Judging you on the strengths of your property portfolio; your financial success and your overall personal achievements in the private rental sector; this award is a great opportunity to get yourself recognised as a professional landlord and in turn establish your property portfolio.

Win this award, and you’ll no doubt have no problems finding tenants to fill your property lets!

If you haven’t managed to keep track of this event so far, here is a list of the top 3 finalists (for every region) that the NLA announced last week:

• East of England: Myra McNeil, Karen Murray and Irene Turner
• East Midlands: Tracey Abbiss, Rachel Hutchinson and Tamsin Sapwell
• London: Georgina Bloomfield, Bindar Dosanjh and Coral Humes
• North East: Juliet Ashton-Taylor, Maria Beckwith and Joan Briggs
• North West: Christine Jones, Sylvia Marrs and Tammy Silcock
• Scotland: Mhairi Noble, Nora Rojas-Sinclair and Elaine Stenson
• South East: Anna Bowden, Diane Fry and Hasmita Reardon
• South West: Claire Heale, Anne Jarrett and Fiona Macaskill
• Wales: Jane James, Elizabeth Paterson and Lilly Sharma
• West Midlands: Samantha Collett, Amy Dixon and Glenda Houston
• Yorkshire and The Humber: Shona Davison, Lesley Jackson and Sandra Widdrington

This list definitely goes to show that you don’t have to be a man to be a successful property investor. To my knowledge there were hundreds of entrants for this competition – proof that buy to let is truly for everyone.

But this is not all…

For female property investors who have also managed to remain eco-conscious with their property lets  – despite the recession – the NLA have also announced plans to give a further 2 awards for being environmentally friendly.

And for those under 30, there is also the chance to win the NLA’s Young Property Woman Awards.

I personally can’t wait to hear the results. Every one of these women deserves the chance to win, so it is destined to be a tough competition.

Wendy xx

In this article, property website reallymoving.com noticed a significant difference of up to 174 cubic feet between property owners in the North and the South of the UK, and it got me thinking that perhaps the amount of valuables we own actually affects the types of properties we invest in.

For instance, Londoners are reputed to own 737 cubic feet of possessions, whilst property owners in the North East generally own as much as 911 cubic feet.

Now this may look like nothing, but when you factor in to the equation the fact that 1) Londoners tend to move a lot (due to their jobs) and 2) they can only afford smaller property spaces the closer they move into the city centre, then it is no wonder than Londoners own so little. Property prices and where you live can affect how much you own!

Is this true of the whole UK?

After reading this, I began digging round looking into other regions across the UK to see if the results were similar, and to be truthful they were pretty spot on.

Taking into consideration that 1 large sofa equates to 45 cubic feet, a bed 40 cubic feet and a TV just 3 cubic feet, the results speaks for themselves:

• East of England – 911 cubic feet
• Midlands – 891 cubic feet
• South England – 877 cubic feet
• Wales – 868 cubic feet
• South West England – 856 cubic feet
• North West England – 844 cubic feet
• North East England – 828 cubic feet
• Northern Ireland – 783 cubic feet
• Scotland – 788 cubic feet
• London – 737 cubic feet

As a rule, the more expensive the location (apart from Scotland and Northern Ireland), the fewer possessions these property owners tended to own!

But what really fascinated me was how this knowledge could easily be used to influence which property investments you invest in. For example have the info to recognise that property owners in the Midlands own more possessions than those in Scotland and you can invest proportionately towards your tenants needs and ensure a greater tenancy demand.

It is definitely a crazy idea but definitely worth bearing in mind, the next time you invest.

Wendy xx

Essentially, all first time buyers will now be exempt from paying stamp duty fees on property investments valued above £250,000 – which is fantastic news for anyone who has previously struggled to climb onto the property ladder.

However what concerns me most about this new stamp duty holiday is the government’s definition of a first time buyer, and similarly, how they are going to ensure that only first time buyers take advantage.

