mind with layouts

In many student properties, the physical layout is very important. Even when students live in large groups, they do not want any compromise on privacy. This is why properties with separate suites and multiple bathrooms are more appealing. However, this shouldn’t rule out a well-furnished communal room for housemates to converge in. The room can be a recreation room or a standard large sized living room.

Incorporate electric instead of gas

As mentioned above, student life is a new experience for most of your target audience. Incorporating electric instead of gas into your property will reduce accidents that may occur with people cooking for the first time for example. Regardless of what the insurance policy looks like, you don’t want to hear about a fire incident at your property at any point.

Make the flooring easy to maintain

Wooden floors are regarded as the best option for the average tenants, but for students, it is not a practical option. Cheap and easy-maintain options such as linoleum will help you avoid expensive maintenance while reducing your initial spending. Do you have wooden flooring in the living areas already? Consider using lino in the bathroom and kitchen. These are two points that see the highest degrees of wear and tear, as they require regular cleaning.

Follow the above guidelines to help you prepare for your student tenants, keep you property fully rented at all times and keep maintenance costs at affordable levels.

House Price Growth Fuels Tenant Evictions, According to Generation Rent

Published On: November 1, 2016 at 10:27 am

Author: Em Morley

Categories: Property News

Tags: evictions,house price growth,house prices,rent arrears,Section 21

Recent house price growth of 10% has caused a 60% rise in private tenant evictions, according to lobby group Generation Rent.

The organisation is calling on the Government for greater protection for renters from no-fault evictions.

Private tenants in England are now 2.5 times more likely to be evicted without their landlord giving a reason than they were during the 2009 recession.

Link between house prices and evictions

The analysis found that when house prices started falling, the number of no-fault tenant evictions also dropped shortly afterwards, followed by rent prices. When house prices started rising again, the amount of no-fault evictions followed suit nine months later, having fallen by 44%, with rents picking up after that, having dropped by 1.3%.

Since 2010, evictions have tripled, according to the data. And tenants are not to blame, insists Generation Rent, as rent arrears have dropped over the same period.

David Adler, the Oxford University academic that conducted the study, attributes the findings to investor confidence. He explains that if house prices start rising, then landlords are more likely to decide to sell and evict their tenants. When prices are coming down, landlords are less likely to try and sell and more likely to retain their rent-paying tenants. As a consequence, rent levels experience downward pressure.

Tenant evictions

Private landlords can evict their tenants without needing to give a reason under section 21 of the Housing Act 1988. Tenants served with a valid section 21 notice have no defence, and often move out of their home within the two-month notice period, without the landlord taking further action.

House Price Growth Fuels Tenant Evictions, According to Generation Rent

The study compared data for accelerated evictions – the closest measure to the number of section 21 evictions that the Government publishes – with the Office for National Statistics’ house price index and index of private rental prices.

It found that both house prices and evictions began to drop in the first quarter (Q1) of 2008.

The rental index lagged behind, falling only in Q2 2009 – more than a year later. House prices then began their ascent first, in Q2 2009. Evictions then followed, picking up again in Q4 2009. Again, the rental index lagged behind, only bouncing back in Q3 2010.

Adler compared evictions and house prices at a local authority level over a ten-year period, uncovering a highly significant relationship between house price growth and tenant evictions. He concluded that a 10% increase in house prices fuels a 60% rise in tenant evictions on average.

The total number of accelerated evictions in 2015, 16,441, means that around 39 tenants in every 10,000 were evicted using the no-fault process, with all cases going through the courts. This compares to 4,963 cases in 2009 – around 15 tenants in every 10,000.

However, Generation Rent believes that many more tenants have moved out of their homes without going through the courts, knowing that they have no defence, but the Government does not record these figures. According to the group’s polling, one in four private tenants have experienced an unwanted move.

Are rent arrears the reason?

The organisation reports that landlords often claim to need section 21 powers in order to repossess properties when tenants are in rent arrears, as the official eviction process for these cases (section 8) is too slow.

