Aside from only producing 100,000 of the 400,000 new property developments they promised last year, the government is now also choosing to overlook 500,000 properties which have currently spent the last 6 months lying empty!

In a study by the Guardian, they discovered that across 75% of local authorities in the UK, more than a half a million properties are lying empty. 500,000 properties which could easily cut the growing 1.8 million social housing list by up to 25%.

Yet what shocks me more is the variety of reasons being given for why these properties are being left empty:

Alongside keeping a large proportion of private sector property developments empty to avoid incurring council tax; many local authorities have also been found to be purposefully keeping these properties empty as it guarantees them a decent government grant. Put these properties into use, and local authorities will receive a smaller grant and a less reliable council tax income!

Now I am no genius, but even I can see that these 500,000 empty properties could easily be put into better use by helping to alleviate the escalating property shortage, not just sitting there barren.

Yet in the eyes of the government this need to ‘not lose out on funding’ apparently appears to be a perfectly reasonable explanation for not pressurising local authorities into taking action. It’s ridiculous!

Wendy xx

According to research by mortgage advisors John Charcol, more than 28% of the UK property market does not know the size or cost of their mortgage rates, whilst a further 50% doesn’t know when their existing mortgage deal is going to end.

And I have to confess that this figure worried me. How can you genuinely not know this information about your mortgage? It is the biggest debt you will ever have. No other will compare… Yet it would appear that many homeowners become clueless to this information once the deal is signed.

What is more alarming for me though is the number of property investors who are probably caught up in these statistics and who are losing out on the best mortgage deals in the industry because they don’t know any better.

The size of your repayments plays a fundamental part in influencing your positive cash flow. The smaller your interest rate, the smaller your monthly repayments will be. And the smaller your monthly repayments are, the bigger your positive cash flow will be after your payments have been deducted.

And it is not like this property information is not available. I regularly receive updates from my lender, roughly once a year, detailing how much I have paid off and what my mortgage deal will default to when my existing deal ends.

But it would seem that many homeowners and even property investors too are dismissing this information…

Now if you are reading this and cannot honestly answer the following, then I thoroughly recommend that you get your property documentation out and refresh yourself. You never know… you might be at a stage in your mortgage where you can switch to a better deal:

• What is the size/cost of your mortgage rate?
• How much do you pay in repayments every month?
• When does your existing mortgage deal end?
• What will your default mortgage rate be?
• What is the term of your mortgage?

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

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

According to ISPreview.co.uk over 75% of homeowners in the UK would choose to not buy their ideal home if it did not come with broadband speeds of at least 1Mbps.

Now maybe I am just old fashioned or maybe it is because I am not so bothered about the internet, but this is possibly one of the strangest reasons I have ever found for not buying a property.

Surely there are much more pressing reasons for not investing, such as wall damp, noisy neighbours or poor bedroom sizes?  But broadband?!

Yet if you are to take ISPreview.co.uk’s study seriously it would appear that having a good broadband service is now an essential part of property investment. Meaning as property investors we too should be conscious of our rental properties broadband speeds.

Continuing in their report, ISPreview.co.uk revealed that whilst 61.7% of homeowners would prefer to have broadband speeds of over 4Mbps:

• 20% felt 4Mbps would be adequate
• 50% stated that they were open to using fixed Wi-Fi services as an alternative to having landline broadband
• 50%+ would pay more for a house which offered faster broadband access

Either way it would appear that as property investors we need to add another property requirement to our list. Especially if broadband can actually impact upon property prices and raise their values.

Wendy xx

P.S. If you are interested in reading this story, follow this link: http://www.cable.co.uk/news/broadband-services-could-impact-on-the-property-world-19449130/

Depending on where you invest and in what property types you could be paying thousands of pounds more than you’d expect.

You see, I was reading the Mail Online the other day, and I came across a story which kind of surprised me in its complexity. If I am honest I had to re-read it twice to get my head around all the contradicting figures.

Property fluctuations

Now you are probably already aware that property prices increased by 1.5% between April and June, but what you probably didn’t know – well I didn’t anyway – is that flats and maisonettes are storming ahead with 67.5% property price increases.

But they weren’t the only property types to experience a boom. Detached properties for example have also risen 33% above average property prices. It’s incredible.

Yet to make this story even more complicated, property locations are also having a detrimental effect on the cost of housing.

Take London for example.

Whilst detached properties have risen in value across the rest of the UK, in London they have dropped by more than £30,000 between April and June, whilst flats have risen by £8,000.

Isn’t this meant to happen?

Okay, okay… I know that a properties location can have a detrimental influence upon its valuation, but what surprised me most about these figures was the extremity of the differences.

Yes, you may be able to spot a huge difference between properties sold in the South of the UK to those sold in the North. But to witness such a difference between towns/cities that sit side by side is shocking. You have to wonder what is happening.

I suppose in many ways what these statistics prove is the importance of choosing your property investments carefully, calculating their profitability and looking at their tenancy demand first before you invest.

