The Clapham Property Blog

Here we go, another regulatory update. You will, as a savvy investor and landlord, know about the various bits of paper that you need to give your new tenants upon move-in. Alas this list is an ever-changing one! This month the government has launched an updated version of the "How To Rent" booklet. In the know (Before move-in/signing tenancy agreement you must give the tenant(s) a copy of: (and make sure they are either a pdf via email or hard copy, NOT a link) 1. EPC 2. Gas safety certificate (in date of course and it must be valid for 1 month after the date of move-in) 3. How To Rent Booklet which you can download here 4. Tenancy Agreement Post Move-in 5. Inventory and check-in report 6. Deposit registration information (within 30 days) Here are a few important notes: Take special care that you give them an updated version of the HTR booklet (link above) They must have seen the EPC (and if you are letting after 1st April 2018 y

Looking at the newspapers between Christmas and New Year, it seemed that this year’s sport in the column inches was to predict the future of the British housing market. So to go along with that these are my thoughts on the Clapham property market. With the average 5-year fixed rate mortgage at 1.98% (down from 3.47% in 2014) and 2-year fixed rate at 1.47% (down from 2.37% in 2014), mortgage interest rates offered by lenders are at an all-time low (even with the slight increase on the Bank of England base rate a few months ago). Added to this, there has been a low unemployment rate of 5% in Clapham, which has contributed to maintain a decent level demand for property in Clapham in 2017 (interestingly – an impressive 741 Clapham properties were sold in last 12 months), whilst finally, the number of properties for sale in the town has remained limited, thus providing support for Clapham house prices, meaning … Clapham Property Values are 1.2% lower than a year ago Howe

I was recently reading a report by the Home website which suggested that hordes of landlords are selling their buy-to-let investments due to increasing burdens on them in the buy-to-let market. Their findings suggest the number of new properties that came onto the market nationally (for sale) jumped by 11% across the UK as a result. Those increasing burdens include new tax rules coming in over the next 3 to 4 years and the announcement that all self-managing landlords (i.e. landlords that don’t use a letting agent to look after their buy-to-let property) will soon need to register with a compulsory redress scheme to resolve tenant arguments and disputes; as Westminster wants to heighten standards in the Private Rented Sector. Interestingly I was chatting with a self-managed landlord from the north side of the Common, when I was out socially over the festive period, who didn’t realise the other recent legislations that have hit the Private Rented sector, including the ‘Rig

Talk to many Clapham 20 something’s, where home ownership has looked but a vague dream, many of them have been vexatious towards the Baby Boomer generation and their pushover ‘easy go lucky’ walk through life; jealous of their free university education with grants, their eye watering property windfalls, their golden final salary pensions and their free bus passes. If you had bought a property in Clapham for say £30,000 in first quarter of 1977, today it would be worth £907,667, a windfall increase of 2925.56%. But to blame the 60 and 70 year olds of Clapham for that sort of rise seems a little unfair, with the value of the homes rising like rocket, I don't believe they can be censured or made liable for that. A few weeks ago, I discussed in my blog the number of people in the Clapham area who have two or more spare bedrooms (meaning they are under-occupying the house). I see many mature members of Clapham society, rattling around in large 4/5 bed houses where the kids

My research shows that certain types of Clapham property are a little more affordable today than what the newspapers might make you think. Roll the clock back to 2007 just before the credit crunch hit which saw Clapham property values plummet like a lead balloon and the Clapham property market had reached a peak with the prices for Clapham property hitting the highest level they had ever reached. Between 2008 and 2010, Clapham property values lay in the doldrums and only started to rise in 2011, albeit quite slowly to begin with. Nevertheless, even though property values have now passed those 2007 peaks, my research indicates that Clapham property, especially flats/apartments, are now more affordable than they were before the 2008 credit crunch. Back in 2007, the average value of a Clapham flat/apartment stood at £387,385 and today, it stands at £560,530, a rise of £173,145 or 44.7%. However, between 2007 and today, we have experienced inflation (as measured by th