To Buy or To Rent.... That is the question 

May 2013 saw property transactions rise to 89,050 up from 75,350 the previous May, a increase of 137,000.

These figures would make us believe that buying a house is getting easier and the property market is on the up, but is it?

These figures don't tell us who is buying these properties and with wage increases still very weak compared to inflation and house price growth coupled with record low interest rates keeping borrowing low, it would be easy to think FTBs were back in the running, however with lending criteria stricker than ever and the average house price five times the average wage as well as 20pc+ deposits needed, it could be fair to say that FTBs are still no closer to getting on the property ladder.

The buy-to-let market on the other hand is on the increase this is the first time since the 60s that more people have been in private rentals than living in local authority housing.

An estimated 17pc of UK households are now in Private rental accommodation that's approx 8million people with almost 1/2 of these renters over 35 and a 3rd with children.

So is buying really still the dream we all aspire to? The UK as a whole has a culture of owning your own home, however just across the water France and Germany have an opposite mindset where renting is the norm seeing the average tenancy signed for 5yrs+, so is renting the way forward for the next UK generation? Let's weight up the options.

Buying

Owning your own home can offer stability as most people stay in a property for many years, but this option also offers less flexibility should your circumstances change, redundancy is a reality for everyone and should the worst happen, you could be stuck with a house on the market and increasing mortgage arrears.

On the flip side, should you need a few extra ££s each month, as a home owner you can rent out a spareroom to a lodger, something tenants in a rental property would not be allowed to do.

Then there's the costs, your home will need regular maintenance and of course the dreaded unforeseen problems such as a broken down washing machine or even a new boiler, all expenses that you may not have budgeted for but will need to be covered.

Owning your own home does offer investment for the future depending on the type of mortgage you have and as long as house prices stick or grow, you can also relax and live in your home how you wish, you can decorate,put up pictures and even have a family pet, in most cases tenants are tied to tight restrictions in these areas.

Finally, but by no means the end of the pros and cons, is the cost, FTBs will be faced with a big initial outlay including deposit, mortgage fee, surveys, stamp duty (house prices £125k and over) and not forgetting the estate agents cut.

Renting

Renting is no longer frowned upon as a 'poor' option as it may have been in the past, with the number of landlords increasing the availability of good quality affordable homes is changing the view of renting and giving young professionals and families the homes they currently wouldn't be able to get a mortgage for.

Renting offers many options including trying a new area for a few months before committing to buy there, flexibility and freedom to move around with work or to upsize or downsize as needed.

The finances stack up in rentals favour too, the initial outlay is minimal compared to buying, a 6week deposit, 1st months rent and agent fees is all a renter needs to budget for. But renting means you don't have the property at the end and money that could have been paid towards your mortgage is actually paying someone else's.

But as a tenant you save on the maintenance costs, broken appliances and general repairs are a cost that would fall to your landlord not you and the set amount of rent being paid each month will make it easy to budget and put away savings that you know won't be 'dipped into' by unforeseen expenses.

More and more people are renting so is it really better to rent or buy? The page is still unwritten for that chapter

To charge or not to charge...

This morning the media is once again awash with reports of Letting agents 'ripping off' tenants by charging high fees to create a tenancy.

On BBC radio 4 this morning Shelter stated that they believe letting agents should not charge tenants anything other than rent and deposit as they landlord is already paying for the same service.

I sit on two fences here, 1 as a letting agent and 2 as a a tenant, so I see this from 3 angles, as  a business, as tenant and I also see my landlords point of view on this too.

Firstly, to correct Shelters comments, the tenant and the landlord do not pay for the same service, the landlord is my client and paying me for my service, this includes, ensuring the property is fit to rent out (you'd be surprised what some landlords will try and rent) 

Advise on the correct and achievable rental value (not necessarily what the landlord thinks its worth) 

Inform the landlord of his legal obligations and ensure all the legal inspections are done, Gas cert, EPC, electrical test(although not a legal requirement it is strongly recommended)

Then we advertise the property and with the extremly high costs of the property portals as well as local papers this in itself can eat into any landlords budget.

This list obviously is not exhausted but it gives an idea. Now with all this in mind we have to do all this and more for a fee that both us as a business and the landlord as the client is happy with.

On the flipside, as a tenant I'm afraid there are a few costs involved there, the landlord does not pay for you to be referenced, if he did just think how many applicants he may have to pay for. 

So this cost falls to the potential tenants, this shows that someone is serious about renting the property, now the cost for this should not break the bank, at the risk of putting my head above the parapit here, a good full reference will cost an agent between £20-£30 per tenant, so with a profit in mind, I can not see why any agent could charge a tenant over £100? 

The issue we have is an increase in people needing to rent and an increase in agents who know full well that there is nothing stopping them setting their own prices.

We do not need to follow in Scotlands' footsteps and abolish tenants fees altogether because all this will do is increase the cost to landlords, who in turn will cover these costs by increasing rents.

All we need to do is set the bar on reasonable fees and unlike all other legislation which comes in and slips under the public radar, the government needs to ensure there is a full media campaign to make sure the people that matter, the public are aware of what they should be expecting to be charged by a letting agent.

Rogue agents targeted by BBC Watchdog

Letting agents once again came under fire tonight this time in the spotlight of BBC1’s Watchdog, which highlighted a more high profile case than normal, that of the actor Nigel Havers who found himself a victim of a Manchester letting agents, who made him pay 6 months money up front then promptly told him at month 5 his landlord had sold his flat and he had to move out.

