As property prices fall and rents rise, the popularity of buy-to-let has risen alongside, promising healthy returns and an eventual equity bonus once values go back up. Here are some tips for achieving a buy-to-let mortgage, despite the restricted market: • Apply for a specialist buy-to-let mortgage because lenders calculate whether you can afford the [...]

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While homes are proving hard to sell, rental values across the UK are rising and many property owners now prefer to let rather than go through the lengthy and arduous sales process. But achieving maximum rental is harder than it might seem.  The more property comes onto the market, the more choice customers have. Here [...]

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According to the Knight Frank Student Report 2011, the regional cities of England and Wales are seeing strong rental growth – 4.1 per cent, compared to London, which recorded a 3.6 per cent fall in 2010. In Liverpool, home to three universities and 53,000 students, rents in the last academic year increased by 13 per [...]

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Figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders show the dramatic uplift in the value of deposits needed by first-time house buyers: from just £12,000 in 2007 to £26,000 today. This represents 87 per cent of their median salary compared to 41 per cent four years ago. The CML described the issue as the “biggest challenge” [...]

Continue reading " First Time House Buyer Deposits Equal To A Year’s Salary "

Average house prices in central London have risen £767 every day over the last year, according to the latest figures from agents Knight Frank. · Capital values rose 1% in April, contributing to an annual rate of growth of 8.3% · Typical prime central London properties saw prices rise by £767 every day over the [...]

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New house sellers’ asking prices are now the highest for three years, according to Rightmove, at an average of £238,874 across the UK.  Rising values have been supported by a combination of scarce numbers of new properties coming on to the market and sustained low interest rates. The current average price is now just 1.5 [...]

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The widening divide between London property prices and the rest of the UK has become ever clearer over the second half of 2010 and the first half of 2011.  But within London’s many distinct areas, there are further distinctions which are now becoming evident. According to Winkworth estate agency, while overall London residential property values [...]

Continue reading " Islington Outperforms The London Property Market "

With the publication of the Sunday Times Rich List in mid-May, we turn our attention to the most expensive towns in England.  So in reverse order: 10. Sevenoaks in Kent, where properties cost just under £470,000 on average and have gone up by 53 per cent over the past five years.  Just half an hour [...]

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The average cost of a home dropped 1.4 per cent during April to £160,395, the lowest level since July 2009, according to the latest Halifax house price index This means that values were 3.7 per cent lower during the three months to the end of April than during the same three months of the previous [...]

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News from the Land Registry that average property prices fell by 1.1 per cent in March to £160,996, with other surveys painting a similar picture of tiny falls, or tiny rises, has caused commentators and property experts to bemoan the ‘stagnation’ of the market. Certainly from one point of view, stagnation is a bad sign, [...]

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