I get asked if it is a good time to invest in UK property right now? Or whether the onslaught against Landlords is worth the effort to get involved? So here’s my perspective. Landlords let’s look at the fundamentals of supply and demand Roughly one fifth of households – 4.6 million houses – are in the Private Rented Sector. The Social Housing Sector caters for slightly less people at 4 million households. This figure includes Housing Associations and Local Authority housing. (English Housing Survey 2022-23). An additional 1m rental homes are needed in the UK by 2031 to meet the growing demand ..read more

We recently sold our Krakow buy-to-let apartment to a local First Time Buyer 16 years after we bought it. UK-based buyers can think property investing abroad is the same as it is in the UK. So I thought I would highlight some of the differences in the buying processes. To start with most Continental European countries have a Notarised buying process vs a solicitor-led one. What is the Notary buying process? A Notary is a qualified and registered Legal representative with special powers conferred by Government to collect taxes that are due at the point of selling or buying a property. A Notary ..read more

I have recently used online Agent Open Rent to find a new tenant for one of our Surrey homes. It is the first time for me, as I usually use an Agent for tenant-find and then self-manage. I think I am a decent judge of character, but I was apprehensive about conducting viewings. I also wasn’t sure how much of my time it would suck up. And whether I would find the same calibre of tenant that an agent had produced in the past. What I was in no doubt about was the saving I was going to make. And avoiding the angst of constantly overseeing what an agent was doing to ensure that the administration ..read more

Late last year I wrote a blog post on how to stop your house being stolen or your Property Title re-registered What five things can you do to stop your house being stolen? This was prompted following some alarming media coverage about two men who had their houses stolen. Here is the link to the original post with more detail I am writing about this again because I had a personal experience. Not quite so dramatic, but I mention it at the end of this Blog post. There are 2 facts that these two original stories have in common. Both properties were not occupied by the owners. One was empty, the ..read more

On International Women’s Day 2023 I want to celebrate all the supportive women in property. Especially those who are a regular part of my life. Many of them who have helped me on my stressful development journey these last 18 months. Without the kind of support I have had from these lovely ladies and more, it would have been a far more difficult and lonelier place to be. There are many more who don’t feature in this collage. That isn’t to say men haven’t been supportive too. But today I just want to celebrate these great women in property who have all made it to my site and shared their idea ..read more

I’ve got energy efficiency and performance on my mind. I have just received welcome news that we achieved the targeted ‘C’ for our EPC – Energy Performance Certificate on our Surrey Victorian development project How have we boosted the Energy efficiency for a Victorian house? Well we didn’t do anything whizzy. Just good old-fashioned insulation and quality building. Now you might be thinking that isn’t so impressive. However let me give the context. The main house is a Victorian semi-detached house. We retrofitted the existing main house as well as extending it. Catering for the long term E ..read more

There has been some alarming media coverage recently about house theft, two men who had their houses stolen in the last two years. It’s shocking to think that this can be done. Radio 4s Winifred Robinson’s ‘You and Yours’ Consumer protection programmes on 27.10.22 and 2.11.22 covered this. The first house owner – Mike Reverend Mike Hall lives and works in North Wales but owns/owned a house in Luton which was unoccupied. His house was broken into and the locks changed. The house was then sold to new owners who paid £135,000 for the house, half its actual value in 2021. Even when the police got ..read more

How on earth do you make sense of the market currently….? The UK property investing climate is causing panic. We’ve experienced material shortages and regular, almost weekly, price increases. Then the energy crisis fuelled inflation. Followed by the UK government announcing swingeing, unfunded, tax cuts that sent the financial markets into a tail spin, increasing the cost of borrowing even further. Starting your UK property investing journey? If you are just embarking on a refurbishment or development, then stress-testing at much higher finance rates around 6% might be sensible. And working th ..read more

In the current climate it is challenging for you time-strapped investors to protect against the downside of contractors or builders proving unreliable or taking advantage. So should you just close your eyes and cross your fingers and hope for the best? Well no. There are things you can do to protect yourself and mitigate the downsides. So what are they? An architect’s Professional connection Apart from all the obvious things like having a detailed and consistent tender pack – which helps get a shortlist of contractors so you have a 2nd choice if the selected contractor plays up. Having a r ..read more

Concrete pouring has taken place on site at our Surrey residential development. We will soon be building the rear extension. This is welcome news to soon be able to start getting out of the ground. It is a major structural hurdle, en route to creating a new part to the building. And it’s great to celebrate progress when there are plenty of things that can halt progress. Not everything can be forseen before starting on site. Managing a project like this means not only getting to see diverse aspects of a residential build but also experience some of the challenges. This is really useful. Espec ..read more