It insists that this claim might be credible if accelerated evictions rose and fell in line with rent arrears rates. In fact, data from LSL Property Services dating back to 2009 shows that arrears were at the highest level during the recession, at 11% of all rent due, and dropped to less than 7% in 2015 – the reverse of accelerated evictions rates. Generation Rent therefore states that there is very little correlation between no-fault evictions and rent arrears.

It warns that the increase in no-fault evictions comes at a time when increasing numbers of families have no option but to rent in the private sector. According to the English Housing Survey, 1.5m private rental properties are home to children, or 36% of the sector.

Changes to the law

Generation Rent is calling on the Government to reform the private rental sector in order to give tenants better protection from evictions and greater stability in their homes, and encourage landlords who are committed to providing long-term homes.

By abolishing the section 21 eviction process, the group claims that the Government would encourage landlords who wished to sell to do so with their tenants in situ. It believes that should landlords have a genuine reason to repossess their property from a tenant, they must have appropriate grounds to do so and compensate the tenant.

The organisation estimates that three months’ rent would cover the cost of an unwanted move for a tenant. As a result of this proposed change to the law, tenants would enjoy indefinite tenancies and would still be able to move if their circumstances changed.

Adler comments on the study: “These findings demonstrate that house price inflation not only makes homeownership harder to access, but undermines tenants’ security in their current home. When house prices are low and the economy is performing poorly, landlords may not be able to find another tenant or a buyer, so they are forced to negotiate with existing tenants, and rents fall. When house prices are rising, evictions allow landlords to free up their property for sale or raise their rents to a new tenant, and rents then rise.”

The Director of Generation Rent, Betsy Dillner, adds: “A tenant can pay the rent on time every month and otherwise behave impeccably, and yet still be asked to leave with two months’ notice, with no appeal and no help. The influence that house prices have on the level of evictions utterly refutes any claim that tenants are adequately protected.

“If we gave landlords a limited number of grounds for eviction and required them to provide compensation, then many would be deterred from evicting their tenants, while unwanted moves that did happen would be less stressful for the tenant.”

She continues: “Private renting is the only option for growing numbers of families and people on ordinary incomes. By making it as easy as possible for a landlord to cash in their property, our outdated law is inviting hobbyists to house them, instead of professionals.

“As long as the Government prioritises the interests of amateur landlords, renters cannot expect a stable home.”

Landlords, does house price growth have an effect on how likely you are to evict a tenant? And what do you think of Generation Rent’s calls for section 21 to be abolished?

25% of properties sold in Q3 either a buy-to-let or second home

Published On: November 1, 2016 at 10:16 am

Author: Em Morley

Categories: Landlord News

Tags: Buy-to-Let,landlords,Stamp Duty

One in every four properties purchased in Britain during the third quarter of 2016 was a buy-to-let or ‘second’ property, according to the tax department.

The introduction of the 3% stamp duty surcharge on buy-to-let and additional properties during April has allowed figures to be published on this type of purchase for the first time.

Soaring stamp duty

Data published by HMRC indicated that some £670m in stamp duty has been raised since the changes.

Of the 235,000 property sales subject to stamp duty charges, some 56,100 were liable to the extra surcharge. These in turn brought in £440m in extra stamp duty.

The number of additional homes purchased in the second quarter of the year, straight after the surcharge, was lower than those recorded in the third.

25% of properties sold in Q3 either a buy-to-let or second home

Sales

Additionally, separate data from the Land Registry indicates that England and Wales, there were 95,300 residential and commercial property sales submitted for registration during September.

Of these, 70,237 were freehold and 11,497 were new builds. 552 properties over £1m were sold, of which, 313 were in London.

Terraced properties are still the most popular, with 26,050 sold during September. Semi-detached came next, with 24,615 sales. Detached recorded 22,763, and sales of flats and maisonettes hit 19,457.

The most expensive residential sale in September was for a semi-detached home in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea, for a cool £10,915,000.

At the other end of the scale, the cheapest transaction was for a flat in Liverpoo, which sold for £12,000.

