The Future for Buy to Let Landlords

David Lawrenson of LettingFocus sees some positives from what appears to be a gloomy year for landlords. The Future for Buy to Let Landlords It’s been a funny year for so called “buy to let” landlords. They have been clobbered by George Osborne’s hikes to Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) – a special tax designed just for pesky “Mom and Pop” landlords. Interestingly, […]

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The Private Rented Sector – It’s all About Tax

David Lawrenson of Letting Focus looks at city investors, tax and the private rented sector. When you think about it, everything really comes down to tax. If you are not very rich or you are not a multinational corporation with an army of accountants, lawyers and other smart people to help you, then you will not be able to avoid […]

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Institutional Investment in the Private Rented Sector Draws Closer

More Build to Let and institutional investment in the private rented sector now looks almost a “nailed on” certainty says David Lawrenson of LettingFocus.com. But it could be the biggest threat yet to the profitability of the traditional “buy to let” model. Many months ago the government appointed Sir Adrian Montague to look at the barriers to institutional investment in […]

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Housing Associations, the Private Rented Sector and Landlords

In this blog post, David Lawrenson of www.LettingFocus.com looks at the growing clamour for housing associations and city investors to get into the private rented sector via “build to let” and thus offer a direct challenge to the UK’s army of private landlords. In the report, “Where Next” published last year with PricewaterhouseCoopers, the housing association, L&Q explored the challenges […]

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Landlord Rating My Trip Advisor Style Websites Plus Institutional Investment in the Private Rented Sector Gets a Lot Closer

I have written quite a bit at this blog about the power of the internet and the importance of customer service in dealing with landlords and with the private rented sector (PRS) in general. Of course, the same thing applies to all businesses. As the author of a quite successful book I am interested in Tim Waterstone’s attempt to buy […]

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Will the Private Rented Sector Initiative PRSI and Build to Let Ever Take Off

If you asked a group of private landlords what they understood about the term “private rented sector initiative” (or PRSI) you would get a blank look from most. And yet, this could be one of the biggest threats that the UK’s private landlords currently faces. In summary, the PRSI is about getting city investors such as pension funds to invest […]

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Housing Benefit Frauds How Widespread Are They Plus Institutional Investment in the PRS May Be Near

A few weeks ago, a landlord I advise told me how some tenants of his had contacted him with a request to help them make a fraudulent housing benefit claim. The landlord lets out a property to three people who are all on a single assured shorthold tenancy. The tenants are related to each other. There is a young woman, […]

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Buy to Let Mortgage Rates, Institutions and the PRS and a Word On CGT

A few months ago there was a ray of hope that the historically high margins that mortgage companies want to charge buy to let mortgage borrowers could be coming down. Readers of this column will know that back in November last year, for a 75% loan to value buy to let mortgage, you could get a reversionary (or “go to” […]

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Private Rented Sector Competitors Waiting in the Wings

I have always said that the biggest threat to private landlords comes from external sources and especially from new competitors. Unfortunately, these new competitors are rarely on most small landlords radars, which is not surprising really, because so far these new competitors have not really been all that active. Most landlords tend to prefer to worry and huff and puff […]

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PRS Access Schemes, Build to Let and the Rugg Review. LettingFocus Surveys the Wreckage

Reading the housing section of the Labour party manifesto, one can see that the PR campaign that the British Property Federation (BPF) and their members waged on Labour Grandees has paid off in terms of Labour support for “Build to Let,” which for the uninitiated, is where the Government tries to open up the private rented sector (PRS) to big […]

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