Abbey Independent Inventories

News & views from the Abbey

‘HMRC investigation into Airbnb landlords may be last straw for short-term letting growth’‘HMRC investigation into Airbnb landlords may be last straw for short-term letting

13TH OCTOBER 2020 PROPERTY NEWS AUTHOR RYAN BEMBRIDGEThe upcoming investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) into Airbnb landlords could result in a significant exodus of landlords from the short term letting sector, property management firm Apropos has warned.Airbnb has passed on the financial transactions of 225,000 people who rent out homes and rooms through its site, which could potentially result in landlords having to pay substantial bi...

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Government accused of kicking can down the road on evictions

 24TH AUGUST 2020 PROPERTY NEWS, UKBY RYAN BEMBRIDGE Landlord and property groups are unimpressed with the government’s latest extension of the tenant evictions ban. The government was accused of delaying the inevitable, while there was frustration at how the ban was extended at the 11th hour. The ban was due to expire at the end of this week but has been extended by four additional weeks. Oli Sherlock, head of insurance ...

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Rightmove and Zoopla listings soar as people pre-book house viewings

 May 13, 2020 UK Housing Market Over the past few weeks, there has been a surge in new properties listed for sale as well as plans for future viewings. Now with news of a housing market revival, this trend is likely to keep climbing. Property listings on Rightmove and Zoopla hit an all-time low between 1st and 17th April, with just 47 new listings coming to market. This is according to figures compiled by Brief Your Market loo...

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What Boris’s new lockdown guidance means for UK housing market

Published May 12, 2020Trending News, UK Housing Market-Eleanor Harvey On Sunday, Boris Johnson revealed the UK government’s “lockdown easing plan”. Some things will be changing from tomorrow, but how will this affect the property sector? Boris Johnson’s speech at the weekend was unsurprisingly met with a range of reactions from members of parliament, business leaders and members of the public. Much of the criticism pointed to a lack of ...

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Renting, homeownership and COVID-19: Savills looks at what’s changed

   Article Published by BuyAssociation online on 30th April 2020   A new report released by Savills explores some interesting trends in the UK housing market. It also reveals the latest predictions across renting and buying. Over the first 15 years of the 2000s, the number of private rented households in England more than doubled. Meanwhile, mortgaged homeowner numbers dropped by around 1.5 million. Homeownership stopped being a to...

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Coronavirus: demand for rented homes bounces back by 30% in two weeks

  Coronavirus: demand for rented homes bounces back by 30% in two weeks By Property News team- April 21, 2020  https://www.zoopla.co.uk/discover/renting/coronavirus-demand-for-rental-homes-bounces-back-zoopla-rental-market-report/ Demand for homes to rent has grown by 30% after initial decline in the wake of coronavirus. Our Rental Market Report examines the resilience of the rental market in 2020. Rental market bounce back The impact o...

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UK rental market bounces back with predictions of surge on the way

Published online 23rd April 2020 by Eleanor Harvey of BuyAssociation   The UK is still in lockdown, but the country’s rental accommodation is still in demand. Here’s what’s been happening in the UK rental market. Both tenants and landlords alike will be keen to know what the future holds in the country’s rental market. Due to COVID-19, the UK’s lockdown is expected to continue for several more weeks, if not longer. After this, it is unclear ...

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Residential Market Outlook: Week Beginning 6 April 2020

  Residential Market Outlook: Week Beginning 6 April 2020Written By: Liam Bailey, Knight Frank  Assessing Covid-19’s impact on the UK housing market Summary  The UK government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has utterly transformed the current economic and housing market landscape. The big question is what will its longer-term impact be?The outlook we set out below confirms a sharp fall in activity. Looking beyond the shor...

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Humiliation for government as rogues’ database is largely ignored

Written For letting Agent Today By Graham Norwood- 7th February 2020 The government’s hugely-publicised database for rogue letting agents and landlords has been running for almost two years and has…wait for it…just 22 entries. The This Is Money service from the DailyThe government’s hugely-publicised database for rogue letting agents and landlords has been running for almost two years and has…wait for it…just 22 entries. The This Is Money service...

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Business not as usual

Property Intelligence 2019Findrs Keepers - published October 2019  Renewals – a new normalAcross all offices we have seen an increase in the number of tenants renewing. In Quarter 1 we reported a change in behaviour with tenants negotiating more on rent or length of tenancy. With the same thing happening in Q2 and Q3 it’s safe to say that this seems to be the new ‘normal’. As with new tenancies, the landlords who are being sensible and ...

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TAX PAYABLE ON PROFITS MADE ON THE SALE OF CERTAIN TYPES OF ASSETS BY A COMPANY OR INDIVIDUAL

Article by guildy | 27 Sep 2019 | 2020, New Legislation Landlords Urged to Sell Now to Beat Higher CGT Bills Buy to let landlords who have rented out a home where they once lived are urged to sell up quickly to avoid higher tax bills. Capital gains tax rules are due to change from April 6, 2020 that will take a larger bite from their sell-on profits. CGT will impact landlords selling homes by – Scrapping lettings relief that allows each owner to ...

