Companies House has new and enhanced powers under The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCT Act) designed to help tackle economic crime and improve the quality and reliability of its data. Some measures came into effect earlier this month and landlords with limited companies should be aware of the new rules and requirements that may affect them in the coming months.
The changes that came in on 4th March 2024 include:
Investors in UK property have for many years been attracted to holiday lets. This type of investment rose further in popularity during the pandemic when international flights were grounded and holidaymakers sought out alternative holiday accommodation in the UK. Many developers and landlords seized what they saw as potential investment opportunities, buying properties to turn into holiday lets and expanding tourism in the country’s hotspots as a result.
The downside of this for people living in the affected communities is how challenging it has become to get on to the housing ladder.
For many years in the UK, a gas or oil-fired boiler has been considered the standard form of heating for homes, however with new regulation on the way restricting their installation in new builds from next year and in all properties from 2035, what alternatives are there?
Electric boilers, heat pumps, biomass, solar thermal and Micro-CHP (Micro Combined Heat and Power) could all be options to consider, with some installations even using multiple technologies to give more flexibility to reduce energy costs depending on the time of year.
So which technologies are leading the race?
You call at 8am on the dot, as soon as they open, in the hope of getting ahead of the queue. The line connects, yet you still find yourself with 20 callers in front of you. So you wait on hold for an hour, only to be told to “try again later” or that “the next available appointment is in 4 weeks”!
Sound familiar?
Unfortunately this is something that too many of us are experiencing in the current climate. Following the disruption to GP services during the pandemic1, appointments are hard to come by these days2 with many GPs struggling under the weight of the increased demand and backlog.
But did you know your mortgage or income protection plan could help?
WAQAR KHAN, Lendinvest's BDM for the North West, shares his thoughts on last month's government announcement.
At the start of this year, I wrote about the opportunities for property investors in a regenerating North West, citing recent government announcements around the ‘levelling up’ agenda as cause for confidence in the region.
A couple of weeks after the government cancelled the Manchester leg of HS2 however, how relevant does this remain, and what should property investors looking to the North West do in light of this sudden change in government policy?
Private vs Public Investment
With the base rate rising and lenders changing interest rates regularly, a popular question we get asked is: “If the base rate hasn’t moved, why has the interest rate available from lenders gone up?” or “The base rate went up, but lenders haven’t changed their rates. Why is this?”
Many factors play into making an interest rate. Often lenders will tweak their rates to ensure they are not market-leading, as they wouldn’t be able to cope with the volume of applications, but other economic factors can play into it too. With the majority of mortgage products being fixed rates, lenders look to swap rates to assist them in their pricing.
In the current landscape, increasing portfolio yields is an important focus for many landlords. There are a number of options to consider, including investing in a range of property types in order to diversify your portfolio. Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs) are generally viewed as an attractive alternative to standard buy to lets and so it’s not uncommon to find landlords looking to convert properties from single family buy to lets into a house of multiple occupancy (HMO) to get the most out of their investment.
Everything is going up. Most of us have felt the pinch on our pockets resulting from the cost of living crisis and increasing mortgage rates. This can have a massive impact on stress levels to the extent that it can also affect people’s ability to work. Financial advisors have a duty to step back and take the time to explain to clients the possible impact of stress on household earnings. After all, if you were signed off work due to stress, how would you be able to keep up to date with your financial commitments?
Landlords have had to endure a somewhat negative perception over the years but, by and large, this is a community who are keen to demonstrate their ongoing support for tenants. A positive feature which was especially apparent over the course of the pandemic and increasingly so during a period when a host of additional financial burdens continue to impact household finances across the UK.
No household or business across the UK has escaped the escalating costs of an array of goods, services and borrowing over the past six to twelve months. Of course, the impact of this additional financial pressure will vary from individual to individual and from business to business but in the wake of an eleventh consecutive interest rate hike, the impact on residential buyers, landlords and even tenants is evident.
According to new research from Octane Capital – which analysed the current cost of the average buy-to-let mortgage and how this monthly repayment has increased in the last year – the cost of maintaining a monthly buy-to-let mortgage interest payment has climbed by 75.7% in the last year, with those making a full mortgage repayment each month seeing an increase of 31.6%.
