UK tenants net salary goes on rent payments

and East Midlands and 33% in South-West and Wales, to a severe upswing of 36% in the south-East.

The Rightmove, had warned 61% of tenants to expect their rent to be higher in 12 moths’ time. "This is unique evidence of a rental squeeze that may be leaving some tenants with little, or no, headroom left to pay more," says Rightmove director Miles Shipside.

The report further noted the presence of trapped renters who are forced to pay rents to their landlords as they are not able to access a mortgage loan.

The reasons that can be attributed to this effect are certainly the inequilibrium between the supply and demand for rented properties and higher standard of living.  The demand is seen exceeding the supply, thereby, making rental payment double and therefore this situation.

This could lead to situations like allowing more people to stay as tenants in one house, more grown-up kids to live with their parents, etc.

Calls for rent controls have been going on in UK but landlords and property think tanks are of the view that tapping the rental rent would further accelerate the demand, leading to excessive rental prices. This situation, however, unreasonable and rude, is seen to bring the demand supply equilibrium in the rental market.

The National Landlords Association is in stiff opposition with regards to capping the rents. Chris Norris, head of policy, at the NLA says: "Government intervention through rent controls would be counter-productive to encouraging supply at a time when it is so badly needed.

"Past experience shows that imposing artificial controls on the market deters investment, which is the last thing anyone wants. Previous rent controls resulted in the shrinking of the private rented sector to just 8% in the late 1980s.

"Rent control, or the artificial suppression of rents, may also serve as a barrier to further investment in the stock of private rented properties, as the rent generated was historically often too low to allow the landlord to operate a proper maintenance regime without making a financial loss."

We have already seen the negative impacts of rent rise on peoples income. The figures we see paint a worrying picture of rented households in UK, who are doing all that they can just to keep a safe roof over their heads amidst this down trending economy.

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UK buy-to-let market on a positive growth trajectory

According to the survey carried out by UK’s leading estate research company, it has been noticed that UK’s landlords are extremely positive about the buy-to-let market in UK. According to the survey held by CHL Mortgages, 71% of the respondents indicated that they were positive about the growth and stability of the buy-to-let market, whereas 5% of them indicted their negativity in terms of sector’s growth and stability.

However, dwelling deep into the reasons for this positive growth trajectory of buy-to-let market, many reasons could be attributed to this trend. One of the key factor of this positivity is intense confidence in tenant demand. The market trend shows a rise in tenant demands for private lets. The economic hardship in Eurozone continues making the cost of living higher, making wage earners wanting to spend their income in renting a house rather than buying a property. It is this increased demand which has led to increased rental rates.

This is decreasing the number of first- time- buyers. The reason behind it lies in the fact that more and more people in UK are turning to buy-to-let mortgages. According to the Landlord Expert, the Council of Mortgage lenders has seen a growth by 32%  in buy-to-let mortgages given to the landlords in the first quarter of 2012 itself, making a total of 32, 300 mortgages.

It is this very fact seen perpetuating the growing demand and thus promising stability of the buy-to-let market in UK’s housing market. The more the trend to continue, the more is good for this sector and less profitable and attractive for first-time properties on sale.

All in all, this sector is seen growing at robust rate, thanks to the growing rental demand and squeezing standard of living in UK.

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How to choose a right tenant - some useful tips

If you're a landlord out there and after showing many prospective tenants your house has been liked by one of such tenant, then it is for sure a sign of relief for you. But before fully finalizing your deal, here are some of the guidelines that you should go through and follow when you choose a tenant for you house.

Here are a few tips on choosing a right tenant:

1. The most essential tip of choosing a right tenant for your property lies in the fact of getting up-to-date references of the tenant from his former landlord and his present employer. The information will help the landlord know as to how regular was the tenant in paying rents, what are his habits, good, bad, the time he used to come home, was he messy or cultured and civilized in nature, etc. From the employer valuable information in terms of his work ethics, of how regular and hardworking he is at his work. The landlord will have to ensure the authenticity of the information and that of the people who have referred as well. As these days, friends can lie and be approached for writing references.
2. The second most essential tip is to ask for the tenant’s identity documents. As these days, people who don’t have good working record, or have bad image, or wants a house on rent for doing unethical works, do create wrong identity documents. It is therefore of uttermost importance to ask, check and verify personal identity documents of the tenants, such as birth certificate, passport, driving license, etc. This will ensure landlord’s trust for his/her tenant.
3. The next most essential thing to get it known of tenant is his affordability. More often than not, a prospective tenant might often want to go for a better furnished house which always costs higher. Even if the rent is out of his capacity to pay, he would still want to live on rent in that house. Then there would surge the problem of non-payment of rent resulting into arrears in rent. To avoid such a situation, it is therefore, advisable to ask the current employer of the tenant about his wage/salary and get it known that the amount might change later on. This information will help landlord know if his rent income would be regular or not.

So, if you are a landlord and have already found a tenant for your house, then you should only finalize the deal once all of the enlisted three things have been given to you by him. If you feel satisfied after verifying, only then should you finalize the deal.

