2012 saw many property highs and lows, our top ten property highlights of 2012 are:

1. Hartlepool was the surprise property hot spot of 2012. House prices increased by a huge 5.7% between October 2011 and October 2012. This was a larger increase than was seen in many areas across Central London.

2. The UK buy to let investment opportunity of 2012 according to Hamptons International was London, E3. Spitalfields and Brick Lane saw average rental yields of an inspiring 11.3%

3. If you are seeking an investment opportunity outside the UK Knight Frank have reported that Estonia may be a good choice. Property prices in the capital, Tallinn, reportedly rose by an impressive 13.9% over the last twelve months.

4.Hometrack figures for 2012 show that with property worth over £50 billion the town of Reading, Berkshire is placed seventh in the UK. These figures place Reading ahead of both Liverpool and Newcastle. It comes as no surprise that London  with residential property worth £1.3 trillion still claims the top spot.

5. 2012 saw the Olympic and Paralympic games capture the heart of the nation, but it’s not all over! Golden post boxes were placed in the towns of medal winners brightening up over a hundred communities and keeping memories of the games alive for years to come. They are certainly the top design feature to spot in any UK town!

6. A survey conducted by top UK property portal PrimeLocation shows Salcombe in South Devon as ninth in the UK towns with property worth more than a million. Almost 30% of Salcombe based property was valued at a million pounds or more!

7.The most expensive property of 2012 was in Rutland Gate located in London’s Knightsbridge. The property is the largest private residence in the UK and with an asking price of £300 million the property made a new British record in September.

8. Nottinghamshire council joint up with Lloyds TSB and committed an impressive £15 million to a mortgage incentive scheme. The scheme assisted young would be first time buyers hoping to purchase a property worth £150,000 or less who were unable to afford the deposit.

9. A complete Georgian crescent in Bath’s Somerset Place was on the market in 2012. Individual properties within the crescent are expected to sell for an estimated £1.7 million.

10. The Shard just had to make our top ten list! Towering 309 meters over London its immense proportions and original design predict that it will fast become one of London’s most sought after addresses. The ten apartments within the building are expected to sell for an estimated £50 million each.

 Written by Sarah Male, Urban Sales and Lettings

Figures from a recent Consumer Confidence Survey carried out by one of the UK’s top property portals Rightmove have led to the prediction of a 2% rise in rents in 2013. Just 25% of landlords have indicated they would be increasing their rents in 2013. Landlords are said to be taking a ‘benevolent’ attitude towards their tenants and their rental figures. 61% of landlords are not looking to increase the rental figure, leaving 14% undecided. 1% of landlords involved in Rightmove’s survey are actually expected to reduce their rents.

Miles Shipside, director and housing market analyst at Rightmove comments:

“The widening gap between tenant demand and rental property supply over the last few years has fuelled upwards pressure on rents. However, the majority of landlords now seem to be prepared to exercise constraint and are planning a ‘rent freeze’ for 2013. Letting agents still report consistently high demand but more are warning landlords of the risks of squeezing tenants’ finances too hard. However, some tenants in rental hotspots like London and Manchester may bear the brunt of higher rises. This combination of apparent benevolence and bullish hotspots may give a less racy rent rise outlook overall, but does not mask the fact that some tenants are again in for a rent rise shock.”

According to the report, on average a tenant will hand over 39% of their take home pay to their landlord and 22% of tenants will spend up to 50% of their monthly earnings (after the necessary deductions) on their rental payments.

Shipside further comments: 

“Landlords appear to be becoming increasingly aware of the need to strike a balance between long-term security and short-term gains. They need to weigh up whether it is better to ‘stick’ and hold rents for a model tenant or ‘twist’ and chance a rise and run the risk of ending up with a less desirable occupant, or even a void. Interestingly, around one in four landlords is an ‘accidental landlord’, and with 9% of landlords stating they are actually tenants themselves, perhaps this growing band of non-professional landlords is more sympathetic to tenants’ rental price concerns?"

Written by Sarah Male, Urban Sales and Lettings

We were recently instructed to let a two bed maisonette in Chesham, Buckinghamshire.

Click here to see the property

Our client opted for our option one package for a fee of just £54.95+VAT. After uploading the property description and images marketing began 24 hours later across over 400 property sites including Rightmove and Zoopla. After seven viewing enquiries the property quickly let and marketing was ceased.

Deciding to let through us saved our client £1100 when compared with the average 10% +VAT commission payable to a local agent. The tenants of this property were delighted they had no admin fees to pay.

If you have a property in Buckinghamshire which you need to secure tenants for contact our lettings team to discuss which of our packages would be most suitable for you. Our office is open 7 days a week and our advisors are available on 0800 68 999 55 to take your call.

Different situations can occur when a tenant leaves behind possessions once they have vacated a property. In order to deal with this landlords must consider whether the tenant has given up possession of the property or not? If they have given up possession and then subsequently enter your property they are trespassing, which is an arrestable offence. If the tenant has not given up possession of the property they will be liable to pay another months rent.

As far as the possessions left behind are concerned, unless you have a specified agreement with the tenant regarding their possessions or a specific item being used in lieu of unpaid rent, then all the objects left behind are still the possession of the original buyer. This means that even though the items are left in your property they do not belong to you, they remain property of the tenant.

There are various procedures a landlord must follow if they wish to remove the tenant’s possessions from their property. Firstly landlords must not dispose of any objects unless they have paid for them, secondly the landlord of the property must genuinely attempt to contact the tenant and arrange for them to pick up their belongings. If you have an address for your tenant it is advisable to write to them to ask them to remove the goods from the property within 14 days, the letter should state what the items left behind are. If a landlord cannot start or maintain contact with the tenant to arrange this and has proof that reasonable effort has been made to contact the tenant; after 21 days they may dispose of possessions, except for personal documents.  Personal documents have a different process of removal, and must be held by the landlord for a period of 90 days, if at the end of the 90 day period they have not been collected by the tenant they can be handed over to the local police department.

Personal documents consist of:

Certificates of births, deaths and marriages

Passports

Bank books or cheques

Licences

Qualification certificates

If a landlord feels in any way fearful of letting the tenant back into the property due to concerns of violence or anxiety that the tenant may refuse to leave the property they may ask the police to supervise the meeting. 

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By connecting with us you will not only be entered into our prize draw but you will be kept up to date with all the latest property news and legislation changes. We post regular competitions, giving away £1000's in prizes from landlord insurances to the IPAD Mini.

1. This prize draw is open to residents of the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Republic of Ireland aged 18 years or over.

2. Details of how to enter form part of the terms and conditions. It is a condition of entry that all rules are accepted as final and that the entrantagrees to abide by these rules. The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

3. Entries must are submitted via Facebook, Twitter or Google plus and entry is restricted to one per person. Late, illegible, incomplete, defaced or corrupt entries or entries sent through agencies and third parties will not be accepted. No responsibility can be accepted for lost entries and proof of despatch will not be accepted as proof of receipt. The winner will be drawn at random from all entries received by the closing date. The winner’s name and county can be obtained by sending a sae to iPad Winner, Urban Sales and Lettings, Calverley House, 55 Calverley Road, Tunbridge Wells , Kent, TN12TU between June 10 and  August 10, 2013.

4. All entries must be received by midnight on May 31, 2013.

5. The winner will announced on the their chosen Social Media site within twenty eight days of the closing date of the prize draw. The winner Should contact Urban Sales and Lettings with their details.Should the Promoter be unable to contact the winner or should the winner be unable to accept the prize, the Promoter reserves the right to award the prize to an alternative winner, drawn in accordance with these terms and conditions.

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