Almost 40% of Stamp Duty Raised in Q3 Subject to 3% Surcharge

Published On: November 1, 2016 at 9:26 am

Author: Em Morley

Categories: Finance News

Tags: additional properties,buy-to-let landlords,property transactions,Stamp Duty

Almost 40% of the Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) raised in the last quarter (Q3) related to property transactions that were subject to the 3% surcharge for additional homes, according to recent data.

Almost 40% of Stamp Duty Raised in Q3 Subject to 3% Surcharge

Commenting on the Government’s statistics, London chartered accountants Blick Rothenberg claims that the figures prove that the introduction of the 3% surcharge was effectively a “back door” tax rise.

The Government’s quarterly Stamp Duty data, which was updated on Friday, shows that the additional 3% surcharge for buy-to-let landlords and second homeowners has collected an extra £670m for the Treasury since its introduction on 1^st April 2016.

The statistics also show that the Stamp Duty receipts for Q3 2016 are the highest for one quarter in the past eight years. Almost 40% (39.13%) of the Stamp Duty receipts collected during this period were subject to the 3% surcharge.

A partner at Blick Rothenberg, Nimesh Shah, says: “We are probably looking at the highest number of SDLT receipts ever for one quarter. But the fact that nearly 40% comes from property transactions which were subject to the 3% surcharge confirms our suspicions that the introduction of this measure was effectively an increase to SDLT rates by the back door.”

The Government made changes to the way Stamp Duty was calculated in December 2014, removing the cliff-edge method and replacing it with the current progressive rates system. Following the change, there was a significant reduction in Stamp Duty revenue, as buyers purchasing properties under £937,500 were better off under the new system. The Government was prepared for Stamp Duty receipts to decline, and projected that the new system would cost the Treasury £395m in 2014/15 and £760m in 2015/16.

Shah adds: “The introduction of the 3% surcharge from 1^st April 2016 rebalances that lost tax revenue from the earlier change, and the latest figures would confirm that it worked.”

Paul Haywood-Schiefer, Assistant Manager at Blick Rothenberg, also comments: “This is almost a 100% increase on the position in Q2 of 2016, where the sales of second or additional properties only amounted 21% of the total SDLT receipts. The likelihood is though that many of the sales of second or additional properties had been rushed through in March to beat the 3% rise.

“Whilst Q4 of 2015 and Q1 of 2016 saw 112,560 more residential sales than Q2 and Q3 of 2016 (689,720 to 577,160), the tax receipts collected were £477m less (£3,707m to £4,184m). It is clear that the additional 3% is making a difference.”

A Nightmare on Elm Street for UK Homeowners

Published On: October 31, 2016 at 11:49 am

Author: Em Morley

Categories: Property News

Tags: Halloween,house prices,property market,spooky property

According to a new study by online estate agent HouseSimple.com, living on Elm Street certainly seems to be a nightmare for UK homeowners!

The research, conducted ahead of Halloween, found that 57% of the 79 Elm Streets in the UK have experienced no property sales since last year. What’s more, when the agent delved a little deeper

A Nightmare on Elm Street for UK Homeowners

into the figures, it unearthed a chilling fact…

Over the past decade, there have been 666 property sales on the UK’s Elm Streets – eek! If that doesn’t make homeowners want to move house, we don’t know what would.

HouseSimple analysed the number of property sales on all Elm Streets in the UK over the last 12 months, five years and ten years. And it certainty seems that these homeowners are having a real nightmare of selling their properties!

One in ten Elm Streets seem to have been hit with the curse of sharing the same name as the 1984 slasher movie, as there have been no registered sales in ten years on Elm Streets in Manchester, Rossendale, Belfast, Glasgow, Ellesmere Port, Coatbridge, Birkenhead and London.