Currently you are exempt from taking advantage of this tax relief if:

• You have inherited a property – even if you don’t buy this property, should you wish to invest in property at a later date you won’t be classed as a first time buyer
• You are a young buy to let investor – can only take advantage if the property is your first and only main home
• You are a divorcee -  even if you are investing independently for the first time you will be disqualified from this relief
• You own a static caravan -  by law you legally own the land beneath your temporary holiday home and are therefore exempt

Yet, despite these clear distinctions from the government on whom they class to be a ‘first time buyer’, there are in fact few methods available to help regulate this scheme.

Take this for instance…

Say you invest in a property. It is your solicitor’s responsibility to tick the box which defines whether or not you are a first time buyer. MEANING they could easily help you to bypass this rule and harness this tax relief.

Next, take in the fact that previous property owners can no longer be held on the land registry. For the government to be able to check and identify whether or not you have previously owned a property, they will have to do a lot of delving, which means a lot of research and a lot of hard work!

With such easy loopholes, it does make you wonder why the government doesn’t just open up this stamp duty holiday to all property owners. It would definitely save them a lot of hassle whilst benefiting the property market as a whole. Hopefully they will see sense.

Wendy xx

Each of these 3 lenders have FINALLY reduced their deposit sizes/interest rates which is fantastic news for property investors like you and me as it will give us more cash to invest elsewhere!

Here the best ones that I have found to date – there are even a few 90% LTV’s in there:

London & Country:

• 3 year fixed rate 80% LTV Loan of 6.49% -  there is a £995 arrangement fee though so be careful to add this to your calculations

Nottingham Building Society

• 3 year fixed rate 70%  LTV loan of 5.59% – this is 0.3% cheaper a month than it used to be despite having a 70% LTV

NatWest

• 2 year tracker 70% LTV loan of 4.99%
• 2 year fixed rate 70% LTV loan now available for only 3.55%
• 2 year fixed rate 70% LTV loan now available for 3.65%
• 2 year fixed rate 90% LTV loan now available for 5.69%
• 3 year fixed rate 70% LTV loan now available for 5.89%

NOTE: all of NatWest’s tracker deals have an arrangement fee of £1,999, whilst their fixed rate deals have traditionally got an arrangement fee of £999.

Hopefully these drops in deposit sizes will prompt other mortgage lenders to act more competitively, so there is more choice in terms of mortgages. We will have to wait and see…

Wendy xx

P.S. If you spot any better buy to let deals out there please let me know and post them here. Thanks x

However, I did spot an article today which has given me some hope that the Budget Report tomorrow will present better opportunities for investors.

In this article, the National Landlords Association had essentially asked the government to recognise the importance of the private rental sector; its influence upon the economy and the need to re-evaluate current housing taxes.

And I have to confess that should they occur, it would make for a better market place…

The key 5 they addressed were capital gains tax, VAT, council tax, stamp duty land tax and the ‘Rent-a-Room’ Scheme – all of which play a fundamental role in our investment decisions.

Now if you haven’t already heard about this, here is a quick summary of what the NLA want to come from the 2010 budget report tomorrow:

Capital Gains Tax: At the moment property investors like you and me are excluded from ‘roll-over’ relief which enables us to release capital gains. However, the NLA are proposing that the government remove this rule so we can utilise this roll-over relief to renovate and modernise our property investments.

What does this mean for property investors? You will have more cash to maximise your property lets rental returns and accessibility to tenants.

VAT: The NLA want to reduce the rates for property renovations/home improvements down to the lowest levels possible of just 5%.

What does this mean for property investors? Yes I have to admit that there are currently plenty of provisions available to help property investors bring their property lets to a higher standard, but by lowering rates to just 5% this will present a much more attractive prospect for property investors who haven’t got the cash to renovate.

Council Tax: Now you’re probably already aware that local authorities differ in the amount of council tax their charge which can prove incredibly frustrating when you have got multiple property lets across the country. Under the NLA’s direction, they want the government to provide local authorities with clearer distinctions on how much council tax should be to help prevent further confusion.

What does this mean for property investors? The more uniform council taxes become, the easier it will be for you to maximise affordable and much-needed accommodation for the property market.

Stamp Duty Land Tax: The existing ‘slab system’ is calculated based on fixed rates in arbitrary price bands. The NLA want the government to reform this system as well as enable multiple property investments to be treated as individual properties instead of as bulk transactions.

