Letting agents and landlords have been warned to look out for so-called ghost tenants living in their properties. According to research from Direct Line for Businesses, there is at least three million of these individuals, who reside in a property despite not being on the tenancy agreement, secretly living in the country’s rental properties and close to three-quarters of these having been present for six months or more.
Rightmove has used its new real-time data feed to analyse different periods of traffic flow by public users and different updating patterns by advertrising agents – and the time of the week with the least viewing is Friday afternoons.
Currently the busiest time for searches and sending enquiries is Tuesday at 9pm as more people use mobile devices to look for property, with Fridays proving the least popular.
Asking prices have risen 0.9 per cent in the past month according to Rightmove, in the first September increase since 2011.
The portal says the asking prices of property coming to market this month are up by £2,474 – a sharp contrast to the average change in September (a fall of 0.5 per cent) recorded by Rightmove over the past 10 years.
A great article from The Telegraph – What’s the fastest-growing British industry of the last decade? Apps for smartphones perhaps? Web retailing? Payday lending? Actually, it is probably renting out property. The buy-to-let boom has seen a huge growth in the number of landlords, and the number of properties available to rent.
Using data and analysis from its property searches, global property portal Lamudi has compiled a list of the top ten most important factors for today’s homebuyer.
“Today’s homebuyer is different to those of previous generations. In the age of smartphones, apps and smart homes, the modern house hunter’s demands have changed dramatically. At the same time, in an era defined by fluctuating house prices, today’s homebuyer is more cost-sensitive than ever before,” said a spokesperson from Lamudi.
Will all buy-to-let loans be regulated?
No. The Treasury considers that, in most cases, buy-to-let landlords make an active decision to become a landlord, an activity for which they will receive an income and for which they will be taxed as a business. As such, the Treasury does not consider that lending to these borrowers should be regulated in consumer terms.
All works carried out in England and Wales require planning permission.
Certain types of extensions and changes of use, subject to certain limits and conditions, do not require a full planning permission from a Local Planning Authority. Unless these automatic rights are removed, it can be assumed that permission is automatically granted.
Bank Lending Rate
The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee has confirmed that the Bank Base Rate is to remain at 0.5% for a further month. It has been at this very low level for over five years – a record period.
Source: Bank of England……
There has been a steep rise in the number of people renting rather than buying in London, no doubt due to the really high prices of property in the capital, and the rules of affordability to get a mortgage. Landlords are offering smaller and smaller flats to tenants, but are they breaking the law? Actually, there is no statutory minimum floor space for living accommodation.
Over 160 smaller housing developments across the country have been shortlisted for loans from the £525 million pound Builders Finance Fund, which is intended to get stalled sites back up and running with new homes being built. The first wave of sites with potential to support over 13,000 new jobs are about to be accelerated into operation.