July 31, 2016
At just over five weeks since the EU referendum, the Westminster village has calmed and one or two senior political figures have even gone on holiday. A long way from the panorama of hourly breaking news headlines and a stream of political shocks. I’ve just re-read a blog I wrote called ‘The Mess We’re In’ which included comment […]
June 24, 2016
I thought I was a lukewarm Remain voter, but today I am gutted. The most sobering image of the day so far is Nigel Farage declaring a new dawn. As I walked to my local café in Hackney, the atmosphere is one of shock: our borough returned the second highest vote for Remain in the UK. Friends in Spain texted me ‘mala noticia’ though one of them is ready to pounce on cheap equities. The FTSE was down 7% at the start of the day, […]
June 18, 2016
It is nearly a year since the Summer budget when Osborne announced the first raft of punishing tax changes for the UK’s 1.7 million landlords, only to be compounded by yet more in the Autumn statement. After much gloom had descended on the landlord community and many resolve to sell up, it was with so fantastic last week to hear the news that the Court of Appeal ruled that West Bromwich building society was not entitled to arbitrarily hike mortgage interest rates for landlords. The […]
May 15, 2016
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 […]
April 17, 2016
If you’re a first time landlord or an experienced investor, think long and hard before adding new build properties to your portfolio. Here are some of the pitfalls:
1. Developers Premium
When you buy a new build property, a developer is making a substantial profit. They will only have embarked on the project if they knew they could make a decent return and they will have set the price point accordingly. You are paying for all of the marketing, the trouble that they have gone […]
