The Clapham Property Blog

24 HOURS TO GO!!! I can't tell you how excited  Trevor Cutmore  and I are to be welcoming guest speakers  Anna Harper  and  Stefan Thomas Canavan  at  The Jam Tree (Clapham)  for an informative yet relaxed evening of property, property, property! Content on the night as follows: 1. London Developments Anna  and  Stefan  will be taking us through how they work. Their company  Landmark Projects  has gone (literally) through the roof in the past year and they will be talking us through how they source funding for their purchases, meet their investors' needs and overcome problems in property. Are you looking to add value to property? Are you looking to learn from those who are actively investing and making money by developing properties in London? Don't miss this. 2. Make you eviction count! Jeroen Hoppe  will be talking us through the pitfalls of London Lettings (and beyond). What you can do to make your eviction happen sooner rather than later, and i

I was speaking to a client the other day and he said he had as many properties as he wanted to own. A bold statement. To the layman it's the equivalent of a child at Toys 'r' us saying "I've got everything I want." He had amassed a portfolio of a substantial size and over the years he had used the equity to purchase more. A lovely idea of course, getting a return on equity - imagine that! More about that momentarily. He said he didn't really want to to own any more properties to hold and rent out, so was focussing his efforts on bigger property transactions where he could add substantial value using his expertise and experience.  He had structured his portfolio to ensure that his assets paid for all his liabilities. Repairs, service charges, ground rents, voids, tax bill and at the very end a nice monthly allowance. He had now moved on to the next thing on his list: developing properties. He was telling me about a lovely deal that he had found

You will no doubt have seen many news outlets spouting that after 10-15 years of London the average person simply "gives up" and moves out. So what are they giving up on, exactly? In the words of Samuel Johnson: "...when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." Not so much so today however... Property As you will know the tenant population is ageing. If you have been letting long enough you will have found over the past decade that student digs that were let to 20 year olds are now being occupied by first or even second jobbers; two bedroom flats that were once let to couples looking for more space now more often occupied by a couple plus one, and so on. Renting has become more expensive, and in an everlasting pursuit of affordability thirtysomethings are now moving out to live in property with more "acceptable" square footage of floor space. After all what is acceptable in zones 1-2 is conside