Thursday, 5 April 2018
Edinburgh revealed as number one UK ‘hot spot’ for hotel development
Colliers International’s latest UK Hotels Market Index shows continued year on year growth for the hotel sector, with revenue per available room (RevPAR) increasing by 3.8%; significantly ahead of GDP growth.
The annual report, which is in its third year, paints a positive picture for the hotels sector. Regional markets have continued to catch up to London in terms of their attractiveness to investors and cities such as Hull and Plymouth entered the list of top 10 hot spots for hotel development and acquisition in the UK for the first time in 2017.
Edinburgh topped the Index, moving up four places in 2017 since the previous year with its high position mainly attributed to strong occupancy levels and average daily rate (ADR) growth in 2017, resulting in a four-year upward revenue per available room (RevPAR) trend combined with constrained new supply.
Bath ranks second, moving ten places up, as a result of strong ADR performance, combined with a lower active pipeline, and Belfast came third.
Marc Finney, head of hotels & resorts consulting at Colliers International, said: “Cities such as Bath and Belfast have really upped their game in the last year to make it into the top five, despite failing to feature in the top 10 last year.”
Thursday, 15 March 2018
Wednesday, 14 March 2018
Tuesday, 13 March 2018
A three per cent stamp duty surcharge and a change in tax regulation are factors future landlords will have to consider.
Talk to a seasoned landlord and the chances are that they will moan about the good old days before George Osborne added higher stamp duty on second homes and withdrew higher rate tax relief on mortgage and finance interest.
Few experts are predicting a buy-to-let bonanza in 2018. “The changes in taxation and other rising costs of home ownership are not making it easy to be a landlord,” admits Kate Eales, Head of Lettings at Strutt & Parker. But where Eales does expect to see growth is in so-called build to rent (BTR) properties. This is an emerging sub-market within private residential rented stock, designed specifically for renting rather than for sale and typically owned by investors. In fact, Strutt & Parker’s analysts believe that the UK is ‘on the brink of a large-scale commercially developed, owned and operated BTR sector’.
For more traditional landlords, with a portfolio of older properties, this year has been frustrating following recent tax changes. But if profit margins are tight, that does not necessarily mean that the buy-to-let game is not worth considering.
The great thing about the buy-to-let sector is its adaptability. If some landlords fall by the wayside, others learn how to weather the bad times and cash in during the good times. And if the 2016 tax changes were a jolt to the system, there is evidence that the buy-to-let sector has absorbed the shock and is starting, albeit slowly, to bounce back.
“Rental values in prime central London fell by 2.5 per cent in the year to October,” says Tom Bill, Head of London Residential at Knight Frank. “We now expect rental values in London as a whole to move from broadly negative to flat in the near term. It looks as if the large spike in new stock that followed the additional rates of stamp duty introduced in April 2016 has been largely absorbed by the market.”
Another factor keeping rents high enough to attract would-be landlords, is the shortage of supply. Paradoxically, because some landlords were discouraged by the 2016 tax changes and slimmed down their portfolios, the ones who have held their nerve have realised that their properties can still command decent rents with demand remaining strong.
The key thing, as always, in the buy-to-let sector is to research the market properly. Asking rents in the capital fell by 3.2 per cent in the year to June 2017, but rose by 1.7 per cent in England and Wales as a whole, according to Savills figures. ‘‘The rental outlook is strongest in regional cities that attract investors from high value sectors such as professional services, technology and finance,” says Lawrence Bowles, Research Associate at Savills. Cities such as Edinburgh, Bristol, Oxford and Cambridge all seem to tick the right boxes.
You would have to be very clever, or very lucky, to make a killing in the UK buy-to-let sector in the near future. However, property has always been a long game for those prepared to do their research, budget carefully and become hands-on landlords. There are still interesting times ahead for savvy investors.
Monday, 12 March 2018
Keep it simple:how to do your own fire safety assessment online if you're a landlord
Like most landlords, I would do everything possible to keep my tenants safe. However, I can’t say hand on heart that I have complied with all the fire safety regulations that apply to one of my properties — because the regulations themselves are so darned confusing.
The property causing me concern is a four-bedroom duplex that was previously let to a group of friends on a single tenancy agreement and is now let to four sharers on individual contracts. It is, therefore, labelled as a house in multiple occupation — an HMO — and as such requires me to take greater fire precautions than if it were let as a single unit.
But what extra fire precautions do I need to take? Obviously I have smoke alarms on both floors, which has been a requirement in all rental properties since October 2015, but I am not sure these are enough both to comply with the law regarding non-licensed HMOs and to give my tenants enough warning in the event of a fire.
I have spent hours trawling the internet for information and poring over official fire safety guidance, but I still can’t work out whether these alarms should be replaced with more expensive mains-operated ones, which avoids the risk of tenants removing or forgetting to replace the batteries.
READ MORE
Complacent landlords risk getting caught out by the latest regulations
Also, do I need special fire doors, fire alarms and special fire-fighting equipment such as sprinklers, or at the very least fire extinguishers on both floors?
Thinking the local authority would be able to help I gave them a call but they referred me to the local fire service, who told me I’d need to pay for a private company to carry out a fire risk assessment. However, all the firms I contacted told me this was neither a necessity nor a legal requirement for my type of property.
Instead, I downloaded my own fire risk assessment form from the internet and, using the accompanying guide, did it myself.
As a result, I’ve decided to err on the side of caution and install interconnected mains-operated alarms. I am also going to install a mains-operated heat alarm in the kitchen, which will be connected to the smoke alarms. In total, this will cost about £600.
I probably ought to provide a fire blanket for the kitchen, which I can get for less than £5 from my local hardware store. I’d been wondering if I should get a fire extinguisher, too, but after reading the official guidance I think this might do more harm than good.
READ MORE
Is it right to force landlords to accept tenants with pets?
Why it always pays for landlords to do a credit check on tenants
Accidental landlord: this frosty tenant just won't thaw
Far better, I think, to tell tenants to evacuate rather than try to fight a fire. I certainly wouldn’t trust any of those ditsy students to use an extinguisher effectively.
I had also considered fitting a self-closing arm to the kitchen door to try to prevent a fire spreading to the rest of the flat, but apparently these can make a door hard to open, trapping someone inside a blazing room.
During my assessment I spotted that a couple of the tenants had extension leads plugged into other extension leads, which they had loaded with multiple plugs for things such as hairdryers, curling tongs and laptops, all of which they had left on standby.
I emailed them all warning this was a hazard and asked them only to use one extension lead at a time and to turn off appliances when not in use. They will ignore me, but I can only do my best.
I just hope that all this is enough and that at least now I am complying with all the law
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