Now you and me both know that this practice goes on and we know that is it not legal nor is it ethical, but if tenants are not aware of their rights and do not know where to turn for advice, stories like this will continue to make media headlines.

The piece emphasised that even though Estate agents are legally required to be a member of a redress scheme since 2008, letting agents to date still do not have to be a member of any governing body nor do they need to belong to any ombudsman, although it is recommended.

The piece went onto show how some agents ‘top up’ their income by forcing tenants to use the agents energy supplier, writing terms into the tenancy agreement that would have tenants believe they have no right to change supplier and find the best tariff for their usage.

More worrying is that the agents named and shamed in the story were not dodgy backstreet agents, they were High street leading names, who should be monitored by the bodies that claim to be at the height of regulating the agents that pay to join them

I find it mind boggling and extremely frustrating that the powers that be still allow this to happen, even after hundreds of thousands of tenants and landlords alike are ripped off or conned daily by rogue agents, yet ministers still drag their heels umming and ahhing as to whether it’s a good idea.

The irony of this watchdog article is that it was aired during SafeAgent week…. Something that is highly publicised within the industry yet the people that it needs to reach, the general public, remain totally unaware of its existence or what it stands for.

Landlords to be fined for housing illegal immigrants

Earlier today the Queens speech will take place in Parliament, part of this speech will focus on the Immigration Bill which the coalition government hopes will reduce the number of illegal immigrants entering the country, however in true Cameron style he has decided to pass the buck to anyone and everyone following repeated failures of UK Border Control.

Landlords have been targeted once again in the fight against immigration with rulings coming into force today that see landlords being made fully responsible for checking the immigration status of potential tenants, including verifying passports and immigration visas.

The first foreseeable problem here is that most of the 2million buy-to-let landlord in the UK would not know what a forged passport or visa would look like, secondly if copies of these documents are taken by landlords are they then expected to registered under one of the data protection schemes and be legally obliged to keep documents for 6 years.

With the bill threatening hefty fines, running into thousands of pounds for landlord who fail to check immigration status, the big question will be who is to blame if tenants documents turn out to he forged. If a landlord uses an agent to find a tenant will the onus then be on the agent to check immigration status and the landlords responsibility removed.

As always when the governments targets the rental sector not all the boxes are ticked before laws are passed and brought into force, the burning question has to be who and how will this new law be policed, currently there is no national register for landlord nor is there a standalone regulating body for lettings agents, so how will the government be able to check that every rental property only houses a legal occupant.

Currently the government can not even track the number of rogue agents and landlord who are not protecting deposits a law that came into force over 6 years ago and with so many immigrants entering the UK under the radar already, it seems as though Mr Cameron is doing his best to ensure he will not be to blame should this proposed regulation not work as planned, after all how can we blame a government who ensured it would be landlords responsibility to carry out the checks, most landlords are in their early years of retirement and will not be bothered with checking tenants so thoroughly.

What is needed is a national regulation of letting agents and a legal requirement to register every home for rent in the UK only then can the authorities begin to tackle the mountain of issues that trouble the sector of the industry.

Winter is here...

When i opened the curtains this morning i was pretty sure we'd had a flurry of snow, but no it was just a think frost.
The glass fronted office that dueing the summer had given endless days of oven like heat, now does the opposite and holds the cold into the office this a walk in freezer.

The phone are quiet, too quiet and so far we have had no walk ins, the only viewings are 5 we had pre-booked and we are all now wondering why we got out of our snug warm beds.

Then i get the phone call that all property managers dread...............its the local police informing me that one of my tenants a middle aged man, passed away in his sleep last night and the police have the keys to the flat.

My heart sinks, this is not my first nor will it be my last death, a hazard of the job when you are dealing with people.

I collect the keys and attend the property, i am met by a suprising situation, the flat is very untidy, smells a bit 'off'.
Back in the office I called the landlord and inform her of the incident, suprisingly all she is worried about is whether her rent will be paid...

Things liek this always put a downer on the day, we will deal with this issue as best we can on a weekend, then i will be giving the staff an early finish, think they deserve it.

Thank goodness its Friday

Its Friday, usually the wind down to the end of the week.
But not today, the phone hsnt stopped, seems the frost we hd last night has sent my tenants into meltdow

To top off my my morning I have a number of rents that are now late and as always the calls to chase this envoke some wonderful storis from tenants as to why the haven't, can't or won't be paying their rent.
My favorite so far is "well its nearly christmas, I had to buy a lot of presents, its ok though the landlords' loaded right so he won't miss it just this month"
Why do tenants assume their landlords are all millionaires? Actually this poor landlord relies on the rent to pay the mortgage, but this info falls on deaf ears.

I ring the council to chase housing benefit payments that are now also overdue, I am told by a rather confused young lady, that they "have a back log so some rents won't be paid til after xmas" great, I wonder if that line will work if I don't pay my council tax "sorry I've got a back log of other bills"
.

Once upon a time.......

Once upon a time, many years ago a young girl embarked on her journey to build her career in property, little did she know it would take over her life and become one of the most interesting choices she ever made..........

Well yes that was me over 15years ago, green around the gills and quite sure i'd be a millionaire by Christmas, but how wrong i was.

The industry has changed so much over the years and it would have been a good idea to have started this blog way back then, if blogging had existed, but we didn't even have Blackberrys back then....

This blog will follow me along my daily working life, i'm sure there will be some laughs, some tears and no doubt some tantrums and dramas, I hope you find it entertaining.

All names and addresses will be changed for obvious reasons :)