May 18, 2017
I’m staying in New York this week, as ever the city offers some insights into trends that might be heading our way. I’ve just had a look around a state of the art gym that is huge but borrows design ideas from the boutique hotel and offers one to one sit down sessions on your metabolism to aid nutritional understanding. That’s as well as a personal trainer.
When I was looking for accommodation, I went down the Airbnb route and I’m staying with a […]
I recently spent two days at the Property Investor Show, held twice a year at Excel in East London. Footfall was noticeably lighter that at events in 2016. I gave two talks and was sat on a panel called ‘The Great Landlord Debate’ about the state of the market and forthcoming regulation.
There’s a lot of sobering data around at the moment. House prices are falling, rental demand has slowed significantly and rents are falling in many parts of London. NLA research tells us […]
April 23, 2017
Theresa May’s snap election has knocked housing well and truly off the news agenda for the time being and I am now fascinated by the politics of what lies ahead. Firstly the question of why she called the election. I thought it was astonishing that she claimed that there was too much opposition in the House of Commons and the House of Lords to her vision of Brexit, when debate is Parliament’s raison d’etre and she had won recent Brexit votes comfortably. With […]
April 10, 2017
1. Regulation of Buy To Let Mortgages
The rise in Buy To Let mortgages from 5% in 2009 to 16% of mortgage lending in 2016 concerned the Bank of England. The governor argued that if the market had a downtown, lots of landlords selling all at once could seriously affect the UK economy. Regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) started on 1 January 2017 and a second phase will come into force on 30 September 2017. Phase 1 introduces a new stress test which is […]
February 24, 2017
Big changes are afoot with buy to let lending that will make it increasingly difficult to get a loan. If like me, you refinance several loans a year as discounted products come to an end, then you need to take a long hard look at the changes and start planning, particularly if you were hoping to raise more money.
Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) rules governing buy to let lending came into effect on 1 January 2017. Over the past 2 years most lenders have started stress […]
