Property financing and interest rates

Financing your property 

Bank of England's new Governor Mark Carney revealed the bank's first ever pre-commitment on interest rates. He is suggesting that the interest rates will be at their historically low rate of 0.5% until I employments reaches below 7%. Currently it's above this level i.e 7.8% and is not expected to drop in near future.

This historic step gives landlords greater certainty to move forward with their investment decisions.  The answer to the question as to whether to go for a fixed rate mortgage or a variable one may be clearer than ever before.  Cleverly, Carney has not tied his hand to fixing rates for a set period.  Experts are currently predicting that the unemployment rate will remain above 7% until 2016.

Government strategy clear
The strategy of the coalition government has been clear from the outset. Encourage inflation and lending so to avoid, deflation and thereby inflate away the huge debt.  Inflation is a debtors best friend as it reduces the size of the debt providing other factors remain the same.  This is all good news for many landlords who are heavily geared and for whom their biggest expense remains their buy to let mortgage payments.  Although rents have failed to keep up with inflation but fortunately for landlords they have outstripped debt repayments which have stayed the same or even reduced giving an ever increasing margin and rental profit.

Increase in Housebuilding

New homes are being built and finally it has shown an increase of 6% in the three months to June. It ended as a result of government introducing Help to Buy scheme and cheap borrowing.
Brandon Lewis, the communities minister, put forward figures that showed that housing starts rose to 29,510 in the second quarter of 2013.
Figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government showed that seasonally adjusted housing starts were now 73% above the levels reached at the slump in 2009 but still 40% below the peak in early 2007, just before the onset of financial crisis.
Councils could also play a big role in recovery of house buildings and that is why The Local Government Association (LGA)is urging the govt. to remove restrictions on council investment in new housing. It said councils could build an additional 60,000 homes over the next five years if they were allowed to invest in housing.

Buy to let mortgages - a cause of concern.

As seen in the previous surveys that buy to let mortgages have shown a sudden growth and it seemed to be a good news for potential buyers as it increased to levels not observed since the 2008 financial crisis but Lord Lamont who was a chancellor during the last recession in the 1990s has warned everyone of this sudden boom of which he fears could collapse causing more damage Han any good.

Although prospective landlords are taking advantage of the low interest rates but the former chancellor is concerned and thinks that the ministers should keep a close eye on these developments as this over rapid expansion was previously a cause of the demise of Bradford & Bingley, a company with its 200 branches and £20 bn deposits collapsed in 2008 after a sharp rise in funding costs amid the global credit crunch.

Lamont believes the government and Bank of England risk creating one property bubble in response to the collapse of another.

Analysts say today's boom in buy-to-let loans is the result of an increase in mortgages linked to the government's funding for lending scheme. The £80bn scheme – designed to improve the availability of credit – has pushed down mortgage rates with landlords offered rates of just 2.5%. Meanwhile, house prices also have shown an increase which is three times faster than the wages. This trend has also resulted in potential buyers increasing in number.

Different trends of rental properties and their rents

Different opinions have been seen on rental properties and an increase in their rent. According to a survey, only in London there is a rise of 26.4% rise in available properties. But with increasing number of properties, the rents still are rising.
The research was also supported by a survey of Council of Mortgage Lenders which shows a rise in mortgage lending to first time buyers in five years i.e since 2007.
The average London rent is now almost £1,300 a month, although rents in the south-east outside London have fallen to £841, down from £851 last year.
However, despite more competitive buy-to-let mortgages encouraging investors to expand their lettings portfolios and increase the supply of rental accommodation on the market, there are still on average two to three tenants for every rental property.
This up and down trend will continue until demand and supply evens out.

Private Tenants wanting to own their own homes

According to a survey done by Rightmove, majority of tenants wish to own their own property. An average of 60% of tenants has been surveyed by the website who want to own a property but are hindered by several circumstances among which affordability is the main cause.
The survey shows an average of 15% tenants who are in the process of saving their earnings for deposit, with 11% unable to save anything, 43% say that they save a little.
The survey gives an edge to letting agencies like Accommodation Links not only provides properties to let but also properties to sell.. The official website has a list of properties available for sale. Alongwith that, the people who face difficulty due to finances could also get mortgage advices as well.

Buy-to-Let Mortgage

Buy to let mortgages are getting cheaper in the second quarter of the year as noticed by mortgage brokers.. A fall of 0.33% is seen as an average.

Fixed and variable mortgage rates have shown a decrease with fixed rates going down to 4.15% from 4.48% and variable rates going down to 4.35% from 4.68% resulting in higher yields.

It seems to be a reasonable time for property investors.

Good demand for rented property

Many people prefer to live in apartments these days, as the maintenance costs are low and one does not need to have a large capital. Similarly, shop spaces are also in great demand as there are many small businessmen who do not have large offices or shops to store their goods. Instead, they opt for self storage, where they can store their goods in a rented place.

Renting out property involves many hassles and is a time consuming job. Hence, owners prefer to rely on a property management agency to take care of their properties and generate income from it, especially, if the owner is employed in some other job. It becomes practically impossible to look into the different aspects of renting out the property.

People who have invested in apartments or buildings prefer to hire a management agency to run your realty property and to help them generate income from their property. One can invest in buildings and properties for residential purposes like, apartments or for commercial use like shops.

However, rather than leaving property vacant only with the idea of selling it at a higher price in future it is wiser to give it out on rent and make some money from it.

 A good manager is a man who isn't worried about his own career but rather the careers of those who work for him. 

The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.