Tag Archives: investment
Most tenants in London never check their landlord’s credentials
The vast majority of people who rent a home in London don’t bother to check the landlord’s credentials leaving them open to dodgy landlords, new research suggests. Some 92% of London renters take what they can get and despite typically having to pay for the privilege of having a background check conducted on themselves, they don’t perform the same due diligence on their potential landlord. The study, by London removals firm Kiwi Movers, also found that highly competitive property marketing is cited as the number one reason for not doing checks on landlords and overall only 20% of UK renters do any sort of check on their landlord before agreeing a tenancy. Renters in Liverpool most likely to check out a landlord online before renting. . A third of the city’s residents say they’ve performed a background check on a landlord before agreeing to move into a property. Some 31.63% in Swansea would check the landlord, 26.83% in Southampton, 24.33% in Leicester, 24.07% in Glasgow, 23.37% in Sheffield, 23.3% in Brighton and Hove, 23% in Cardiff, 21.73% in Portsmouth and 21% in Birmingham. The research also found that women are more likely than men to background check a landlord at 24% compared to 15% of men and 44% of women would prefer to rent from another woman. Also one in five believe renting from an agency meant they didn’t need to worry about landlord credentials or history and but 53% of those that found negative information, in the form of a review, news article or details of legal issues, said it influenced their decision to rent from that person. Just 8% of London residents do any kind of background check on their landlord, 62% below the national average of 20%. London residents are also the least likely to act on information about a potential landlord, with fewer than half (44%) of them saying negative the information had influenced a housing decision. In other words, the need to secure a property was greater than their need to rent with confidence. One of those who prefer a woman landlord is PR manager Billie Gianfrancesco who has been renting in London since 2008 and is on her fifth rental property. ‘In my experience, female landlords tend to work more closely with property managers or put a system in place whereby tenants can resolve any issues quickly without needing to bother or chase them,’ she said. ‘I've found that male landlords prefer to try and resolve the issue themselves first. This often means repeat visits in person, which makes any tenant nervous, and a greater recurrence of botched DIY repairs. In one situation an upstairs bath was leaking, and our male landlord visited four times attempting to fix the issue himself. Because of this, the problem wasn't resolved for over a month. I faced a similar issue a couple of years later with a female landlord, she… Continue reading
Capital city rents edging lower in Australia
Rents in capital cities in Australia increased slightly by 0.1% in April, but overall rental rates edged lower and have now fallen by 0.2% over the past 12 months. This takes the average rental rate to $490 a week for houses and $467 a week for units across combined capital cities, according to the data from the latest CoreLogic monthly rental review report. Five of the eight capital cities saw a modest rise in rents over the past 12 months, including Sydney up 1.4%, Melbourne up 1.7%, Adelaide up 0.5%, Hobart up 1.1% and Canberra up 2.5%. Perth with a fall of 8.9% and Darwin with a decline of 12.6% both experienced large drops in rent rates and have collectively pulled the combined capital average lower while in Brisbane rents dropped by 0.6%. ‘We anticipate that the weakness in the rental market will persist over the year and rents will continue to fall over the coming months. The annual change in rental rates continues to be at its slowest pace since before 1996,’ said Research analyst Cameron Kusher. ‘At the same time last year, rental rates increased by 1.7% which indicates a sharp slowdown in rental growth over the past year,’ he pointed out, adding that factors contributing to a slowing in rental growth include falling real wages, excess rental supply in certain areas and lower rates of population growth, all of which have impacted on demand for rental accommodation. ‘With dwelling approvals at recent record highs and construction activity set to peak over the next 24 months, accompanied by many new properties still to settle, we anticipate that the weak rental market conditions will persist with rental growth continuing to slow and, or, fall in most capital cities,’ Kusher explained. He also pointed out that based on current market conditions, landlords won’t be in a position to lift rental rates and may actually need to reduce rents in order to keep their tenants. ‘We see renters as holding a stronger negotiation position and where they now have the potential to upgrade into higher grades of accommodation for a similar, or lower rents,’ Kusher said. Canberra is the only capital city where the annual rental change is currently stronger than it was a year ago. Kusher said this highlights the weakness in rental market conditions is being felt across all other capital city markets. With rental rates increasing in some cities in April, rates in Sydney, Adelaide and Hobart are at record highs. In all remaining cities, rental rates are now below their highs with the declines recorded respectively down 0.1% in Melbourne, 0.8% in Brisbane, 13.7% in Perth, 17.3% in Darwin and 5.4% in Canberra. The results show that as rental changes outpace home value changes, gross rental yields have trended lower and have hit record lows of 3.3% for houses and 4.2% for units. ‘In our two largest capital cities, we’ve seen rental yields move to record lows of 3.1% for houses and… Continue reading
Planning reform Bill welcomed by UK building industry
Planning in the UK is to be reformed with local communities getting more power and control to shape where new homes will be built under the new Neighbourhood Planning and Infrastructure Bill. Announced in the annual Queen’s speech, which sets out what will happen in Parliament, the Bill also includes measures to reform and speed up the planning process by minimising delays caused by pre-commencement planning conditions. It has been widely welcomed by the industry. The British Property Federation said that strengthening neighbourhood planning is likely to be extremely effective for ensuring that development is brought about in a way that is supported by local communities and meets their needs. ‘The planning system is often cited as one of the main barriers to development, and pre-commencement planning conditions are an extra burden placed on developers which ultimately slows down the whole process,’ said Melanie Leech, BPF chief executive. However she said that it will depend on the detail yet to come, particularly how it is going to be enforced and how already stretched local authorities will cope. ‘Conditions for development should be agreed as part of the pre-application process, and we would hope that the planning process is not made over-complicated to compensate,’ she added. The compulsory purchase order (CPO) process is set to become clearer, fairer and faster for all those involved and the Bill will see the establishment of and independent National Infrastructure Commission on a statutory basis. On a more controversial points it includes the privatisation of Land Registry. Some believe this will support the delivery of a modern, digitally based land registration service that will benefit the Land Registry’s customers, such as people buying or selling their home. The Government is still consulting on the privatisation of the Land Registry, but its inclusion in the Bill implies that it is going ahead. Leech pointed out that the privatisation of the Land Registry could hold important consequences for the commercial property industry, as security of title is critical to the real estate market. ‘It is hugely important that any changes to the way that the Land Registry is run do not affect this security so that investors can be confident that they own their assets and that if for whatever reason there has been an error in registering their title then they will receive adequate compensation,’ she said. However, the Conveyancing Association (CA), the leading trade body for the conveyancing industry, is against the privatisation. It believes the move would not be in the best interests of clients, the conveyancing profession or the Land Registry itself, based on a number of reasons including its experience of previous privatisations. The Government has argued that privatisation would maximise capital return while maintaining high levels of quality and service, and reducing the burden of control but the CA suggests that such ambitions would not require privatisation. Instead it argues for a potential increase in fees, plus a reversal of the recent halving of… Continue reading
