Later than normal after the Xmas break, a general bug fix and maintenance release. New functionality planned for early this year 
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
New year, new version – 3.1.11
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010Show Reminder
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009Just a quick reminder to say that we’ll be at the Property Investor Show at London Excel tomorrow (Thursday) to Saturday.
http://www.propertyinvestor.co.uk/london/
Hope to see you there!
New stuff
Thursday, October 1st, 2009Excited as we’ll be making an announcement later on about some new stuff that is being released. Stay tuned!
UK property – over the worst?
Monday, September 14th, 2009We’ve had several positive signs floating from the press recently about rises in property prices. These seem to fit what one would expect to see in a tentative recovery…but that does not mean they are! I read an article this morning which contained some interesting figures from a well known economic think tank.
Apparently 56% of property owners have a mortgage, which makes them reliant on the state of the mortgage markets which themselves have stubbornly refused to recover at anything like the same rate. Without funding or overseas investment, it’s hard to see how the market can sustain any consistent price rises, even if the demand is there.
So why are prices increasing? Well the idea put forward is that a relatively small pool of cash buyers in conjunction with limited supply of properties for sale (we’re all waiting for prices to recover!) is pushing prices up. This may well be true, and if it is this signals trouble because it cannot last.
I don’t see much other than sideways movement for the moment.
Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) – a waste of money?
Thursday, July 30th, 2009For those that don’t keep up with legislation changes, from 1st October 2008 landlords needed to produce a piece of paper (in fact a whole bunch) that gives a general rating for the energy efficiency of the property you are letting. This pretty much encompanses all properties being sold or let now and the requirement only applies to new lettings so you don’t need to get one for existing tenants (whew!) and they last 10 years before they need to be renewed..
In principle, it puts your property on a par to the way fridges get rated for efficiency.
Good thing? Bad thing?
In the ‘Good’ camp:
- Makes everyone aware of the environmental impact of each property
- Informs the landlord about the changes he could make to improve the rating
- Gives more ‘choice’ to a prospective tenant
- Nice job creation scheme for EPC inspectors
In the ‘Bad’ camp:
- They cost money
- The information they give is, for the most part, pretty obvious (’install loft insulation’…no, really?)
- They won’t make any real difference to the prospective tenant – you’re not showing them standardised fridges that they will pick the best performance one – there are more important factors for properties and no two are alike so the notion of being comparable in that way is nonsensical
My opinion? Sorry, not a fan. It won’t really help the tenant (will they really turn down that flat because it’s a ‘C’ rather than ‘B’ rating..? I think not) and adds additional costs to letting property that nobody needs or wants, especially at the moment. They also can lead to bureaucratic situations arising – for example, I have just let a flat. It was let before so has never had an EPC. It has now been re-let before I’ve had a chance to get the EPC done! The tenants don’t care – to them it will be another bit of paper, but I will have to pay out to get this paperwork when there is nothing I can realistically do (or isn’t common sense) anyway to improve the efficiency of this property as it is in a block of flats.
If the government where serious about the environmental impact of property then they should introduce measures to encourage more landlords and homeowners in general to ‘go green’ (and I mean taking it beyond some weakly advertised minor tax breaks for cavity wall insulation etc). Perhaps landlords could earn further tax breaks for every property they get to ‘A’ or ‘B’ status. I’d be more supportive of a ‘carrot’ approach like this that supports and encourages landlords. Such an approach is also likely to be much more effective in achieving the main aim of this legislation: making homes more efficient.
Agents move into lettings to increase revenue
Thursday, August 14th, 2008One of the effects of the slowdown in sales has been the recent movement into the lettings arena by a number of estate agents. We are taking calls on a daily basis from would-be letting agents who are looking to lettings as the way to increase revenue and keep them afloat. They may be right – lettings is the one area of the market that is flourishing with a generally good supply of tenants as those would-be purchasers sit out the market problems in rented accommodation. This effect is reinforced by sellers – unable to sell to anyone despite monthly price drops – giving up and renting their properties. The overall effect is to increase supply and demand with the lettings market expanding as a result. An active and growing market can only be a good thing for (existing) landlords!