However hassled process it may be, but the aforesaid tips must be any landlords list for his tenant, if he wants his house to be in safe hands and wants regular income from rent.

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Tenants kicked out in the run-up to London Olympics

In the run –up to the London Olympics, to be held from July 27, trends of tenant evictions are reported. It has been reported that the landlords are asking the tenants to leave their houses so that they can rent it the tourists who’ll be coming to see the games.

For this, the tenants are usually illegally evicted by giving them no notice or a lesser time or else they are being made to sign a clause that for the particular time period, the tenants shall have to make some other arrangement and they can come back and stay after the Olympics.

The private landlords are leaving no stone unturned to seek higher profits from this event.  With more than a lakh visitors would be coming to see the Olympics and with the only availability of around 110. 000 hotel rooms in London, thus, most of the landlords are seen capitalizing on this issue in order to make killer profits.

According to the report by Property Wire web site, it revealed, that there has been an increase in the short term lets by 35% available in London’s Olympic boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest.

All this has an effect on the rental market in London and that is the fact that the rent rates would in future be seen increasing.  To add on, a website has been launched called campinmygarden.com for people to set up tents temporarily in the backyard.

To this, the UK Housing Minister, Grant Shapps said: "Landlords should be under no doubt that it is a criminal offence for them to evict a tenant without giving proper notice, and that anyone found guilty of doing this - or of harassing a tenant - could lead to a custodial sentence of up to two years."

All in all, the playing of Olympics in London, would certainly enhance its image in the world over and that it will help strengthen its Global brand image, but what is more ironic is the fact that the locals are a part of the place, either as students from other countries who have come to study or work or people who just can’t afford to buy, are being kicked off for a temporal period only as  to woo the  visitors.

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Leasing your house is a better choice than selling

"Buying a house in London Costs a fortune" is as true as another statement which is "Selling a house in London is what fools do!"

Why sell a property for just £400,000 to £600,000 when the same property will generate for you the annual revenue of £18,000 to £21,000 for as many years you want to and the property is still owned by you!

Most people would think that leasing their property is a headache and as a result they are inclined to sell their properties instead of the profitable leasing, are you one of them? Well then you've got the wrong idea, Leasing your property is a piece of cake!

Reserving your piece of cake and letting you know that selling a house in London is what fools do, let us help you explore the benefits of letting the properties in London.

Renting allows you to get a steady income from your already invested property. The biggest advantage of renting a property in London is that you do not need to gather a substantial amount of money or property to mortgage, required to buy any property. The fact that the housing prices and the home loans too are getting expensive in London, buying a home wouldn’t be a good option. Since you don’t own a house, you avoid the maintenance cost incurred to keep the property intact. With number of immigrants continually coming to London for work or to study, they for sure are not keen on buying a property and renting a property to this market is indeed a profitable option for property holders of London.

Moreover, keeping in mind the current price scenario, selling a house wouldn’t fetch you more, and until you wait for the market to come to your terms, it is good to rent your house. 

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Rent costs rose in January

In a report released by the LSL Property, London, claimed an average rise in rent by 0.1% in January. 

As a result the, the rent inflation rose to 4.3% from 4% in December.

Looking at the regional changes in the rent rates, it was observed that West Midlands and South West areas registered the highest rate change in rate at a monthly basis to 1.8% and 1.5% respectively.

However, rents fell in four regions. The biggest declines were in the East of England and Wales, where they fell by 1.7% and 1.5%.The largest annual increases were in London where rents rose by 6.3%. The next biggest increase was in the East of England where rents rose by 5%. Rents fell in the North East by 0.7%, although the rate of annual decline slowed from 1.3% in December.

The possible reasons that can be attributed to rise in rental rates are:

• Unusually high number of tenants looking for a limited number of property in London
• Low rates on Mortgage lending loans but still many are reluctant to opt for this option, therefore renting  being a main one
• Rental arrears also remained high in January, according to LSL, with 10.7% of all rent late or unpaid at the end of the month.

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The use of internet for housing and real estate

The advent of internet has definitely made the real estate industry flourish. Known as the Internet Real Estate, the medium has allowed the online promotion of real estate.  The medium provides real estate companies to come up with their big property portals which are a sort of online inventory of information on homes to buy and let.

Not only that, there are many websites, which bring listings together from lots of sites to one convenient place.  These sites also help you find a job once you’ve settled. These websites also provide you with the information nearby areas, about places where you can roam, places where you shop, places where you can keep your child for education, how good are the local services, is the area pollution free, flood plain, earthquake prone, etc. 

As a buyer you might also want to know as to how many homes in the similar area have been sold for. For this you can search Land Registry data via a number of third party websites.
Many property portals also provide with the email alerts, in case if you are waiting for the right property to come available. There are online Removal companies as well that provides helpful information with respect to the cost of moving.

Indeed, internet is a medium that provides you with abundance power right with a click. Looking for renting and buying house was never so easier. Thanks to the INTERNET for making prospective buyers and tenants so powerful merely by the use of their fingertips.

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