What Would A Perfect Rental Market Look Like

Let’s be honest, the rental market in the UK is a bit of a hotch potch. It’s something that’s developed over the decades with not a great deal of thought or planning. Every successive Government has tinkered with it for their own reasons. We’ve ended up with something that doesn’t work particularly well for landlords, investors, agents nor renters.

Can Property Be A Pension

The end of an old year is a good time to start planning in advance for the next one. In 2022 adding to your pension pot or starting a new one might be part of your plans. So here we’ll look at the pros and cons of investing in property as a pension, and at whether property even can be a kind of pension.

Inflation And What It Means For The Market

In the recent past, nobody in the property market has really given a second thought to inflation. Inflation has been such a minimal amount that it hasn’t had any real influence in the market.

What Is The Prime Property Market

It’s true to say that the property market is not just one market, but many separate property markets. One of these markets is the prime property market.

Where House Prices Have Risen Fastest And Why

It’s no secret that house prices have risen fast over the last year or so. But where have they risen the fastest .... and why? Here we’ll reveal the areas with the fastest rising house prices over the last year and try to consider exactly why.

What Will Happen When The Mortgage Rate Rises

Last week many experts forecast that the Bank of England would up the interest rate perhaps to 0.25%. And that would kick off a rise in mortgage rates that would start to impact the property market.

The Advantages And Disadvantages Of New Builds

Tens of thousand of new build homes are built every year in the UK. According to the NHBC around 123,000 were completed in 2020, a fall from the 160,000 completed in 2019 most likely due to Covid.

Will Building More Homes On Brownfield Land Happen

One of the measures announced in Wednesday’s Budget was confirmation of funding partly to enable more housebuilding on brownfield land. So here we’ll look at some of the issues behind building on brownfield land, and at what it might mean for the property market.

Ways To Get Started in Property Development

The property market is ever changing. Covid and the current fairly uncertain economy are leading to even more changes in the property market too. But the saying as one door closes another opens is literally true when it comes to property. In property a changing market can present new and exciting opportunities within it by way of development projects. Here we will look at some current opportunities and ways to get started in property development.

Levelling Up And What It Could Mean For Property

Much has been said about ‘levelling up’ the country over the last couple of years. This week we will look at how the levelling up agenda is going and at what it could mean for the property market. The concept of levelling up was first announced as part of the General Election campaign in 2019.

Climate Change Energy Efficiency and Property

Climate change is going to be in the news often over the next few weeks – as the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow approaches. Add to that sharply rising energy costs means now might be a good time to run through a few thoughts on how climate change and energy efficiency affect the property market.

Will House Prices Keep On Rising

House prices have been very firmly on an upward swing for months now .... despite a very slight retraction last month (based on HM Land Registry figures). At the start of Covid many people thought that the housing market was likely to crash. So now could be a very good time to ask the question: Will (or even can) house prices keep on rising?

How To Spot An Up And Coming Area

If you’re buying property, whether for investment or yourself, it’s frequently a good idea to look to buy in what’s often described as an up and coming area.

The Ins And Outs Of Investing In Woodland

Have you ever been driving or walking along a country road and seen a sign advertising ‘Woodland for Sale’? And have you ever thought ‘Should I be investing in woodland?’. Investing in woodland is an option that is often overlooked in property investment. So here we’ll look at some of the ins and outs of investing in woodland.

The Future For Student Property

Almost a year ago now we ran a post looking at the future for the student accommodation market in the UK in the face of the Covid pandemic. Now as a new academic year is about to start, and Covid has taken many twists and turns, it is maybe a good time to take a look at the student property market again.

How To Buy A Cheap House

The cheap house is very much the unicorn of the property world .... especially after the record house price rises of the last few months. A cheap house is something everybody wants but which is extremely hard to find. In fact, some people would say that cheap houses don’t actually exist.

Will Property Sales Ever Go Fully Online

Go back a few decades ago – say to the 1990s – and no one would ever have considered that one day so many products and services would have been bought almost exclusively online, sight unseen.

