Overseas Property Investment Consultancy & UK Property Investment Consultancy

Increasing demand for rental properties in the UK is creating a new investment opportunity for first time landlords, as figures from the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) show 55% of lettings agents believe demand for rental property is now outstripping supply.

‘Investing in a buy to let property has always been an attractive opportunity, and the high demand for rented property means there are a growing number of first time landlords in the market,’ said Ian Potter, operations manager at ARLA.

For anyone considering renting out their UK property, ARLA has the following top tips to help make the process as smooth and trouble free as possible:

1. Invest wisely: Do your research and make sure you find properties that are in demand in the local market.

2. Find a licensed agent: This will ensure you receive strong and independent advice and, equally importantly, that your money is protected.

3. Be realistic about void periods: ARLA data shows that rental properties are untenanted for an average of 3 weeks.

4. Be competitive: Make sure the property presents itself well to the market in terms of the décor, the condition of the furnishings and also the mechanics of the house such as the heating.

5. Check up on tenants: Make sure you have sufficient information about your prospective tenant to ensure you can assess the risk in accepting the tenancy.

6. Insure yourself against risk: Ensure you have specialist buildings and contents insurance covering the items you own in the property – without a specific reference to letting you may be uninsured.

7. Compile an inventory for the property: Prepare a full, detailed inventory of the property to include a schedule of condition of all the contents as well as walls ceilings doors and other fixtures and fittings.

8. Don’t be lazy: It’s important to hold onto tenants for as long as possible but that won’t happen if they receive bad service.

9. Do you need a licence? If the property is to be used for sharers, check whether you require a licence from the local authority.

10. Deposit protection: Since April 2007 it has been mandatory for landlords to comply with Tenancy Deposit Protection legislation, which requires all deposits to be held by a third party and not by the landlord.

Bovis Homes pre-tax profits for the year to December 2011 were £32.1m, a gain of 74% on the year before.

The Kent-based group said in January it expected sharply higher profits.
It sold more than 2000 homes last year, 8% more than in the year before and said sales prices to date were ahead of expectations.
Bovis Homes said in a statement that it had performed well in a difficult market.

“The group has delivered a strong improvement in profits in 2011 against a challenging but stable market environment,” it said.
And it added that it was expecting to see continued improvement in profits.

“Significant progress has also been made in positioning the group for continued improved returns,” the firm said.

Residential property sales in the United States edged upwards for the seventh month in a row in January, according to the latest RE/MAX national housing report.

It shows that real estate sales are now 3.4% above levels seen a year earlier in the 53 metropolitan areas covered by the survey.

Perhaps due to falling foreclosure numbers, for the 19th consecutive month, inventory levels dropped in January. The average inventory of homes for sale dropped 24.1% from a year earlier and 4.2% from December.

‘If sales continue ahead of last year’s pace and inventory does not increase significantly, we could start to see increasing home prices this year,’ said RE/MAX chief executive officer Margaret Kelly.

Of the metro areas included in the January survey, 20 saw double digit jumps from a year earlier, and 36 experienced higher sales, including Albuquerque up 33.9%, Wilmington-Dover, Delaware, up 33.2%, Atlanta up 26.3%, Indianapolis up 19.6%, Providence, Rhodes Island, up 19.6%, Nashville up 19.5%, Cleveland up 18.9% and Chicago up 15.3%.
Meanwhile, data from the Commerce Department shows that housing starts rose 1.5% in January, the highest level since October 2008.

Almost 70% of landlords were more confident about the UK buy to let market in January than they were at the end of 2011, according to new research.

They highlighted rising tenant demand, high rents and reduced housing stock as the main reasons for boosting their assurance in the sector, the research from online lettings agency Upad shows.

The research also revealed the different reasons landlords have such confidence. One landlord in Winchester said it was because of the good student housing demand and professional lets in the area while another in south east London said it was due to a lack of rental properties on the market. ‘My last let was snapped up immediately without any negotiation on the asking rent,’ he said.

In addition, landlords have noticed that interest among renters is increasing. ‘I am more confident due to the amount of response I have had to my recent rental property. Having sold a property last year, the difference in the amount of viewing for my rental property in comparison to my property for sale has been very encouraging,’ said another landlord.

Prior to the credit crunch and subsequent economic turmoil the buy to let industry experienced unprecedented growth and exposure.

Unfortunately, this spawned a new phenomenon, that of the property club. Very soon a large number of unethical companies found their place within this new sector. These were the days of ‘get rich quick property schemes’ and many inexperienced people got caught up in the frenzy that ensued. All too often, the only people who got rich quick were those behind these property clubs. Driven by the unquestioned belief that property prices would continue to increase at unsustainable rates, many of these new landlords were encouraged to borrow way beyond their means. We have all heard heartbreaking stories of people who have since lost everything as a result.

The credit crunch was a time of reckoning for these businesses. As property prices started to fall and mortgages became more difficult to get, many of these businesses were sent into oblivion. As the dead wood was cleared from the industry a few strong businesses remained and flourished. These were the experienced property investment consultancies that based their business on customer service and market expertise as well as an ethical approach to property investment.

Today however, with an improving mortgage market and strengthening economic conditions, the deadwood is returning to our industry. Once again we are starting to receive emails promising unrealistic returns, training courses and mentoring programmes with large price tags, and the lure of quick and easy wealth.

This can’t be allowed to happen again.

An experienced consultancy that believes in its products won’t charge for training or mentoring. These are essential services designed to ensure that clients understand the business of property investment. An ethical company will make sure that their clients invest with their eyes open and that all care is taken to ensure that they are investing in the right products for their objectives. This is the responsibility of the business and certainly should not be a chargeable service. Your money should be used for investing!!!

