Richard Blanco

I spoke to many landlords at the recent Property Investor Show at Excel in London.  Here are what I think are the top ten challenges facing London landlords:
1.  Landlord Sentiment
NLA research has found that landlord confidence has fallen to a level lower than it was during the 2007/8 crash.  19% of landlords say they will sell a property in the next 12 months.  This is because of the tax changes brought in by the Chancellor in his last 3 budget statements. Mortgage Interest relief is […]

Property can be like a game of snakes and landlords. When you’re new to the business hopefully you will climb a few ladders, but you can be particularly vulnerable to slithering down the occasional snake.  Here are my tops tips for avoiding the pitfalls.
1. Tempted By New Build
NLA research tells us that 80% of smaller landlords with between one and four properties have new builds.  These shiny new properties can be very tempting particularly when they are promoted by skilled marketing teams.  Buyers are often […]

Most tenancies in the private rented sector can be brought to an end by a section 21 notice provided the contract has come to the end of its fixed term or if it is held over on a month to month periodic basis.  The tenant then has two months to vacate.  Introduced by the 1988 Housing Act, the section 21 notice was intended as a no fault fast track to gaining possession of a property.  It played an important role in increasing flexibility and growth […]

There are some scenarios that can challenge even the most experienced landlord or agent.  I’m not thinking so much about legal matters, more those grey awkward management issues that we may have a clear policy or procedure for, but in the end it’s the way we manage the situation that wins the day.
I was recently asked to talk about dealing with tricky tenants for Greenwich Business club and I put together four classic scenarios: moving extra people in, dealing with noise, untidy tenants and failure […]

It is busy on the landlord meetings circuit in London at the moment,  I’ve been doing the rounds across the East London boroughs I look after for the NLA.  Two weeks ago, I was at a very positive meeting in Hackney where cabinet member for housing, Cllr Phillip Glanville attended the whole meeting.  He is sensible and approachable and in our obligatory licensing chat,  he assured me it was an option, no definitive decision had been taken and we should meet to discuss further.
Not so […]