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Residential Landlord - UK property investment news
The Residential landlord RSS news feed delivers essential and up to date news on all matters relating to investment property, and the UK buy to let market. This feed is aimed at UK based landlords and property investors alike.

• Bradford & Bingley broken up to secure future for savers and borrowers
  The news that everybody had been predicting for the last few days came through this week when the government stepped in to rescue Bradford & Bingley, the UK's largest Buy to Let lender. It followed reports that the bank was struggling after failing to raise the cash it needed through a rights issue and was therefore likely to become another victim of the credit crunch.
• New report tackles neighbourhood 'studentification' problem
  A new report that identifies ways to help councils manage high concentrations of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) was published by Housing and Planning Minister Caroline Flint recently. ‘Studentification’ of university towns is a real concern, especially during the summer months...
• Buy to let landlords remain calm in the face of storms
  Residential landlords in the private rented sector are remaining calm in the face of the current financial storms. Over three quarters of those questioned for the third quarter ARLA Review and Index, published on 29 September, will not sell their investments because of falling house prices. Instead, they expect to keep their property portfolios for an average of over 16 years.
• Values of prime central London property continue to fall
  New research from Savills indicates that now, more than ever, residential landlords with property in central London should be taking a long-term view of their investment. The research reveals that values of prime residential property in central London continued to fall in the third quarter of 2008.
• Shelter backs BPF rental agenda as Tories announce new reviews
  Private rented housing expansion may be the way out of the current housing crisis, Shelter has claimed. Speaking at the Conservative Party conference, Adam Sampson, chief executive of the housing charity, said there was "a real need for a more professionalised rental market to offer a better deal to consumers."
• Market conditions bring opportunities for landlords claims letting specialist
  Falling house prices; rising tenant demand; the slow sales market and the new stamp duty holiday all add up to some exciting opportunities for residential landlords, according to Leaders, the independently owned letting specialists.
• Gap between selling and asking prices widens
  Residential landlords looking to sell their properties will find that across the UK, houses are selling at an average of nine percent below the asking price with sellers in some regions being forced to accept as much as 12.5 percent discount off their advertised price, says latest research from RICS.
• Insurer offers landlords free carbon monoxide detectors
  The obligation to protect tenants against the dangers of malfunctioning boilers is one that cannot, should not and need not be avoided by landlords, says insurer HomeCall+. Some of the detail reported in a survey this month commissioned by Lloyds Pharmacy showed that many council tenants could be at risk of carbon monoxide poisoning from neglected boilers.
• Rats found way into rental property through new extension
  An Oxford landlord has been prosecuted after failing to repair a drainage fault that was linked to a rat infestation at one of his properties. On 22 September 2008, Aslam Javid Dogar of Lime Walk, Headington pleaded guilty at Oxford Magistrates' Court to failing to comply with a Legal Notice served under the Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949.
• Residential Landlord - In brief
  An insurance firm has refused to pay out to a Merseyside landlord after damage caused to his property by a gang using it as an illegal drugs factory. Holes had been bashed through the ceiling for ventilation and the electricity supply had been rerouted by the tenants so they didn’t have to pay the energy bills.
• Number of new homes on market halves in six months
  The average price of a new home fell for a third consecutive month in August, taking new home prices to £243,307. However, while the majority of the UK’s leading house price indices continue to report sharp annual price falls across the market as a whole, the rate of annual house price growth in the new homes market is beginning to show signs of levelling off.
• Residential auction sales rise in first half of 2008
  As the current market continues to weaken, residential auction sales across the UK have risen in the first half of 2008.according to RAPID (Residential Auction Property Investment Data) published by Allsop. The rise in lots is being attributed mainly to the growing number of repossessed homes reaching the auction rooms.
• BFP encouraged by Flint's support of professional rented sector
  Housing minister, Caroline Flint, has backed calls from the British Property Federation (BPF) for a greater focus on professional rented housing. Speaking at a Citizens’ Advice Bureau fringe event, Caroline Flint MP said that Britain had been focused on ownership since Margaret Thatcher introduced Right to Buy.
• Indecision over stamp duty cast more gloom over property Market says NAEA
  High demand for rented accommodation from residential landlords looks set to continue following figures showing that there was a decrease in the percentage of first time buyers during August. The primary reason for this is the difficulty in obtaining suitable mortgages. Members of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) reported that the housing market was...
• Prime country houses fall in line with general property market
  Landlords who specialise in the prime country house lettings market will be unhappy, but probably not surprised in the current climate, that the value of properties in this sphere fell by 4 percent during the third quarter of 2008, according to the Knight Frank Index.
• BFP make plans for the future
  Buy to let investors who have been caught up in ‘red tape’ over planning applications on their properties will be studying the recently released British Property Federation’s Planning Manifesto which contains a host of measures to improve the system without the need for more time consuming and costly legislation.
• 'Rogue landlord' pleads guilty to renting out dangerous house
  A woman described as a rogue landlord has been given a hefty fine by magistrates after being found guilty of renting out a dangerous house. On 12 September, Maria Rosa De Simone Ramjohn of Marston Road, Oxford pleaded guilty to seven breaches of housing regulations at 39 Annersley Road and was fined £2,500 for each offence. Oxford City Council was awarded legal costs of £392.45 bringing the total to £17,892.45.
• Landlord gets life for murdering tenant
  The landlord who will not reveal why he stabbed his lodger to death after hitting him with a pool cue was jailed for life at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday. The courts had previously been told how 46 year old John Williams, who worked in a warehouse, became angry with father-to-be John Stokes at their home in Cefn Fforest, Caerphilly.
• New laws introduced to cover paving over front gardens
  The increasing need for off street parking has led to many residential landlords paving over the front gardens of their properties to make them more attractive to car driving tenants. But the Government has announced that from Wednesday 1st October 2008 the permitted development rights for domestic front gardens has been changed.
• 'Credit crunch effect on private rented sector exists only in the imagination'
  The last three months have seen a rise of almost 20 percent in new tenancies, according to the latest quarterly survey of its member letting agents by ARLA, the Association of Residential Letting Agents. This is in l