Landlord Bashing in The Press

Landlord bashing seems to be all around us right now.
The Guardian newspaper over the last two Saturdays has let its readers loose with a string of mostly anti buy to let letters - and the Metro free paper was at it too yesterday.
But landlords should take note because some of the Guardian letter writers’ comments were fair and needed making. In particular, their attack on absentee landlords who fail to maintain their properties and let tenants dump rubbish outside, thus destroying the look of a community was very valid. However, the fact is that this type of landlord will not survive because tenants will rightly shun properties that are substandard and which frankly, look a mess.
But these kinds of concerns are the legitimate concerns of communities and the landlord community should take note.
That said a lot of the anti- landlord culture is of course fuelled by some jealousy of the big capital gains some forward thinking landlords made in the last 10 years – or more specifically of those smart landlord / investors who bought in the right places and the right kind of property. Not all did and some will have made losses!
Of course, the big rises in house prices has been driven by the huge drop in borrowing costs between 1997 and 2004 and by large scale immigration (which has also massively fuelled the available tenant market).
And its worth noting, as the Abbey and the A&L showed in previous surveys last year, that despite high house prices, there are in fact millions of people who could afford to buy but actually choose to rent. Their choice to rent simply reflects the hire and fire work culture that exists today – they may need to move fast to find work. Renting gives them that option.
Both the immigration and low interest rates factors are “one offs” and landlords are having it harder now - with net yields of 4% (about 2% below the best mortgage rate) being the norm – and yields are much less in many parts of the north where there is a huge oversupply of flats.
In conclusion, it is a shame that much of the stuff in the press on the buy to let issue has been misleading and landlords and their representative organisations need to respond positively and put the other side of the argument and explain the good that many landlords do.
I hope this is done forcefully – and fast.
Also, more landlords need to become members of landlords associations – the percentage of landlords who are members is woeful and continually surprises me.
And we also need the various landlords associations to speak with one voice as soon as possible.
I’m David Lawrenson from property investment consultancy Letting Focus. I’m the author of “Successful Property Letting – How to Make Money in Buy to Let” the UK’s top selling buy to let book and Amazon.co.uk’s top selling property title.I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a property investment blog and am a media commentator on the residential property market. You can read more of my property investment insights and details of my networking, advice, telephone consultancy and property investment seminar programme on my website www.lettingfocus.com.
What’s different about us is that we are unbiased, because unlike most people in the buy to let and property advice business we are not linked to a developer, agent or finance company. We just tell you all about buy to let and property investment - the good and the bad.

House prices could be seven times average incomes by 2026

Last week, the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit, was launched to try to help make homes more affordable. They predicted that unless more houses are built, prices by 2026 could be 10 times the average buyer’s salary, up from current multiples of around seven.
I said last year that by 2026 one third of the housing stock would be second homes or privately rented. (At the moment its about 8-10% depending on how you cut the figures.) I stick by that prediction.
We may be entering a new period in home ownership – one in which unless you are young or come from a family that has property or wealth (or you end up in very well paying job) it could become very hard to get on the housing ladder.
That said, research from Abbey last year showed that there are lots of people (including many families) that could buy but would rather rent as it gives them the flexibility that they need in the flexible hire and fire culture we now have.
I’m David Lawrenson from property investment consultancy Letting Focus. I’m the author of “Successful Property Letting – How to Make Money in Buy to Let” the UK’s top selling buy to let book and Amazon.co.uk’s top selling property title.
I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a property investment blog and am a media commentator on the residential property market. You can read more of my property investment insights and details of my networking, advice, telephone - consultancy and property investment seminar programme on my website www.lettingfocus.com.What’s different about us is that we are unbiased, because unlike most people in the buy to let and property advice business we are not linked to a developer, agent or finance company. We just tell you all about buy to let and property investment - the good and the bad.Copyright of this article: David Lawrenson 2007. If you wish to reproduce this piece please contact me first. Back to main site: www.lettingfocus.com

Should I Buy Property in East London? Think Twice!

Those of you who have come to see me speak recently will know of my warning about the existing oversupply of property, principally of what I call “me too identikit” flats in some cities in the north of England.
But beware, the same kind of thing may happen in London too.
My favourite property writer, Sharlene Goff writing in the FT on Saturday, quoted property experts Savills who caution that “building in east London in areas such as Woolwich, Stratford, Hackney, Bow and the Thames Gateway, is set to increase 86 per cent.”
Savills expects that in five years’ time the supply of new properties in east London will hit “almost three times the level of property completions seen over the last five years. This is likely to increasingly polarise price growth, with high-supply areas lagging behind those areas with greater constraints.”
Savills go on to say: “New flats in areas with as yet little sense of place but greatest competition may well show little or no price growth, which over a number of years would be a significant repricing relative to other markets, in particular, family housing.”
So, if you think buying a flat in east London makes sense, think again and look at all the other factors too. It could be that new transport infrastructure in these areas and of course, the Olympic effect will outweigh the downward effects on house prices and rent due to increased supply. But, then again maybe not.
I’m David Lawrenson from property investment consultancy Letting Focus. I’m the author of “Successful Property Letting – How to Make Money in Buy to Let” the UK’s top selling buy to let book and Amazon.co.uk’s top selling property title.I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a property investment blog and am a media commentator on the residential property market. You can read more of my property investment insights and details of my networking, advice, telephone consultancy and property investment seminar programme on my website www.lettingfocus.com.
What’s different about us is that we are unbiased, because unlike most people in the buy to let and property advice business we are not linked to a developer, agent or finance company. We just tell you all about buy to let and property investment - the good and the bad.
Copyright of this article: David Lawrenson 2007. If you wish to reproduce this piece please contact me first. Back to main site: www.lettingfocus.com