Tag Archives: real estate
Empty home scheme in Scotland has funding doubled
A scheme to tackle Scotland’s empty homes has had its funding doubled, the nation’s Housing Minister Margaret Burgess has announced. The Scottish Empty Homes Partnership (SEHP) will receive a three year extension backed by an additional £616,500 from the Scottish Government. SEHP, which is run by the housing charity, Shelter Scotland helps councils and their partners pursue work to bring private sector empty homes back into use. Overall, the number of unoccupied properties is falling. Currently, 31,457 homes are recorded as being empty for six months or more. Shelter Scotland will use the extra funding to recruit additional staff to support the Partnership and allow up to an additional 12 councils to participate in the Shared Empty Homes Officer programme. By the end of year three, up to 28 councils in Scotland could have had access to an empty homes officer and approximately 1,200 empty homes per year could be returned to use. ‘Empty homes are a blight on both urban and rural communities across Scotland. Bringing empty homes back into use is a cost effective way of increasing the supply of housing available to families across Scotland and it also aids community regeneration,’ said Burgess. ‘That is why the Scottish Government is not only providing a three year extension to the Empty Homes Partnership, but is also doubling its funding. Empty Homes Officers will report over 500 homes being brought back into use in 2014/2015, this compares with the 278 being brought back into use in 2013/2014,’ she explained. ‘There is still a long way to go but increasingly, local authorities across the country are embracing the work of the partnership. Clearly, the network of Empty Homes Officers is having a positive effect,’ she added. Graeme Brown, director of Shelter Scotland, described the move as great news. ‘The progress we have made supporting councils and their partners over the last four years to bring hundreds of empty homes back into use is testament to the hard work and commitment of everyone involved,’ he said. ‘Expanding the partnership and putting it on a longer term footing will allow us to do even more to bring private empty homes back into use. Our goal is to see a fully effective empty homes service in each local authority and to bring back as many of Scotland’s long-term empty homes as we can,’ he added. Continue reading
UK has more part time landlords but many not aware of the rules
One in 20 people in the UK rents out a property to supplement their main income, receiving £678 in rent each month on average but many are unaware of the regulations, new research shows. This amounts to nearly £28 billion a year across the country as part of a boom in part time landlords, says the research from LV= landlord insurance. The research found however, that almost 500,000 landlords have not had their property checked by a gas safety engineer in the last 12 months, risking prosecutions and fines of up to £20,000 Also, some 32% of landlords have had their property damaged at some point, which has cost them £1,200 on average to repair. Landlords in London and the South East collect the highest rents at £1,079 and £816 respectively, followed by the West Midlands at £678 and then East Anglia at £676. Approximately 60% of this is spent on borrowing costs, management fees and maintenance costs, leaving landlords a healthy pre-tax profit of 40% on average. The trend is mainly being driven by people moving to a new home and then renting out their old one. Indeed 55% of these landlords are renting out properties that they never intended to, with 15% saying it was because they wanted a bigger property and 10% having to move for Whatever the reason for letting out a property, all landlords must comply with current regulations on rented homes, LV= points out. By law, all landlords must ensure that gas and electrical equipment is installed and checked annually by a registered engineer. Tenant deposits must be held in a deposit protection scheme and some local authorities insist that landlords in their area obtain a licence. A managing agent will usually take responsibility to ensure that all legislation is complied with for a fee, as well as check tenants and manage the rent collection. However, 49% of today’s part time landlords manage their rental property themselves and do not have such protection. As well as risking fines from the local authority, landlords could find themselves heavily out of pocket should one of their tenants make a claim against them. Slips and trips can result in expensive compensation claims for property owners who are liable for any harm to a tenant or member of the public as a result of the condition of the property. For example, a landlord could be sued by someone who falls and is injured because a pathway has not been maintained. Landlords can also be liable for damage to adjacent properties, such as an overflowing gutter causing water damage to a neighbouring house. Analysis of LV= data shows that the number of liability claims being made against property owners has been steadily increasing in recent years, which can be attributed in part to Britain’s growing compensation culture. The insurance needs of a rented property are very different to those of an owner occupied home and standard home buildings insurance will not usually… Continue reading
Negative equity in US housing market falls considerably
Most major housing markets in the US have seen the number of home owners in negative fall by half since the peak of the economic crisis, new figures show. More than seven million home owners have escaped negative equity since its peak in early 2012, both because of foreclosures and improving home values, says the data from real estate firm Zillow. Overall US negative equity fell to 16.9% in the third quarter, down significantly from its peak of 31.4% in the first quarter of 2012. Zillow expects the negative equity rate will continue to fall to 15.2% by the end of the third quarter of 2015. Roughly 8.7 million home owners remain trapped underwater on their mortgages, but the negative equity rate has halved since 2012 in the markets hit hardest by the recession including Miami, Atlanta, Detroit, Riverside in California and Las Vegas. The firm points out that declining negative equity will have a ripple effect in the housing market, allowing previously stuck homeowners to list their homes for sale and adding to overall for sale inventory just as millennial buyers are expected to begin to enter the market en masse in coming months and years. This new inventory will also help slow home value appreciation, which has been fuelled by high demand for homes and low supply. ‘The market has made terrific strides since bottoming out in late 2011 and early 2012, with millions of underwater home owners freed in just the past few years, and millions more set to surface in coming months and years,’ said Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries. ‘Looking at negative equity helps us understand so many of the currently out of whack dynamics in the housing market, including low inventory, rapid home value appreciation and weak sales volumes,’ he explained. ‘None of these problems will be solved overnight, in large part because negative equity will likely be a part of the housing market for years, and easily into the next decade in some hard-hit areas. But we're moving in the right direction, and time will heal all wounds,’ he added. The research also shows that owners of less expensive homes were more likely to be underwater in the third quarter than owners of more expensive homes, in some cases, much more likely. In Detroit, for example, 49.2% of homes valued in the bottom price tier were underwater, while just 7.6% of the area's highest priced homes were upside down. Similarly, in Chicago, 41.4% of bottom tier homes were in negative equity, compared to 23.9% of middle tier homes and 10.4% of top tier homes. Nationwide, 27.4% of bottom tier homes were in negative equity in the third quarter, compared to 15.7% of middle tier homes and 9.3% of top tier homes. Continue reading