What does this mean for property investors? If you are the type of property investors who prefers to buy in bulk, you will now be able to save on the cost of stamp duties. The existing problem with buying properties in bulk is that it is easy to end up paying 4% in stamp duties because 5 properties worth £100,000 have passed the threshold. However have the freedom to pay stamp duties on properties individually and in this situation there will be no cost at all.

‘Rent-a-Room’ Scheme: Basing their argument on the same used by the ‘Raise the Roof’ campaign which argues that property owners are being put off from taking lodgers due to the obstacle of having to fill in a tax return form. The NLA believe by simply raising the tax-free threshold from £4,250 to £9,000 a year property owners will feel more inclined to take on lodgers.

What does this mean for property investors? By sharing their properties and leasing them to lodgers, this will help to ease the growing property shortage occurring across the UK.

See what I mean?

Hopefully the government will see sense tomorrow and implement these changes proposed by the NLA. We will just have to wait and see.

Wendy xx

That is why it is with great happiness that I reveal that leading lenders Santanders are increasing the maximum loan sizes of their mortgages.

Admittedly this news would have been better if these increases were applicable to everyone, but the point to take away from this particular story is the fact that competition is increasing amongst lenders. More importantly, the property market is becoming increasingly accessible to first time buyers again.

To sum up what has happened, Santanders have revealed plans to:

• Change the limit for first time buyers investing in new apartments from 70% LTV to 80% LTV
• Change the limit for investing in property from 80% LTV to 90% LTV

Whilst Santanders also divulged in their report that newly built property developments will remain at 70% LTV for apartments and 80% LTV for houses (for non-first time buyers), it is impossible to see the down side of this news. Especially as I imagine that it won’t be long before other leading lenders change their criteria to include existing property investors too.

All we can do is hope that the competition gets so hot that everyone benefits from deposit reductions and that buy to let mortgages get cut a break.

Wendy xx

Take this news story I read about this morning…

Over 6,400 property investors who own second homes in Cyprus may now be at risk of losing their land following the case of Linda and David Oram who have been ordered to give back their land to a Greek Cypriot refugee – all without any hope of compensation!

According to the article, this 5 year long case was initially sparked back in 2004 after Greek Cypriot refugee Apostolides went to the Nicosia Courts and put in a claim against the Oram’s land stating it was his and that he had fled it after Turkish troops invaded in 1974.

Now having been through the Nicosia Court, the European Court of Justice and just recently the Court of Appeals in London, all 3 Courts have ruled in favour of Apostolides stating that the land is rightfully his. As a result they have ordered the couple to demolish their second home; return the land; pay Apostolides damages and worst of all, pay him a monthly rent until the land is properly returned.

It is ridiculous to think about the number of cases which are now going to spring up as a result of this case. Especially as in all cases it is neither the property investors nor the Greek Cypriots fault, but those who took the land and sold it without checking its history in the first place.

According to UK and Greek Cypriot officials, more than 1,400 Britons are living on land which is believed to belong to Greek Cypriot refugees, whilst a further 5,000 are living on self-declared Turkish Cypriot land whose title deeds are held by displaced Greek Cypriots.

Add them together and that is a lot of property investors who could potentially lose thousands if not hundreds of thousands of pounds should they be taken to Court.

This case really goes to show, the importance of researching your property and consequently its land first before investing. No matter where it is located – UK or overseas – title deeds and land disputes can really mess up your investments if you are not aware of them when you invest. The outcome may not be as extreme as the Oram’s – who had to demolish their home – but you could still lose thousands of pounds unnecessarily.

Wendy xx

In the past, any homeowner looking to sell their property in Scotland would first have to advertise their property and give a minimum property price quote, before inviting buyers to put in ‘offers over’ bids.

Now what always used to fascinate me about this process was the fact that these quotes didn’t have to be accurate estimations. Using set guidelines, sellers could in fact set a minimum bid for their property which could cause buyers to place bids more than 25% above their original quote. Meaning not only could they benefit from guaranteed capital returns, but they could easily use this extra cash to invest in their property.

However, this has now all changed…

Following the introduction of the ‘Home Report’ last year – which are the equivalent of our HIPs – homeowners must now provide an accurate valuation price of their property, meaning they can no longer experience such sizeable returns.

