Tenants Staying in Buy to Let Properties For Longer

According to research by the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) the average length of a tenant’s stay in a buy to let property has increased from 19 months in Q1 2012 to 20 months today. This is the longest period recorded so far. Almost 57% of ARLA agents report that there are more tenants…

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Is Southampton Really the UK’s Buy to Let Hotspot?

Well, according to research from HSBC, it is, with average gross buy to let yields of 7.82%. Now, I have to say, I’m not sure how HSBC conducted their research. The inference from the press release seems to be that they looked at yields in the locations where there is the greatest proportion of rented…

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The Buy to Let Phenomenon

Buy-to-let must surely be one of the financial success stories of our times. Just think about this. Prior to 1996 there were no buy-to-let mortgages. According to the Halifax, the number of buy-to-let mortgages jumped from 275,000 at the end of 2002 to 408,300 by the end of 2003. By the end of 2005 there…

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What Is Buy-to-Let?

Before the buy-to-let scheme started in 1996 it was extremely difficult for private investors to raise finance on residential investment property, unless they were already high net-worth individuals, or were high-income earners, or both. At that time any residential property loan, other than a standard mortgage loan to an owner-occupier, would be treated by the…

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Why Is Buy-to-Let So Popular?

Over the last few years several things have coincided to boost the market for private residential property investment: The performance of the stock market has been relatively poor over the last decade. Here’s a fact you’ll very often hear quoted. On January 1st 2000 the FTSE stood at 7,000. Today, as I write, more than…

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