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Young developers featured in Property Week

London rents are projected to rise by nearly a quarter in the next five years, according to research by Knight Frank – with younger generations arguably feeling the brunt of this overheated market…read full article on Property Week.

COMPLETED!

There is nothing like an auction win completing. Our deal did on Monday. A six week race to the finish line with all guns blazing but we got there.

This purchase is particularly sweet because it’s in my home town and is my local post office with two residential units above it.

Who knew that one day I would own a post office?! The stamping of receipts and cashbooks and the sticking of postal stamps from that wet pad were all things I wanted to do when I was a child. Post office clerk/postmaster was my idea of perfect shop play and future vocation.

Fast forward 40 plus years and the enormity of what we’ve just acquired has hit me. It’s a developer’s waiting game. We can’t just storm in there and rip things out and get to work like we normally would. It’s tenanted and the post office lease has a couple of years to run.
So why purchase this?

Commercial to Residential we believe is the way forward and having mixed stock in your portfolio can be a good thing.

Key take aways from this deal thus far:

* Raising funds for semi commercial units are tricky. The loan to value is lower and the interest rates are higher. Supporting the deal with an unincumbered property is massively important.

* Stamp duty implications with mixed use property. Get a good accountant to work this out. Don’t leave it to your solicitor. They have other magic to work.

* This is a long game investment. Not a quick in and out. However, the rewards could be great if more homes produced.

Contact me if you want to start your property journey but you’re unsure how to or you just want a few months of handholding to build your confidence and get you over that line.

#developer #propertyfinance # #investment

Auction Day

AUCTION DAY TODAY! No matter how experienced you are the run up to Auction is scarey and I guess exciting at the same time.

Why the stress – because it is SO unpredictable. Fact!

I do practise what I preach – prepare, prepare, prepare and do all of these things as a basic measure:

🏡 Visit the property (twice)

📚 Read the legal pack thoroughly (especially the Special Conditions of sale and the Addendum)

👩🏽‍⚖️ Instruct my solicitor to read the legal pack

🏦 Line up the finance / at least get Terms from a broker or direct from a preferred lender

🧱Have a Plan B and C – Have more than one Lot prepared that could be a viable option

👷🏽‍♀️ Have an available builder/team in mind. Someone who is going to be able to jump on the work immediately and not in three months time.

However until you enter the room (online or in person) you cannot predict how the day will pan out because the buyers you are up against don’t declare their hand until the bidding starts.
It’s not yours until that gavel goes down.

Buyers in the room with strong motivations for purchase (other than just portfolio building) means that some Lots rapidly become out of bounds and you don’t stand a chance.

Motivations such as purchasing because they want to live in it for a nearby good school or
they own the properties either side and they want to go for planning etc etc. These MUST HAVE buyers will always trump NICE TO HAVE buyers who don’t have the same conviction.

No matter how well organised you are these buyers will be prepared to break the ceiling price and pay way over what the property may actually be worth because of their motivation.

That said sometimes you enter a room and the buyers are just not there. That can also be scary because now you start wondering why!?! A whole other story.

Wish me luck!

#property #motivation #auctions

The Thoughtful Leader 

I was recently interviewed by Mindy Gibbins-Klein – Thought Leadership Speaker on #TheThoughtfulLeader podcast. It was a great experience!

The Thoughtful Leader features REAL thought leaders sharing with you how to position yourself as a true authority in your field. I was honored to be a guest on the show. Mindy is passionate about what she does!
 
In our conversation, we discuss:
Believe in someone and give them a chance.
An example of how someone helped another to succeed.
How to change your behaviour to create change by listening, making a decision, and proceeding with a thoughtful choice.
The social responsibility that comes when having money.
Helping other family caregivers navigate NHS, CCG and social services to help their parents.

If you enjoyed it, please do us a favour and leave a review and let us know what part made the biggest impact!
 
Also, while you are there, please make sure and subscribe to The Thoughtful Leader to get access to all of the new and informative interviews!

You can listen to the podcast through the link in the comment below.

#TheThoughtfulLeader #leadership #MindyGibbinsKlein

Holiday Homes loophole leaves renting almost impossible in some cities

The HMRC views holiday lets as a trade rather than investments. This means mortgage interest costs can be offset against any income for tax purposes. If you have used a mortgage or loan to pay for a holiday let, you can claim the interest of repayments back against your tax.

Holiday lets count as a business which means the expenses from your rental income can be deducted before you are taxed. This includes the interest you pay on your mortgage. For buy-to-let properties, on the other hand, the law has changed, and this is no longer the case.

It means letting holiday homes has become a relatively cheaper expense and is therefore more profitable if you are occupied for most of the year.

This is leading to quite a few cases where long term tenants are being evicted from their homes, so the landlord can do it up – as one requirement is that it is adequately furnished – and rent to tourists looking for a home, away from home. Plymouth has become a city of holiday lets and in fact so much so, they have an ongoing petition to slow it down.

Cornwall has 62 homes to rent on Rightmove but 10,290 Airbnb listings. In one village in Wales, three quarters of the houses are holiday homes.

Anything that reduces cost will look attractive, particularly in this climate where the three-month temporary solace of mortgage holidays offered a preview to an advantage that could be experienced permanently (for now anyhow), as a landlord, if you just made the switch.

Ruthless Impact

Tenants become vulnerable to eviction, through no fault of their own, when regular landlords aspire to become holiday let landlords.

This becomes even more real during these uncertain times of Covid. As we are being asked to holiday at home the opportunity for these holiday lets arises with the threat of eviction rising too. The eviction ban lifted from protecting tenants in May 2021. Tenants could find themselves on the street with no roof over their head. 

This generation, looking to buy a home in their childhood neighbourhood stand no chance with fewer residential properties to purchase and the ceiling prices unreachable. Renting too will be impossible with higher demand and higher rent. Young people will be unlikely to afford.

Ironically, local business owners who require a workforce to keep their businesses running to cater for tourists, will struggle finding the workforce who have nowhere to live locally.

Should the loophole be closed?

Removing the holiday let mortgage relief would return the incentive to prioritise people looking for a home, not a holiday.

It would open up a more competitive rental market for those wanting to live in these sought-after holiday towns where many grew up/want to return to.

It’s tricky because the nation has become more accustomed to Air BnB or Booking.com, as opposed to the traditional hotel establishments. We increasingly opt for a more ‘authentic’ travel, where you can experience the city, the way the locals do, including living like they live. A home away from home.

Maybe the answer is to incentivise regular landlords who simply rent to those that need a home to level out the playing field.

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