It’s hot spot season! Just Googling around property and I can see that on a journalist’s ‘to do list’ in January is to produce the Property Hot Spot article. Nothing wrong with that, by the way, we all need to make a living, and reviewing the property market in January makes perfect sense as we…
According to the ONS (Office for National Statistics) the house price ‘north-south’ divide has narrowed. Property prices in the north west of England have pushed on strongly, whilst prices in London (and parts of the South East) have stalled and, in patches, have even fallen back a bit. So, as a consequence, the…
There we go. Proves there’s some truth in the saying “There’s lies, damn lies and statistics”. When it comes to house prices you can hold any opinion and be right! Of course, to be fair, there are a number of different house price indices, and the methodology for each is different. but, as just one…
If you’ve read much of my material you know that I often have a lot to say about the media in their reporting of buy to let in particular, and the property market in general. This is certainly not because I think the media is a useful source of unbiased, objective information which I can…
In my last post I talked about how the media can influence market confidence and how media coverage of the property market seems more positive now than it has been for a long time. As example I quoted the Daily Express of 1st April which reported that the Centre for Economics and Business Research is…
According to research released by Paragon Mortgages in February, 76% of landlords surveyed are optimistic about the prospects for the Private Rented Sector in 2013, with 41% expecting tenant demand to increase. Perhaps not surprisingly then 15% of landlords expect to buy more buy to let properties in 2013. Of those responding to the survey…
According 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…
According 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.…
Well, 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…
We all know that trying to predict will happen is a mugs game, nobody really knows and, in my opinion, if they turn out to be right, chances are they just had a lucky guess! But as property investors, especially those of us with existing portfolios, it makes sense to keep an eye on what…