Latest News/Blogs
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Are Self-Build Homes The Answer To London’s Housing Crisis?
We’ve become used to hearing controversial tales of councils and property developers carving up London’s regeneration schemes with profit first and local needs second: this week it’s Earls Court and the Royal Mail’s Mount Pleasant project. Our city halls, like counterparts in other great cities, are grappling with the scale…
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How Much Do You Know About Your Borough’s Twin Towns?
Do you know which town(s) across the world your borough is twinned with? For many of us, town twinning rarely affects our day to day lives, except the odd photo of a group of German exchange students appearing in the local paper, so it’s no surprise if you don’t. Many…
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Climb in number of tenants in serious rent arrears
The number of tenants in serious rent arrears has risen to the highest level for two years. The claim comes this morning from LSL chains Your Move and Reeds Rains. They estimate that there are now 74,000 tenants owing more than two months rent, as of the end of the…
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Buy-to-let boom…. gloom and doom one in five landlords could be bankrupt
Everybody reads about how lucrative it is to be a landlord causing a new influx of investors coming into the sector; however a new report is claiming that this may not be the case, as one in five landlords over the next two years may be forced out of the…
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Why Is There No NE Or S London Postcode District?
The price of your house, the school your children go to and even your willingness (or not) to admit to the specifics of your address can change significantly depending which postcode area you live in. If you’ve ever stopped to think about the London postcode districts, you may have noticed an…
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How This One Decision Could Affect All London Rentals
If London rentals are not familiar with the term ‘selective licensing’, you’re about to be. Designed as a tool for councils to regulate landlords, its pros and cons have been hotly contested across and beyond London as part of the endless debate over cleaning up the private rented sector. Far…
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Landlords Avoid Property Management And Complaints
A survey of 500 landlords suggest the vast majority want to avoid contact with tenants and instead want letting agents to handle property management and complaints. The results of the survey, conducted last month, show that over 85 per cent of landlords don’t want to deal directly with tenants and almost 90…
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Newham Council Prosecutes 492 Landlords
Newham Council prosecutes 492 Landlords since its licensing scheme came into force in the last two and a half years. The figures were released last week after a house in East Ham was raided and a tenant claimed he was paying £500 a month to stay in a room that…
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Is the Government back-tracking over longer-term tenancies?
Housing minister Brandon Lewis has backtracked on suggestions that the government may introduce longer standard tenancy agreements in the private rental sector. Back in September of last year, speaking at the RESI conference, Lewis launched the government’s model tenancy agreement, which went to consultation with the industry. At the time…
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Young Investors Keen To Purchase A Buy-To-Let Property
As many as four million 18 to 39-year-olds are actively trying to purchase a buy-to-let property to cash in on the boom, new research suggests. Almost half of young people believe that becoming an amateur landlord is the best investment available, according to new research by letting agent Rentify. Many…
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Petition against rental tax change nears 14,000 signatures
A petition to oppose the proposed change in buy to let landlords’ rental tax breaks is nearing the 14,000-signature mark – but still has some way to go to force the government to consider a debate on the subject. By passing the 10,000-signature threshold, as it did last week, the…
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Landlord Action: More evictions should be transferred to the High Court
Landlord Action has appealed to the Ministry of Justice to transfer more evictions to the High Court. The eviction specialists claim the length of time it is taking to get a County Court bailiff appointment once a possession order has been granted – in some cases up to three months…