Nottingham Letting Agent Property Blog

Sir Adrian Montague was commissioned by the government to do a report into ways of tackling the current housing shortage in the UK, especially within the private rental sector. He thinks the private rental sector could be funded by institutional investors, and feels recent tax changes could help this sector to grow. Labour is critical of these suggestions, as they feel such developments may not help lower income families. However the housing minister Grant Shapps is more open-minded, and thinks private funding could be of interest. He also expressed surprise that it didn't already exist, as the UK is somewhat unusual...

According to new research, there could be a boost to the private rental sector due to the stagnant economy as the numbers of people able to buy a house could fall. The research was commissioned by Shelter and the Resolution Foundation, and anticipates that if current economic trends continue, just 27% of households will the owner occupied by 2025, and that 22% of households will be renting privately. Since the early 90s homeownership has fallen from 43% to just 35%, while the numbers renting privately has increased from 8% to 13%. In London the shift could be even more prevalent, as...

From this month onwards millions of council tenants will be eligible to purchase their homes at discounts of up to £75,000 as Cameron has revived Thatcher’s right to buy scheme. This was one of her most popular policies. When Labour came to power they began to reduce the value of the discounts available to council tenants, and during the past 20 years fewer and fewer people have bought their council properties due to the increase in house prices and decrease in discounts offered. However from the beginning of this month it's estimated up to 2 million tenants will have access to...

The first-time buyer taxpayer guarantee scheme was announced last week, allowing people with just a 5% deposit to buy a home in England with the government underwriting the rest of the deposit. At first glance this sounds like a fantastic idea, but experts have been quick to point out its flaws.The scheme is only available for new build homes, but this type of property has suffered the highest percentage of loss in value since the credit crunch began, and experts are worried prices could fall even further. The average price of a new home has fallen by nearly £40,000 from £260,000...

The percentage of rent arrears is increasing, and more tenants are defending their eviction cases in court, as according to Landlord Action, which is a company specialising in eviction, the percentage of defender cases has increased to 13% from 9% in 2010. Apparently County Court closures are increasing the pressure on nearby courts, which is obviously increasing the length of time it takes to bring a case to court, leaving landlord high and dry with no rental income.The higher number of rent arrears can be attributed to the rising cost of living, and certain landlords who are aware of the competition...

According to the housing charity Shelter, private rents in the UK are unaffordable in a massive 55% of local authorities, and 38% of families with children who rent homes privately have had to cut back on essentials such as food to be able to afford to pay the rent.Shelter’s research found that rents have increased by one and half times the rate of incomes during the ten years up to 2007. The study went on to say that rents in 8% of England’s local authorities were very high, taking up around half of take home pay, while just 12% of areas...

The London Borough of Newham is looking at licensing all Private landlords, and recently started a 10 week consultation as to whether or not the scheme should go ahead. If it does, then Newham thinks it will be the first borough in England to implement such a scheme. The borough estimates that around a third of all households are in the private rented sector, which is around 35,000 homes, and is far higher than the national average. Newham has already tried out a pilot scheme, and has set up a team to stop the use of a substandard property as housing.The...

A recent report by Shelter shows a worrying increase in the number of slum landlords as many more people are now forced to rent due to the continuing constraint on mortgage lending. Latest figures show mortgage lending is now at just a third of the levels seen at the height of the boom in 2007, and there is a real need for affordable rental homes. There are now an estimated 3.4 million households in the private rental sector, which is a 40% increase over the past five years, and is the biggest increase on record.This translates into increasing numbers of people...