The Clapham Property Blog

I was speaking to a buyer the other day and they were delighted with their new purchase. A two bedroom ex-local authority flat on the Cowley Estate in Brixton. They were delighted, despite it needing masses of work in the form of renovation. Having previously been let to a housing association you can imagine the state of disrepair it was in. Thankfully the bathroom was fully tiled, so that was the saving grace, just cleaning to be done there. But as all good first time buys on a budget go, with a lot of blood, sweat, tears and elbow grease they will have that flat in pristine condition in no time. Or a lot of time, but it doesn't matter. Ultimately they have bought well. Having sold a few on the Cowley estate in my time I couldn't believe the way prices have changed over the years. For the better of course. The estate itself has undergone a radical change over the years. Security gates with fob entry to keep the rogue parkers and their cars out, a refurbished playgroun

Oh that looks great, an easy purchase. The property looks fantastic, in good order, modern kitchen and bathroom. Every tenant that walks through the door will be stuffing pound notes down my trousers to entice me to rent it to them. Well guess what, an easy life comes at a price. How often have you looked at a property and thought "oh that's a developer jobby, they want premium money for their refurb." Guess what, they do - because they want to get paid for the time they slaved over designing, executing and paying for the refurb! It's really easy to say "no" and want to do it yourself and save yourself the premium in the purchase price. However... time is money. You end up buying something (be it to live in or for investment) and you will have to...wait for it... spend more money, delay the move-in, put up with builders, spiralling costs, etc etc... If you are letting - time is money, and you can't charge for yesterday's void! So you should reall

Today's blog is by Richard Tacagni of London Property Licensing, specialist in helping residential landlords make sense of London property licensing. Southwark Council is the latest borough set to implement new licensing schemes for private rented homes. On 21 July 2015, the Council’s Cabinet approved borough wide additional licensing plus a network of smaller selective licensing areas spread across the borough. Both schemes will go live on 1 November 2015. According to the Council, Southwark’s private rented sector has seen rapid growth and about 70,000 people now live in private rented homes – about a quarter of all residents. The Council says that whilst much of the sector provides decent accommodation and is well managed, there are problems associated with parts of the sector arising from poor management, poor property conditions and issues of anti-social behaviour. The Council says that their enforcement activity involving multiple occupied properties h