With such property fluctuations you need to be careful, otherwise you could be setting yourself up for a financial loss.

Wendy xx

You see according to some of the UK’s leading Estate agents, over 1 in 10 properties across the UK are selling for more than their asking price.

In their quest to secure the best properties, homeowners are now willingly paying more than the properties original asking price so they can own properties in London, Oxford and Cornwall. And the reason for this sudden uptake? The fact that we are in the midst of one of the biggest housing shortages witnessed for the last 30 years.

In a report by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, they reported a 16% drop in the number of unsold properties. And this figure is closely matched by the fact that there are only 58.4 properties per estate agent across the UK. Now when you look at this statistic like this, that is not a lot.

It is really incredible to think how much of an impact a simple housing shortage – combined with tempting discounted properties – can have on property prices. In many ways it is ironic – the competition for these properties.

Think back only 6 months ago and many homeowners would have refused to pay above price. Then on the other hand this story also casts an interesting slant on an issue that many of us have not comprehended. I.E. The possibility that as more and more homeowners return to the property market that house prices will begin to rise again.

Wendy xx

As part of their ‘Hidden Homes Scheme’, Wandsworth council and Notting Hill Housing have teamed up to help convert a disused car park in Putney into 10 spacious apartments. Their reasoning? To help first time buyers find an affordable route onto the property ladder.

And I have to admit, it is a rather clever idea.

Taking boarded up properties, shops and disused car parks – essentially properties that are just sitting there doing nothing – by converting them into attractive apartments/homes they could help to relieve the strain currently on the property market. Especially if more organisations choose to get involved.

Already the Empty Homes Agency is jumping on board with this scheme, as it will help transform wasted space into housing, plus will save on expenditures to knock these properties down and rebuild them. To put it more bluntly – renovating this way will help maximise the UK’s property space.

Now I know what you are probably thinking – for a single investor you can’t get involved in such a scheme. But I don’t think that is strictly true.

All these associations are actually doing is renovating. Yes, car parks may be out of your price range, but boarded up shops won’t be. Negotiate your deal wisely and the savings you make whilst investing could be directly transferred into the renovation itself, creating little costs for you.

I know there is much more to renovation than this, but the point I suppose I am making is that the potential is there. The potential for property investors – like you and me – to get a slice of this idea and use it to create new rental properties.

It’s definitely worth considering.

Wendy xx

PS. If you are interested in reading the full story, here it is: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/jun/28/empty-properties-converted-accommodation. Enjoy!

Handed out by the Financial services Authority, in the last 5 months they have handed out fines totalling £302,445 and have already banned 9 individuals/brokers from the mortgage industry.

How’s it possible?

The most common cause for this kind of fraud is when an applicants income is inflated – with or without their consent.

By exaggerating their income through the invention of bonuses, an extra job or forged payslips, applicants are able to receive a bigger mortgage, and brokers… a bigger commission.

Why is it getting worse?

With the lending market taking a big hit since the onset of the recession, the number of applicants who are actually successful in acquiring (and affording) a mortgage has dramatically reduced, and as a result more and more individuals are resorting to this kind of fraud.

Take the last couple of years: 2007 only 5 bans were handed out; 2008 29 bans with fines of £289,500 and 2009… fines are already exceeding £302,445. It is not a pretty picture.

Another growing phenomenon is false valuations on new build flats.

With developers and builders offering homeowners incentives of instant cash-backs, fitted kitchens and paid-for legal fees… if these are not reported it could result in properties being sold for more than they are worth whilst being paid for with over inflated mortgages.

Wendy xx

Now I know in the past I have discussed the pros of investing abroad, and I do believe that there are profits out there, but when you break each of these markets down into their fundamentals, investing in the UK has many more benefits. Let me explain.

Take the term ‘property investment’. If you were to search for it on the web, you would come across a lot of press stories telling you how profitable investing abroad can be. Their punch line? Falling house prices.

Yet here is the thing. In the UK we are going through the exact same property price falls. It is happening everywhere. So whilst the press may be all doom and gloom about the UK property market, the truth is the whole global economy is feeling the pinch…

The only real discernible difference between them is that when you invest abroad, you do so with greater financial risk.

Their land laws for example, greatly differ from our own in terms of the way they approach and broker their property deals. Their legal fees are different. So as you can see, if you are not careful and do not acquire the right awareness before you invest, you could be setting yourself up for a financial loss should something go wrong.

Then on the other end of the scale, there is the conversion rates between the pound and the Euro.

In normal climates, the pound is generally stronger than the Euro – meaning should you choose to invest abroad you would be getting more value for your money. But in the current financial climate, the scenario is much different – the Euro is stronger meaning if you are not careful you could be investing more money than you think you are.

See what I mean? Whilst investing abroad does have its perks, choosing to invest in the UK can offer you a much quicker returns, plus the security of knowing exactly where you stand law-wise.

Wendy xx