In an earlier post (House Price April Fool) I was saying that the property market runs on confidence and credit, both of which go hand in hand. The latest Halifax Housing Market Confidence Tracker shows respondents are more optimistic about property prices since the tracker began back in April 2011. More than 4 in 10…
DetailsIf you are thinking of getting into buy to let, or are thinking of adding to your existing buy to let portfolio, you might be interested in the latest report from LSL Property Services, which might influence where and when you buy. LSL produce a monthly property index which is, in effect, a composite of…
DetailsHere’s some interesting property market optimism fuelled by the recent budget. They predict there will be no effect on house prices this year but that prices will increase by 2.1% in 2014 and then 5% in 2015. Peter Spencer, chief economist says, “…the chancellor has focused his fire power on the home front. And the…
DetailsI’ve noticed that a large number of lenders have cut their mortgage rates since the start of the year, possibly as a consequence of Funding for Lending. Within the last couple of weeks a number of lenders have cut rates on their buy to let products. BM Solutions, owned by Lloyds banking group, cut rates…
DetailsA recent survey of buy to let landlords by specialist buy to let mortgage lender Paragon Mortgages shows that landlords are more optimistic now than at any time over the last 3 years. Strong tenant demand means that the average void period is down to 2.8 weeks, and more landlords consider buy to let mortgages…
DetailsAccording to research by the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) the average length of a tenant’s stay in a buy to let property has increased from 19 months in Q1 2012 to 20 months today. This is the longest period recorded so far. Almost 57% of ARLA agents report that there are more tenants…
DetailsAccording to the latest buy to let index from LSL Property Services plc average rents in March 2013 were 0.5% up on rents in February, a t £735, and are 4.2% up on the same time in 2012. This was the first increase in 5 months, there having been falls in the previous 4 months.…
DetailsWell, according to research from HSBC, it is, with average gross buy to let yields of 7.82%. Now, I have to say, I’m not sure how HSBC conducted their research. The inference from the press release seems to be that they looked at yields in the locations where there is the greatest proportion of rented…
DetailsBuy-to-let must surely be one of the financial success stories of our times. Just think about this. Prior to 1996 there were no buy-to-let mortgages. According to the Halifax, the number of buy-to-let mortgages jumped from 275,000 at the end of 2002 to 408,300 by the end of 2003. By the end of 2005 there…
DetailsBefore the buy-to-let scheme started in 1996 it was extremely difficult for private investors to raise finance on residential investment property, unless they were already high net-worth individuals, or were high-income earners, or both. At that time any residential property loan, other than a standard mortgage loan to an owner-occupier, would be treated by the…
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