Bloomberg – 15 July 2010
Editors: Andrew Blackman, Ross Larsen
The British monarchy’s property manager may revive a plan to sell a stake in Regent Street, in the heart of London’s West End shopping district.
The Crown Estate, which oversees real estate that the monarchy handed over in 1760 in exchange for annual payments, is sounding out investors including sovereign wealth funds and pension funds to gauge demand, Chief Executive Officer Roger Bright said. It may present a proposal to its board “in a matter of months,” he said. CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. is advising on the possible sale.
This is the second attempt in a year by Crown Estate to raise money for a redevelopment of Regent Street costing an estimated 750 million pounds ($1.1 billion). Its board blocked proposals in September to establish a fund that would sell units to investors, citing its complexity, Bright said.
“We are looking at more straightforward ways to include third-party capital,” Bright said in an interview at Crown Estate’s headquarters behind Regent Street. “We are at the stage of expressions of interest; we haven’t yet got to the decision stage.”
Read more HERE
Posted in News Real Estate by .
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Source – iMarketNews.com
LONDON (MNI) – Growth in UK house asking prices slowed further in June, rising only 0.1% month on month and up 2.1% year on year, housing market intelligence company Hometrack said.
In May, prices had risen by 0.2% and by 2.0% on the year. Growth in demand, in terms of new buyers registering with agents, ground to a near standstill, rising just 0.1% on the month in June compared to up 0.5% on the month in May.
In the Hometrack series demand growth has been slowing for the last four months. Hometrack attributed the slowdown to political uncertainty, talk of austerity measures and a continuing lack of mortgage finance.
While demand was near flat on the month, housing supply rose.
Read more HERE
Posted in Interesting News Real Estate by .
Jun 10
28
New FSA Rules
“New protection for struggling homeowners”
Source – Moneyfacts.co.uk
New rules are to be introduced which will ensure there are proper protections in place for vulnerable homeowners in arrears on theirmortgages or people entering sale and rent back agreements.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has said customers in arrears must be treated fairly by firms and in particular that:
• firms must not apply a monthly arrears charge where an agreement is already in place to repay the arrears;
• payments by customers in financial difficulties must first be allocated to clearing the missed monthly payments, rather than to arrears charges, which can be repaid later; and
• firms must consider all options for borrowers, with repossessions always the last resort.
A new rule has also been introduced requiring firms to record all arrears handling telephone calls and to keep the records for three years.
Read the whole article HERE
Posted in Important News Real Estate by .
by Simon Zutshi from Property Investor Network
Given the huge Budget deficit that the country is in, I don’t think the new budget is all that Bad! It could be a lot worse.
Yes it is a shame that VAT is going up to 20% which is very high but will that extra 2.5% have a real impact n your purchases? Probably not! Capital Gains Tax has gone up to 28% for higher tax payers but remember you only pay that when you sell your property. If you don’t sell you don’t pay it so that will not affect many long term buy and hold property investors!
But there was one change in the Budget which could make a massive different to all the switched on Property investors
Not many property investors know this but there is a way to massively reduce your personal income tax liability, thanks to a change in the Capital Allowance scheme a few years ago. …
To Read the whole article click HERE
Posted in News by .
| Published | 10 June 2010 |
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Housing Minister Grant Shapps has today announced that he will be scrapping plans to introduce new regulations on private landlords.
There are one million landlords in England – nearly three quarters of which are individuals who may be renting a single room out.
Of the three million private tenants in this country, the vast majority report they are satisfied with the service they receive from their landlords.
Speaking in Parliament, Mr Shapps confirmed that with the private rented sector already governed by a well established legal framework, the Government has no plans to introduce any further regulations.
Instead, he urged councils to use the wide range of powers they already have at their disposal to tackle the minority of rogue landlords that blight some communities, provide a poor service to tenants and damage the reputation of the private rented sector.
Source: Communities and Local Government
Posted in Landlord Law News by .
Published by: Communities & Local Government
The Government has announced the suspension of Home Information Packs with immediate effect from 21 May 2010.
Homes marketed for sale on or after 21 May 2010 will no longer require a Home Information Pack (HIP).
The Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) will be retained. Sellers will still be required to commission, but won’t need to have received an EPC before marketing their property.
————————————————————————————————————————
HIPs are history: Pickles suspends Home Information Packs with immediate effect
In an important step at a point of fragile recovery in the housing market, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and Housing Minister Grant Shapps today announced that with immediate effect, they are suspending the requirement for homeowners to provide a Home Information Pack (HIP) when selling their homes.
Mr Pickles today laid an Order suspending HIPs with immediate effect, pending primary legislation for a permanent abolition. The Secretary of State has taken this swift action in order to avoid uncertainty and prevent a slump in an already fragile housing market. Today’s announcement sends a clear message of encouragement to people thinking of selling their home that they can put it on the market with less cost and hassle.
Read the whole article HERE
You may find this Q&A on HIP suspension also useful.
The Mortgage Works as the first announced 80% LTV Mortgage.
With 1 year fixed at 4.69% with a 2.50% arrangement fee and 3 year fixed at 5.99% with a 3.00% arrangement fee this sounds interesting.
Other lenders announcing plans to relax their lending criteria and property investors throughout the UK have been celebrating this.
Criteria have been gradually easing over the last three months, yet a year ago landlords needed to put down a 40 per cent deposit to secure financing.
This is a significant move to restore confidence in the buy to let sector, opening the doors to first time landlords, as well as many portfolio landlords that have been unable to expand due to reaching their maximum limit with the mainstream lenders.
This signals market recovery.
Apr 10
14
Property Chain
From – PropertyNOOB
Very interesting article and further guidance on how to cope with ‘chain’ issues and how to resolve it or not fall into.
You may notice the phrase ‘no onward chain‘ in some property advertisement. What does ‘chain‘ in this context mean?
What is a chain?
A property chain is a line of buyers and sellers who are all simultaneously involved in linked property transactions. When one falls through the whole chain breaks and all the transactions will be held up or could possibly fail completely.
What is an example of a broken chain?
For instance, you are buying a property A, and waiting for the seller to complete his purchase of another property B. For some reason, the vendor of Property A’s mortgage was not approved, and the deal falls through. This may mean you have to pull out of the purchase Property A. As well as causing considerable stress and strain, property chains can cause financial headache.
Read more HERE
Feb 10
25
Property Market Shake-up
Property News from Aboutproperty.co.uk
A shake-up in how property is sold could help Brits get a better deal, a report from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has suggested.
Industry expert David Amstell, founder of property website Briffy.com, explained that new regulations to allow vendors to put their homes online themselves would “cut out the estate agent and all the nonsense that comes along with them”. …
Read more HERE
Dec 09
31
Happy New Year 2010 ! ! !
I wish you all my Dear readers the greates successes in the 2010.
Will it be in property investing or in your private life or in a professional carrier have the bast ever year, time and money you can get!
Let this year 2010 be your ground floor for all new challenges and good experiences.
Let it be your most creative and fantastic of all times.
Happy, Happy New Year 2010 ! ! !
Tom
