Property Investing News

A lot of changes are happening in the investment property world at the moment. The most alarming thing seems to be the introduction of yet more rules and regulations that will ultimately be applied only to the smaller investor and the increasingly apparent need of the governments to raise enough money to pay for bailing out the various industries and corporations deemed “too big to fail.”

A proposed new law in the UK will require all private landlords to be registered before letting out residential property. According to the Times:

Easy access to buy-to-let mortgages over the past decade has meant that the number of private landlords has risen to about one million in England and Wales, and ministers are worried that a growing number of unscrupulous landlords are exploiting tenants.

Anyone letting a residential property would have to pay about £50 to register with a national body. This would include developers, buy-to-let investors and the growing ranks of “accidental landlords” who cannot sell their homes and have been forced to let them out instead. Times article

And if that sounds like yet another tax to screw a few more pennies out of distressed British home owners, I am not going to argue with you. As for the cost – I laugh out loud at the idea of British Government Inc being able to process a piece of paper for less than £50 – so if it is introduced expect the cost to be far in excess of that. They are already scrambling around shocked and horrified at the “unforeseen” costs of introducing ID cards and are suggesting that salesgirls in chemists (pharmacies for our US visitors) are best qualified (cheapest) to take fingerprints for the soon-to-be mandatory ID cards. Speaking for myself – any high street retailer that signs up for the government’s scheme to have high street shops issue ID cards will never get another penny of my business.

Look to Ireland for an idea of where residential property rents are headed – down 17.5% from 2008 in the first three months of 2009, according to the Irish Times:

“The rental market is feeling the brunt of too much supply and not enough demand,” said Ronan Lyons, economist with Daft. “The number of properties available for rent is now over 23,000 – an all time high. This additional supply is having a downward effect on price and is also pushing out the time it is taking to rent properties”.Irish Times

The amount of renters falling victim to foreclosure in the US is already becoming a problem and it is becoming increasingly important for renters to check out potential landlords.

When a house goes up at auction or becomes bank owned, the new owner often issues a notice for the tenant to leave. There’s really nothing a renter can do about that, even if they are only two months into a year-long lease and have paid a security deposit. To get their deposit, they have to go after the prior landlord. Ventura County Star

How practical it is to do this type of research as an individual is beyond me.

Norwich Union (or Aviva as they prefer to be called now) have once again reneged on their payout and if the value of their fund falls any further – as we all expect it to with the deepening recession, whether they make a payment or not I have a feeling they are going to be in an untenable position fairly soon. When their commercial property fund was frozen in January, it was supposed to be for six months……….

The US stress tests on banks will soon be published. There has been a few delays as they introduce new accounting rules to mask the commercial property losses that must, at some point come to light. Not going to be pretty and it is looking as though Bank of America will end up at least partially nationalized.

A new law in Dubai. Yes – another new law. This one intended to prop up the prices of property in Dubai by extending the time a foreign investor can stay in-country to six months. If they own a valuable enough piece of property and if…. Full details of Dubai’s new law for foreign property investors . The amount of property for sale in Dubai is staggering at the moment, and it is almost impossible to work out how much inventory they have. 2 years worth 5? 10? any advance on 10?

Prices for property in Spain are still heading downwards, there are some extremely inexpensive properties in Bulgaria available, and if you have cash and patience, it might be time to start looking for a few bargains.