Investing In Property That Are Not Buy To Let

Buy to let has many attractions as a way to invest in property. In recent years, however, increasing regulation and the tax burden together with rising property prices have led some investors to question whether buy to let is really right for them. Fortunately there are many other ways to invest in property that don’t involve buy to let, and we will consider some of them here.

Co Living Explained

Co-living accommodation is a relatively new arrival on the property market. Here’s a simple explanation of what co-living is and what it might mean for investors, agents and others in property. What exactly is co-living? Co-living is a type of rented residential accommodation where residents have their own flats or apartments but the block also contains various communal amenities for the use of all the residents.

How To Set The Right Rent

Whether you’re a landlord, planning to become a landlord, or an agent setting the right rent is an important part of letting a property successfully. Here we’ll look at how to set the right rent for a rental property.

20 Minute Neighbourhoods What You Need To Know

The concept of what are being called 20 minute neighbourhoods has been around for a while now. But recent issues (not in the least Covid) have brought the idea more in focus. Here we will look at what a 20 minute neighbourhood is and at the implications for the property market.

Buying And Selling Property With A Cladding Issue

The issue of building cladding is a complex and technical one. In this post we will try and give a simple overview for the non-technical. And we’ll try and answer the question: Can you buy or sell a flat which has cladding problems?

John Lewis Property Rental Plans Emerge

Retailer John Lewis, known for its upmarket department stores and Waitrose supermarkets, dropped something of a bombshell onto the property market last year when it announced plans to become a residential landlord. Now more details are emerging let’s take a closer look not just at what John Lewis are planning but at what it might mean for the property market.

Why Conveyancing Takes So Long

Conveyancing has been in the property news a lot lately. It seems likely that thousands of transactions will have failed to meet the Stamp Duty holiday deadline at the end of last month.

Will Covid Change What Buyers Want For Ever

Covid, or at least the measures introduced because of it, have certainly caused massive changes in the property market. They have set the market on fire, spurred unprecedented demand to buy, unprecedented sales levels and pushed prices to new heights.

A Look At The Investment Property Market

The investment property market has become an important part of the wider property market in recent years. So here we’ll review prospects for the investment property market, and share some tips for agents and others who are involved in it.

How To Become A Property Mogul

Some people might feel that property is not about making money. It’s about enjoying what you do and providing a place for people to live. But for those who might set their sights on becoming property moguls we thought we’d run through a few strategies for achieving it.

The New First Homes Scheme What You Need To Know

Measures to stimulate the property market have been coming thick and fast over the last year or so. Here we’ll look at the latest scheme which has just been launched – First Homes – and what it could mean for the market.

Property Price Forecasts Are Maybe Best Ignored

Most people in property are fascinated with property price forecasts. With good reason. Property price forecasts are to some extent what keeps the property market moving. Everybody in the market likes to get an insight into whether they could make money (or alternatively avoid losing it) by buying or selling property now.

How To Give Even Better Customer Service

The agency business is very much a service business. So good service ought to be a priority if you want to compete and grow your business. In this post, we’ll offer a few thoughts on how to give even better customer service.

What You Need To Know About Commonhold

The concept of commonhold property has been around for a while now. However, a recent Government move means it could become much more common in future. So here we will look at what commonhold is and what the implications of it being more widely used could be.

The Latest Planning Reforms

In the Queen’s Speech this week the Government announced its intention to legislate to reform the planning system in the next session of parliament. Here we will look at what could happen and what it could mean for the housing market.

How To Get More Stock

If a clothing shop runs out of clothes they can just order some more fairly easily. If a bakery runs out of bread they can just make some more fairly easily. It’s not that easy for estate agents. There’s always a limited supply of houses, and you can’t just make some more to satisfy demand.

The Rise And Rise Of Warehousing

One of the interesting things about property (or maybe even one of the infuriating things) is the way in which opportunities change, emerge and decline as the years pass. No one could argue that we aren’t in interesting times for the property market at the moment.

Government Hubs To Create Future Property Hotspots

In property, it usually pays to keep an eye out for major new developments and moves that could transform a property market and cause it to rise. The types of new developments that can change property markets include major new building projects, infrastructure and new businesses moving in to the area.