As an ethical and highly experienced market leading consultancy, the Worldwide Property Group has for many years campaigned for the introduction of regulation to make this industry a safer place for all concerned. We will continue to push for this, but in the meantime we warn you all to beware of businesses that over promise and charge for services that should be a standard part of their service offering.

HSBC has committed itself to lending at least £15 billion to borrowers this year, of which £3 billion will be for first time buyers.

It says that 150,000 home buyers and 27,000 first time buyers are set to benefit as it expects 2012 to see it with its largest ever share of the UK mortgage market.

Of the £15 billion HSBC will be making available for 2012, the majority will be new money into the mortgage market, it added.

‘In 2011 we offered UK borrowers some of the most competitive rates around and we plan to continue this in 2012’ said Martijn van der Heijden, head of Lending at HSBC.

More than one in four loans granted by HSBC in the first half of 2011 was to first time buyers, making HSBC the largest direct provider of first time buyer funding in the UK.

The extent of the decline in residential property prices in Bulgaria are shown in the latest figures which reveal they were 5 to 10% lower in 2011 than in 2010.

Initial predictions for 2012 are that prices are largely expected to be unchanged as real estate markets around the country remain at a standstill.

Average prices in the capital city Sofia were around €920 per square meter, down from €1,100 in 2010, according to brokers.

Prices in Bourgas on the Black Sea fell to an average €860 per square meter and in Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second city, they were €770 per square meter. Bansko, which has been very popular with overseas buyers, saw prices fall by 25%.

‘At the moment, sales have fallen hugely. It is almost tragic,’ one hotel manager Dimitar Iliev told television station bTV. He added that ‘the British have deserted the ski resort.’

Interest in buying is strong in the first few weeks of 2012 in the UK despite a lack of mortgage finance, though the willingness or ability of new sellers to come to market remains weak, according to the first Rightmove report of the year.

Search activity during the first 10 days of 2012 reached new record heights, up by 27% on the same period in 2011, as prospective movers intensively research the market. However, they are faced with the lowest level of new supply per estate agency branch that Rightmove has ever recorded, an average of less than one new listing per branch per week.

‘Old records are being shattered as search activity is up by a staggering 27% on this time last year. Potential buyers and sellers are looking more often and researching more thoroughly. In areas where there is a lot of property up for sale, buyers are looking hard for properties that tempt them with something really special in terms of value, potential, location or quality of finish,’ said Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove.

‘If it doesn’t shout special then they are unlikely to overpay for the privilege of buying an average property in these mortgage constrained times. In locations where there is little stock for sale, they appear to have become online junkies, ready to pounce on fresh property coming to market to see if it will satisfy their housing need,’ he explained.

‘This search addiction is in part caused by each estate agency branches currently listing an average of less than one new property per week, an all time low and around half of pre-credit crunch levels. The market is stuck in a low transaction volume pit that will be hard to escape from without the mortgage funding to satisfy what appears to be strong pent up demand,’ he added.

The January report reveals that there were more than 44 million property searches on Rightmove during the first ten days of 2012. While this doesn’t necessarily indicate a surge in proceedable buyer numbers, it does highlight a strong pent up demand to move and is also a reflection that value seeking buyers who can proceed are taking extra care to research the market.

A pledge by US President Barack Obama to provide massive financial support for the regeneration of the State of Michigan’s biggest city, Detroit, should be of interest to property investors.

A growing number of investors, disenchanted by the performance of the ailing stock market, are putting their money into buy to let bricks in the US city as regeneration means more jobs and more demand for rental properties.

Attracted by discounts as high as 70% and net yields of up to 17% investors can access very high demand with more than 9,000 working families already on the rental waiting list.

Detroit, which as one of America’s leading cities in the field of industrial research and development has attracted more than half a million high tech workers, has suffered from a shift in urban sprawl to the suburbs. The resulting housing crash has left the city short of affordable housing.

Investing in this type of property is also seen as ethically worthwhile as it is saving foreclosed and uninhabitable properties and converting them back into homes.

Coyle points out that Detroit’s city authorities are managing the newly refurbished homes though their Housing and Urban Development scheme. It includes extensive checks on the financial security of would be tenants and the underwriting of rental payments so that investors do not have to collect money from individual tenants.

The prices of properties available depend on size and location. Typically a three bedroom detached home with a monthly rental income in excess of US$850 can be purchased for as little as US$30,000.

Purchases can be completed quickly, and annual capital growth is expected to average 5% over the next five years.

We offer 2 fantastic options for investing in Detroit property.

Click here for option 1

Click here for option 2

Property prices in Brazil are likely to increase modestly, around 5 to 10%, in 2012 and the real estate sector should avoid a bubble, according to a poll of real estate and financial experts.

The Reuters poll of 15 banks, research groups and business associations downplayed the risk of a sharp downturn, with a recent credit boom underpinned by a steady improvement in wages and affordability conditions.

The rapidly expanding Brazilian middle class is expected to keep a close eye on opportunities to stop renting and move into ownership, holding up prices even after they almost doubled in some neighbourhoods.

Brazilian home prices should rise between 5 and 10% in 2012, according to nine of 14 forecasts in the Reuters poll, with one analyst saying there would be a smaller rise. Three saw no change in prices, while one thought they would rise more than 10%.

That performance turns the Brazilian housing market into a rare bright spot in a gloomy scenario around the globe. Further gains, however, should be smaller than in 2011 as the Brazilian economy cools off.

Brazil’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed to a standstill in the third quarter as the eurozone debt crisis hurt global demand and is expected to grow by around 3.5% in 2012, much less than the 7.5% growth recorded in 2010.