In fact, Home Reports have impacted on their investment system so much that ‘offers over’ are rarely seen nowadays. Instead sellers are choosing to market their properties under an ‘offers around’ scheme which if they are lucky can generate them some capital, but nowhere close to what they were used to.

I have to admit, that this change to their property investment system has made Scotland a much more accessible location for property investment. Notoriously lower in price compared to properties in the Southern regions of the UK, all the myth – and overspending – behind this region has gone, making their system not that far from their own.

Even their ‘offers around’ is basically a similar version of our own general bidding system where the highest value is usually accepted by homeowners.

I can honestly say that I am thoroughly looking forward to getting stuck into the Scottish property market now it is less of a mystery.

After all, with average house prices of £155,691, and rental incomes of £907.63 a month (based on a 4 bedroom property), the returns far outweigh the investment cost.

Wendy xx

Fortunately I have never had to go through this process myself, but I have had many close friends who through lack of tenants have lost their properties because they have not been able to afford their mortgages. Yet even they have never been subjected to the process where their property was repossessed without the interjection of the courts.

It is startling to think that lenders would go to such extremes to protect their finances when simple negotiations could easily help homeowners to begin making payments again. But according to an article I was recently reading this malpractice by lenders is more common than you imagine…

Currently is it within a lenders legal right to repossess and sell your property – without seeking either your agreement or the courts – should you fall into arrears of over 2 months.

Now you could arguably say ‘fair enough, you didn’t pay so you deserve to lose your property’, but under current rulings lenders are meant to seek all other routes possible before turning to repossession. MEANING repossession is only meant to be used as a last resort.

Yet, rogue lenders such as GMAX-RFC have supposedly repossessed borrower’s properties using this legal loophole time and time again.

In one legal case against them, a judge ruled in favour of GMAX-RFC after they sold the property of a borrower who had fallen into arrears – without telling them – before letting them get evicted by the new owner on the grounds of trespassing. Now I don’t know about you, but that is not only harsh, it is also extremely underhanded.

Thankfully, the government is now seeking to abolish this legal loophole to help protect homeowners. However what concerns me is how this loophole was ever allowed to happen in the first place?

Surely when creating the law, someone should have been able to spot the dangerous potential of this loophole when harnessed by the wrong lenders and write in clauses to prevent it happening. It scary to think how many poor homeowners may have lost their homes due to this loophole, when it could have easily been prevented by a court intervention.

Only time will tell whether or not more homeowners will come forward against these rogue lenders, but it definitely puts into perspective the need for greater awareness by homeowners of the laws which can work against them.

Wendy xx

Not only are Google proposing to make their website free – thus helping estate agents to advertise their ‘properties for sale’ for no cost at all – but estate agents will also be able to list their properties in a layer on Google maps.

And with this little gismo on board, it will make it even easier for property investors like you and me to view these properties as we will be able to get a Street View of this property and all its listings.

How will this website impact investors?

Now I am not being callous when I say this, but I am quite excited about the prospect of having access to another property website.

Yes I kind of feel sorry for Rightmove, who currently advertises 90% of the properties which are for sale in the UK – within a day of this rumour being launched their FSTE fell by 10%. But what Google are offering is a property investment route which is free from the costs and complications of extortionate estate agent fees.

Instead you will be able to focus on picking from a huge database of properties that estate agents have willingly supplied because they don’t have to pay for advertising.

At the moment this is still all speculation, and Google are choosing to not comment on whether or not it is true, but considering the success of their Australian property portal and the fact that property experts believe it will be launched in 2010, it is hard not to get excited.

What have Rightmove got to say?

Rightmove supposedly are not concerned about this move by Google as they strongly believe Estate Agents are more interested in raising their brand awareness than getting more properties online. However I’m highly sceptical about this.

Think about it a moment… In the current economic climate, Estate Agents need all the help they can get to sell their properties and a free advertising portal is more than ideal when the majority of buyers/property investors are searching the web.

Either way, should Google go ahead with their plans there will be plenty of property sources to choose from. The question is though: who will win out?

Wendy xx