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Landlords get most stressed about late rent payments, survey shows
Late rent payments cause the most stress for buy to let landlords in the UK followed by badly behaved tenants, new research has found. A quarter of landlords emerged as the top cause of concern with ‘tenants from hell’ cited by 20%, property damage at 18%, deposit disputes 13% and dealing with evictions 7%. The research by online letting agent PropertyLetByUs also found that despite the recent HMRC crackdown on landlords’ undeclared income, only a tiny percentage, 1%, are stressed by tax issues. It also appears that the sharp rise in the number of tenants looking for rented property in 2014 is making life a lot easier for landlords who are looking for new tenants as only 1% say this is stressful. However, void periods are still bothering some landlords, with 4% citing this as a major cause of stress. ‘On the whole, 2014 was a good year for landlords, with increased tenant demand, rising rental income and asset value growth but late payment of rent is still a big issue for landlords,’ said Jane Morris, managing director of PropertyLetByUs. Indeed, the latest research from the National Landlords Association (NLA) showed that 32% experiencing rent arrears in 2014. Landlords could see a spike in the problem this month as households struggle to keep up with payments after the expense of Christmas. ‘But all the signs are showing that 2015 could be another bumper year for landlords, with the rental market set to continue its growth, from the current nine million tenants renting in the UK. The good news is that the stress of void periods and finding new tenants will further diminish, as demand starts to outstrip supply,’ added Morris. Continue reading
New home approvals in Australia reach highest level on record
New home building approvals reached their highest ever monthly level during November, the latest official data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show. Approvals for new homes totalled 18,245 in seasonally adjusted terms during November 2014, almost 3% higher than the previous record which was set in August 1994. Overall approvals in November rose by 7.6% on the previous month and were 10.1% higher than 12 months earlier. A breakdown of the figures show that seasonally adjusted new dwelling approvals increased most strongly in Victoria at 19.7%, followed by Tasmania at 8.2. They were up 5.7% in Queensland and 1.2% in Western Australia. A fall of 1.4% in new home approvals was recorded in New South Wales, while approvals were down 16.3% in South Australia. In trend terms, new dwelling approvals increased in the ACT by 3.3% and in the Northern Territory by 2.9%. The Housing Industry Association, the voice of Australia’s residential building industry, pointed out that growth has been concentrated in the multi-unit segment of new home building, which rose by 18% in November year on year. Detached house approvals saw growth of 3.6% over the same period. ‘Residential construction was the economy’s good news story during 2014, and today’s figures indicate that we can look forward to another positive year for the industry,’ said HIA senior economist, Shane Garrett. ‘The fact that approvals hit an all-time high during November augers very well for the pipeline of residential construction work in 2015. With weaknesses in several areas of the Australian economy, new home building has come to life at an opportune time,’ he explained. ‘Residential construction is now a central pillar of support for domestic demand in Australia. It is important that policy reform continues in the areas of planning, land supply and removing the taxation burden on new home building. This will form an important part of achieving the necessary rebalancing of the economy,’ he added. Continue reading
Latest data shows UK Help to Buy scheme has now helped over 73,000
The majority of sales under the UK government’s Help to Buy equity loan scheme continues to be to first time buyers representing 83% of total sales, the latest figures show. The data from the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) also shows that the average (mean) purchase price was £211,566 in the first 20 months since the scheme was launched. The top six local authorities in terms of completed sales are Wiltshire with 664, Leeds at 628, Central Bedfordshire at 581, Milton Keynes at 516, Peterborough at 512, and Birmingham at 465. These figures firmly but to bed concerns that it would benefit people in London and the South East buy higher priced properties and also shows over 73,000 have benefitted. Figures also show that 30,269 households buying new and existing homes through the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme and 5,518 households were supported into a new build home through the NewBuy scheme. The Help to Buy equity loan scheme was introduced along with other Help to Buy products to support people who can afford a mortgage, but struggle to save the deposits required by lenders in the wake of the financial crisis. ‘Our long term economic plan has turned this country around from the one we inherited, suffering from a crashed economy and a housing market where builders wouldn’t build, lenders wouldn’t lend and buyers couldn’t buy,’ said Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis. ‘Now numbers of first time buyers are at their highest since 2007, house building continues to climb and planning permissions are at record levels. All these measures combined are helping record numbers of people into a new home, including 73,000 households benefiting from Help to Buy and we will keep striving to get that total even higher,’ he added. Continue reading