What House Buyers Want

Property overall, and particularly estate agency, is an odd business in many ways. But one of the ways in which it is unusual is its topsy-turvy way of working. In most businesses, the buyer is the customer. But in estate agency the seller is the customer. Even though it is the buyer who makes the purchase and holds the money.

The Opportunity To Turn Shops Into Homes

For some time now the UK has had a chronic shortage of homes. More recently, and especially since Covid, it has become apparent that there is too much retail space in many places. This has prompted many to suggest that more of our shops could be made into homes. We’ll overview the opportunity this might offer to those in the property industry here.

9 Covid Country Property Hotspots

Covid has changed many aspects of our lives, and where we want to live is very much one of them. Crowded cities and daily commuting seem to have moved out of favour and there seems to be a trend towards living in more rural locations.

The Opportunity In Short Term Lets

Most people would agree that standard buy to lets have, and are, becoming a more difficult environment to operate in. So the challenge is very much on to find other ways of making a living in property. One such opportunity is short term lets. Here we’ll look at the opportunity that short term lets might present to investors, landlords, agents and others.

Flexible Workspace The Next Big Story

One of the things that is exciting (or perhaps bewildering) about property is that new opportunities are emerging in the property market all the time. One of the newer developments in property is the acceleration in the availability and use of what is known as flexible workspace. Here we will look at what flexible workspace is, what it means for the market, and what opportunities it might present.

How the mortgage guarantee scheme will work

In last week’s Budget the Government announced the introduction of a 95% mortgage guarantee scheme. Here we’ll look at how it will work and what affect it might have on the market. First, why has the mortgage guarantee scheme been introduced?

Are Property Price Falls A Bad Thing

Many commentators are forecasting that property prices will fall this year.* It’s generally thought that falling property prices are a bad thing for everyone. But is a fall in house prices necessarily a bad thing? Here we’ll consider the situation.

Build To Rent Explained

In recent years a new type of rental property has begun to spread across the UK property rental market. Here we’ll look at build to rent and what it means for those involved. First there was buy to let. Landlords or private investors purchased property on the open market, either new build or existing, in order to rent to tenants. Some new build developers have largely built with this market in mind, or perhaps have built hybrid developments to be bought by landlords and owner occupiers.

Why All The Fuss About Stamp Duty

Stamp Duty has been in the news a lot recently, what with the Stamp Duty holiday, the resultant surge in house buying and the rush to complete before the holiday ends. But Stamp Duty has long been a controversial issue in the UK property market. So here we’ll look at why it is such an issue and what could happen with Stamp Duty in the future.

What Negative Rates Could Mean For The Market

Interest rates are always a key factor in how the property market performs. While low interest rates have been with us for some time the possibility that the Bank of England base rate could turn negative is now an extra factor to consider. In this post we will look at what a negative interest rate could mean for the property market and investment it in.

Need To Know About The First Time Buyer Market

First time buyers are a crucial element in the property market. They’re the only source of genuinely new demand in the system that helps keep the property market expanding. They’re the oil in the machinery that keeps everyone moving up the property ladder.

Progress Home Sale Before Stamp Duty Deadline

With this Stamp Duty holiday due to end on March 31st, all the parties involved in property transactions are under increasing pressure to complete before the deadline. Fortunately, there is much you can do to keep things moving forward, whatever stage you are in the conveyancing process.

Can You Sell A House On Social Media

It seems like everything can be sold with the help of social media today, from fashion and fast food to mobile phones and financial services.

Whats Going On In The London Property Market

London tends to be the barometer of the UK property market. What happens in London tends to happen in the rest of the country. When prices rise in London they tend to ripple out to the rest of the UK sooner or later.

Should You Consider Exiting Buy To Let

The feeling that buy to let has become a lot harder in recent years has prompted some to consider whether they should exit the buy to let market. Here we’ll look at the pros and cons of getting out – and staying in – and consider what you need to think about before making a decision.

How To Make A House More Saleable

Despite the turmoil caused by Covid house sellers have done pretty well over the last few months. Strong buyer interest, strong sales levels and rising property prices have made it very much a seller’s market.