In addition, the average house price on Elm Streets across the UK, at £180,114, is almost a fifth (18%) lower than the UK average of £218,964. Are buyers spooked by the infamous name? Recent research uncovers the spookiest reasons that buyers have turned down a property: /spookiest-reasons-given-not-buying-home/

The CEO of HouseSimple.com, Alex Gosling, says: “It sounds like a horror movie sequel, but for hundreds of homeowners, the curse of Elm Street could actually be a grim reality. No sales since last Halloween on more than half of the 79 Elm Streets we found suggests there’s more going on than subsidence to scare buyers away. And we nearly leapt out of our skins when we discovered the number of sales on the UK’s Elm Streets in the past decade was the devil’s number – it’s enough to send a shiver down the spine.

“Fortunately, not everyone is spooked by Halloween, and with Elm Street prices below the UK average, I’m sure there are plenty of buyers who would snap up the chance to live on such an infamously-named street… they just wouldn’t want Mr. F Krueger living next door.”

Keep up to date with our spooky property stories this Halloween at: https://uk.pinterest.com/landlordnews/halloween-2016/

The UK’s Scariest Locations for Property Owners

Published On: October 31, 2016 at 10:22 am

Author: Em Morley

Categories: Property News

Tags: average house price,Halloween,homeowners,house prices

Although house prices in the UK have risen by an average of 7.22% over the year since last Halloween, online estate agent eMoov.co.uk has found the scariest locations for property owners, based on how values have plummeted over the past 12 months.

The research found that there were 19 parts of the UK where homeowners will have received a fright, with the value of their property falling since 31^st October 2015.

Of the scariest locations, ten can be found in England, five in Scotland and four in Wales.

England

The most frightening place to own a property in England is Teignbridge in Devon. Since last Halloween, the average house price in the area has dropped by a huge 18.22%, or more than £75,000!

The second scariest location for UK homeowners is Ryedale in North Yorkshire, with a fall of 6.32%, or over £18,000.

Hartlepool placed 6^th across the UK, with a decline of 3.48%, while West Somerset was in 7^th place, at 2.93%, Copeland in 9^th, at 1.72%, South Hams in 14^th, at 0.89%, and Bolsover in 16^th, at 0.62%. Last on the list was Eden in Cumbria, where prices fell by just 0.03%.

The UK’s Scariest Locations for Property Owners

London

Although property owners in the capital have experienced a relatively scare-free year, there are two boroughs that have recorded price decreases since last Halloween. Both Westminster and Camden have seen the average property value drop, by 5.06% and 4.15% respectively. They placed 3^rd and 4^th across the UK as a whole.

However, what’s even more worrying for homeowners in these boroughs is that house prices in London rose by 9.75% over the same timeframe.

Scotland

Aberdeen’s poor performing property market, as a result of the declining oil industry, continues to spook homeowners in the area, with the City of Aberdeen recording the largest decrease of all Scottish entries since last Halloween – the 5^th largest drop in the UK.

Prices in the area have fallen by 4.02% since October last year, in stark contrast to the rest of Scotland, which has seen prices rise by 4.40%.

Scotland also accounts for the 10^th, 11^th, 12^th and 13^th scariest locations in the UK, with Midlothian prices down by 1.35%, Western Isles by 1.25%, Argyle and Bute by 1.19%, and Edinburgh by 1.17%.

Wales

Spots in Wales account for the rest of the UK’s scariest locations for property owners, despite a nationwide increase in prices of 2.51%.

The Isle of Anglesey saw the great fall, of 2.90%.

Caerphilly, at -0.69%, Pembrokeshire, at -0.27%, and Denbighshire, at -0.22%, complete the 19 worst locations for house prices in the UK.

The Founder and CEO of eMoov, Russell Quirk, comments on the data: “Despite the current myth of a Brexit monster terrorising the UK housing market, recent surveys by the Council of Mortgage Lenders and a number of house price indices show that, for the large part, the market is in good health.

“Until Article 50 is triggered, this is likely to remain the case, and the Brexit monster remains an urban myth like the Boogey Man. Either that, or it’s David Cameron in a mask and he would have got away with it too if it wasn’t for those pesky market reports.”

But he adds: “However, these figures do show that despite one of the strongest property markets in the world, there are still areas across the nation being haunted by a fall in house prices. These homeowners will be in for a real shock when they realise they are one of a very small few that has seen their property depreciate since Halloween last year.”