The Clapham Property Blog

I had a great discussion with fellow South London investor Areeb Azam about tenant demand in the wake of the lockdown we're under at the moment. What is happening now? What do we predict for the future? Two real discussions in this episode: the effects on demand due to the corona virus epidemic and the longer term changes in renter demographic and what Areeb is doing to cater to this demand by using clever developing when he builds his units. Listen to the podcast now on iTunes. Or on web . Do stay tuned for property investment tips/tricks and updates and by all means do check out the DownToSouthLondon YouTube Channel for entertaining and informative videos to help you invest with confidence! I also offer coaching on a one-to-one basis so if you are looking to get into property investing and require personal guidance then head on over to www.jeroenhoppe.com .

So the question du jour is really - how to comply with our property management obligations (e.g. inspections, gas safety checks, and repairs) while respecting social-distancing and self-isolating tenants...??? Well, in all circumstances non-essential things should be avoided during a lockdown, such as routine inspections. If it's a major thing though like a leak (water or gas) it's best to get it seen to promptly but respect the social distancing guidelines as laid out on the government website . Engineers should be wearing PPE, distance themselves from occupants, and so on. There's no get-out-of-jail card with expired gas safety certificates, unless you've made a good few attempts and you can't get an engineer in because a tenant is self-isolating and so forth. Keep written records in case of any comeback of course. Repairs, well same thing really: "landlords remain legally obligated to ensure properties meet the required standard – urgent, essential hea

Well this is a short topic - there’s none! As my colleague investor discovered when a portfolio he purchased (literally just a week before this all kicked off), statutory periodic tenancies allow a month’s notice from the tenants’ side, so basically it’s left him with a load of empty rooms which he can’t view during the notice period, and likely voids after this lockdown we find ourselves in. You may need to refer to my previous video slamming periodic tenancies; personally I would never allow a tenant to go periodic because I want to retain control of when my properties might come back to the market. After all, I want the best returns. I want the easiest life, so I choose to let my properties during the peak (in terms of demand and hence price) of the year. So what happened In this instance? A lot of these properties were let on a multi-let (room-by-room) basis, and as it happened they were initially let on a fixed term which had since expired, so they were are “holding over