Private Rented Sector Buy to Let Consultants
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, […]
Read moreIn this article, David Lawrenson of LettingFocus.com looks at where the big new entrants could get it wrong with their investments in the private rented sector. The big new players (big pension funds like M&G, Prudential, Legal & General and various foreign real estate investors) who are now already in or about to come into the private rented sector could […]
Read morePrivate rented sector consultant David Lawrenson of www.LettingFocus.com looks at calls for reform of tax in the private rented sector. In last weeks’ blog I looked at the housing associations, private landlords and the case for housing associations to get involved in “market renting”. In the course of that blog I also mused on the government’s increasing willingness to get […]
Read moreIn 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 […]
Read moreSo how is the Private Rented Sector (PRS) affected by the Government’s recently published new Strategy for Housing? Well, first of all, there will be an independent review of barriers to investment in the PRS. Doubtless this will be looking closely at new build to let models, where homes are built specifically for the private rental market, with funding coming […]
Read moreA recent survey and press release from the Halifax (the ones with those annoying but oddly impactful adverts of the two girls making a jingle and spilling their coffee) got a lot of column inches. “Suddenly we are becoming nation of private renters” says the Halifax. Those of you who have followed my work for a while will know that […]
Read moreI 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 […]
Read moreIf 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 […]
Read moreA 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” […]
Read moreI 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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