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Draft Tenant Fees Bill The government has been talking about banning tenant’s fees since the end of 2016, and they have now finally published their draft bill. We had fully expected the Bill to follow very closely the ban that was introduced in Scotland in 2012, and this is largely the case. It will however, put further requirements on letting agents and landlords, which were also expected.   What tenant fees will be banned? The only fees a landlord or letting agent will be permitted to charge to are tenant are as follows: ·          Rent ·          A refundable tenancy deposit, but capped to six weeks' rent ·          A refundable holding deposit, but capped to 1 week's rent ·          Tenant default fees defined in the tenancy agreement (lost keys, late payment of rent etc.)   The...

Interest Rates At the end of October, the Bank of England increased interest rates by 0.25% to 0.5% for the first time since July 2007. Many of today's property owners will not have experienced a rate increase during their history of property ownership, but I, like many others, remember my mortgage rate reaching 17% in 1989! So, what does this increase mean for Basingstoke's mortgage holders? Despite some alarmist headlines in the press, the impact for most mortgage holders is modest. Today, the average outstanding mortgage balance is £89,000, so the increase in interest on this amount for the average mortgage holder is around £10-£12 per month. If you extrapolate using a mortgage calculator to the average purchase price of around £300,000, the increase would be around £35 per month in interest on an outstanding balance of £300,000. So, on the face of it, manageable for most people. The big question is, is this just an adjustment, or the start of a period of rate i...

A chance to buy a Freehold property which was converted in 2012 to four individual apartments. Each of the apartments is rented and provides a rental income of £2650 per month so a yield of 5.8%. The property is producing income from day 1 and this is a rare chance to add to or start building a property portfolio.  Here is the link https://www.martinco.com/property/for-sale/319968

Earlier this week, Jeremy Corbyn used his leader’s speech at this week’s Labour conference in Brighton, to commit the party to introduce rent controls when it next forms a government. “Rent controls exist in many cities across the world and I want our cities to have those powers too and tenants to have those protections” he told delegates. Residential Landlords’ Association policy director David Smith said “Rents are high due to the continued failures by successive governments of all stripes to build enough new homes in the right places. Instead of attacking landlords who are helping to provide homes, it would be better to treat them as part of the solution and to supplement their efforts with a sustained and well thought out building programme overseen by government” Surprisingly, even Shelter has warned that this could indirectly “end up harming” the very tenants which Corbyn and his colleagues seek to protect.  Shelter chief executive officer, Polly Neale, says: ...

Martin & Co has recently launched a brand new version of their website. Whilst I am sure that most of our customers will have better things to do than check out all the new features of our site, there is one part of the site that you may find interesting … This new feature of the website is powered by Hometrack, a tool used by 16 of the top 20 mortgage lenders when assessing the value of a property for mortgage purposes. As an Estate Agent, I have seen many online valuation tools come and go, and most of them have provided wildly over optimistic pricing assessments that leave vendors disappointed when their local agent informs them that their property is not as valuable as they had hoped. I have often tested these tools on my own property and received valuations that over-valued the property by as much as £100,000! However, with Hometrack, most of the valuations I have seen have been pretty close to the correct market value. The tool, whilst good, cannot allo...

jordy Gillard     Now that everyone has returned from their summer holidays, and the new school terms have started, it is a good time to assess the market.   Since May 2017, the market in Basingstoke for both sales and lettings has been one of the most challenging in recent years. The number of new properties coming to the market is currently around half that of 12 months ago.   There have been many factors that have contributed to this as we have discussed before, not least of which are Brexit, the impact of the general election on the housing market, and the seasonal impact of the holiday season. During this time, we have seen a number of properties on the market reduce their pricing in order to achieve a timely sale or let.   On top of this, the Bank of England have made their strongest hint yet that a rise in interest rates may be likely, sparking a rise in the value of the pound against other currencies, and yet onl...

We have apartments from £160,000. This one is on the market at £180,000

  As a landlord, it is your responsibility to ensure that any appliance you provide in your property are safe for your tenants to use.   However, there are have been a number of high profile property fires recently, where the source of the fire has been identified as being a faulty appliance. Not least of these was the recent tragedy at Grenfell Tower.   Nationally, less than half of adults (43 per cent) register their appliances with a manufacturer, leaving many owners untraceable if a product needs a safety repair.   As a result, the Association of Manufacturers of Domestic Appliances (AMDEA), set up Register My Appliance (RMA) as a not-for-profit safety initiative, in an attempt to increase the number of appliances that are registered, and therefore improve the ability for manufacturers to communicate to owners if a safety repair is required.   Register My Appliance is an easy to navigate online portal where landlords, th...

Many landlords are still unaware it would seem, that failure to carry out a Gas Safety check on all the gas appliances and flues in a rental property at least annually (by a Gas Safe-registered engineer) is a criminal offence. It is also a criminal offence to allow there to be a gap between valid gas safety certificates during any part of an active tenancy. A gas safety certificate can expire in between tenancies, as long as a new one is carried out before the start of a new tenancy, and a copy of that certificate is provided to the tenant. Failure to carry out these checks and ensure they are safe for the tenant to use can result in a custodial sentence, or a substantial fine. Landlord Fined £17,500 This was recently highlighted by a case where a landlord was fined £17,500 for failing to maintain gas appliances at a domestic property in Haverfordwest. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found the landlord failed to obtain a Landlord Gas Safety...

As we move into the traditionally slow summer holiday period, has the Basingstoke property market ground to a halt. In the past week, two large estate agency chains have reported dismal results. Countrywide reported a decline in profits for the first half of 2017 to £6.5m from £28.3m the year before. Foxtons similarly announced a 64% decline in profit for same period. There are many contributors to these results: • The rush to purchase properties before the changes in stamp duty came into force in April 2016 which are reflected in the 1H2016 figures • Continued uncertainty in the market due to the general election, Brexit and overall political uncertainty • This has resulted in a continued slowdown in the sales market month on month during the first half of 2017 In the case of Foxtons who are largely London based, whilst their lettings business remained largely resilient to these market conditions, their sale revenue declined 29% and their sales volume by 33%. By cont...

Brand New Apartments Open Day - YouTube Video

According to the Halifax House Price Index released in July, UK average house prices fell by 1.0% in June, with house prices in the three months to June down 0.1% compared to the previous quarter. This brings the average price of a house or flat down to £218,390. This is the third successive quarterly decline.   Measured on an annual basis, the average growth in house prices fell to 2.6% which is the lowest rate since May 2013.   Nationally, house prices are now 9% above their peak in August 2007, and 41% higher than their low point in April 2009.   The volume of house sales dropped by 3% between April and May, however, however sales in the three months to May were actually 1% higher than the preceding three months. We are likely to see a similar drop between May and June due to the general election.   Mortgage approvals between April and May edged up 0.2% suggesting that house sales are likely to remain steady over the coming months. ...

Further to our newsletter last week, please find attached a letter that was sent to a number of bodies representing the private residential sector following the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower in London. The letter offers support to owners of private residential buildings in England to carry out tests on cladding. This is only relevant to you as a landlord or property owner, if you own a property in a building over 18m high which has, or appears to have cladding on the exterior. If you do, queries should be directed to your block management company. The government has confirmed it is offering: •                   In addition to the checks on residential blocks owned by social landlords, DCLG are offering private owners of residential buildings an opportunity to test cladding on blocks over 18 metres high through arrangements put in place with the Building Research Establishment (BRE). ...