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Why rent controls won't work – as the energy price cap failure proves

 ADAM WILLIAMS- THE TELEGRAPHFollow  19 JULY 2019  Everybody would like lower energy bills and bargain rents. But given political interference has not led to more resaonable gas and electricity charges, why does London mayor Sadiq Khan think he can deliver cheaper housing costs? Mr Khan plans to make rent controls a cornerstone of his 2020 election bid. He proposes setting up a commission that will cap the amount tenants ...

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Landlords now charging rents for pets…

 By LandlordZONE -9th September 2019 Lets for Pets: The introduction of the tenant fees ban has also introduced uncertainties for landlords and tenants around the issue of letting with pets.                                                                      ...

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Labour needs to re-think its sequestration proposals

 By LandlordZONE -6th September 2019 Right-to-buy: Right-to-buy was a main plank in the Thatcher era property owning democracy drive, when the Conservatives introduced laws to allow council tenants to buy their homes at discounted prices. David Alexander, MD of DJ Alexander, Letting and Estate Agents in Edinburgh and Glasgow, says, perhaps what’s good for the goose, is good for the gander? Why shouldn’t the shadow Chancellor o...

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“Incoherent”, the Government’s approach to rental market says expert

  By LandlordZONE -10th September 2019 Renting Policy: Perhaps not surprising with all that’s going on in Government that they’re eye is being taken off the ball with the rental market, but as it’s a crucial housing and election issue there’s really no excuse. According to a former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, David Miles, the Government’s approach to the private rented sector is “incoherent”...

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Oxford house affordability improving, but slowly

 
Posted by Bill Cooper at Friday, August 23, 2019
Oxford Property Blog
 
In Oxford, the average home now costs £405,600 according to Zoopla, which is 11.9 times the average single person income of £33,900.  With Oxford house prices static in Oxford according to Zoopla, average wages are now outstripping house prices.
 
This still places Oxford as the 3rd least affordable City in the UK behind London (13.1 times average income) and Cambridge (12.2 times average income).
 
So why is Oxford property so expensive?  Some factors are shared by Cambridge - it's a World famous centre of learning, with beautiful historic architecture and positioned well for commuting to/from London and for accessing Cotswold chocolate box villages and countryside at weekends.
 
But that's not what's driving the high cost of Oxford homes.  The real cause of high house prices is the lack of new starter homes and down-sizer homes being built.  Just 2% of housing is new build, and most new build relates to larger 3, 4 and 5 bed properties targeting affluent families.
 
Too many Oxford retirees are living in homes that are too large for them because there are no suitable properties for them to down-size into.  At the other end of the scale starter homes are virtually non-existent, forcing many affluent young professionals to rent homes for longer than is necessary.
 
I am asked daily by Oxford prospective home buyers 'will prices crash with Brexit?'.  My current response is there could be a short-term dip, but I can't see how prices will crash.  Demand for homes in Oxford is high, and sellers expectations of value are also high.  Most sellers will stay put rather than sell at a low price, and if demand surges there will be lower supply and higher demand.
 
And, the fundamentals will be the same - too few starter homes, too few down-sizer homes and new supply languishing at the low single digit percentage of supply.
 
Oxford homes owners and landlords may need to weather some 'headwinds' but their assets remain valuable over the medium to long-term.
 
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L&G and Oxford University team up for £4bn housing scheme

GAURDIAN ONLINE 27TH JUNE 2019Construction of affordable homes for staff and students to take place over next decade First-time buyers in Oxford need to earn £68,800 a year and have a deposit of more than £100,000. Photograph: Arsty/Getty Images/iStockphotoLegal & General has teamed up with Oxford University in a £4bn partnership to build science parks and thousands of homes for staff and students over the next decade. The insurance and pensi...

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Tenants will be given access to rogue landlord database

  PUBLISHED GUARDIAN ON LINE 21 JULY 2019 Campaigners have welcomed government plans to open up its rogue landlord database to prospective tenants, as part of proposals to give greater protection to renters. A package of reforms published for consultation includes proposals to stop no-fault evictions, which the charity Shelter has described as “far and away the most important thing the government can do” to help renters. ...

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MPs call on landlords to scrap 'no DSS' clauses in rental ads

ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE GAURDIAN ON LINE 24 aPRIL 2019MPs have demanded landlords and letting agents end the practice of screening out people on benefits after hearing claims that “no DSS” clauses have become the 2019 equivalent of “no blacks, no Irish, no dogs” notices.During a hearing into the widespread refusal of landlords to rent properties to those on benefits, the Commons work and pensions select committee on Wednesday confronted the dire...

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Why are property inventory reports important?

May 24, 2017 by Richard Abbots on RLA website july 2017 Property inventory reports are no longer just about preventing disputes about condition and cleanliness. As the in-vogue term ‘Generation Rent’ suggests, house purchases are edging further and further from reality for much of the population. The result? A wiser, more assertive market place of renters that know their rights. In turn, rental legislation and taxation is becoming more onero...

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