Category Archives: Property Market

Understanding a Buy-to-Let Mortgage

 
Understanding a Buy-to-Let Mortgage – With generation rent well and truly here those who have some money and want to invest may be looking to the property market. However, if you have never thought about it before it can be a little daunting knowing where to start, so here is a guide to a better understanding of what a buy to let mortgage is. At least then that is one less thing you have to worry about.
First things first, with the competition high for rental […]

Legal for Landlords: know your rights

Legal for Landlords: know your rights
Landlords often fail to protect their legal rights properly. Many see housing law as being there mainly to protect tenants. It should be used to protect landlords too.
The law can be complex. And when you have a long to-do list to deal with, it’s easy to push understanding the law to the bottom of it. We’ve covered landlords’ legal responsibilities recently. Now we’ve put together this list of the basics to help landlords know their rights.

Landlords and Mortgages

Landlords and Mortgages
Over the past few months there have been numerous news stories regarding the Bank of Ireland and how they have implemented massive interest rate increases for the majority of their tracker and variable mortgages. We have also heard that some landlords are starting to struggle when it comes to interest only mortgages, as many have failed to budget in order to pay back the loan once the interest only term is over. So here we look at the importance of mortgages for landlords […]

Lowering your buy-to-let risk

buy-to-let risk – When you buy a new rental property, you take a risk. Markets can fall as well as rise, mortgage interest rates change, renters are not always who you think they are. There are risks all along the rental property journey.
But there is much that you can do to reduce the risks of buy-to-let, and increase your chances of making a great investment. Here’s what you need to think about:

Funding for Lending: a landlord’s guide

The Bank of England’s Funding for Lending scheme provides cheaper loans to households and businesses. It was launched last August, with the intention of boosting the economy by giving people access to affordable loans. That has been in short supply since the credit crisis of 2008.
The scheme gives banks financial incentives for lending to small businesses. In many cases, it has also allowed them to drop their mortgage rates. Buy-to-let landlords have already benefitted in this way. Now, the £80 billion scheme is to be […]

A Century of Change for the UK housing market

UK housing market – Home ownership has fallen for the first time in almost a century according to the Office of National Statistics, who has recently published a report based on information gathered during the 2011 Census.
In 1918, three-quarters of Britons rented. Home ownership was the preserve of the wealthy few. After the Second World War, the percentage of people owning their homes started to steadily increase. Rising wages meant that home ownership started to become something that many more could aspire to. By 1971, […]

Landlord and Private Rented Sector Update

It’s been an extremely busy couple of weeks when it comes to landlords and the private rented sector, and here at PropertyQuoteDirect we believe that in order to be a great landlord you need to stay well informed! However, we also know that many of you simply don’t have the time to trawl through the internet all day, so here is our pick of the most important changes in the private rented sector that every landlord should know.

Hit the beach…

Landlords should invest in Britain’s coastal beach cities for the best returns. That’s according to new figures from HSBC.
Coastal cities often have plenty of cheap property. At the same time, rents are often relatively high. This may be because they often have young and transient populations who are keen to rent, but not to buy.

Letting an ex-council home

According to research by the GMB Union, 40% of ex-council properties in the London Borough of Wandsworth are now owned by private landlords. Figures for the rest of the country are likely to be similar, especially in urban areas.

Landlords and the Green Deal

Pressure is starting to mount on landlords to ‘green’ their properties. Those who fail to make their properties energy efficient may find that they will not be allowed to let their properties out at all in the future. The introduction of Energy Performance Certificates already means that leaky, costly-to-run properties may be hard to let. But, despite this, many landlords are still failing to take advantage of government help to get their properties up-to-date.