2018 Predictions of the St Neots Buy-to-Let Market

I read a report recently and thought how it might be of interest to my Landlords.

According to the Home website, it has been suggested that masses of landlords are selling their buy-to-let investments due to increasing burdens on them in the buy-to-let market. They suggest the number of new properties that came onto the market nationally (for sale) jumped by 11% across the UK as a result.

Increasing responsibilities include new tax rules coming in over the next 3 - 4 years and the notification that all self-managing landlords (i.e. landlords that don’t use a letting agent to look after their buy-to-let property) will soon need to register with a compulsory redress scheme to resolve tenant complaints and disputes; as Westminster wants to heighten standards in the Private Rented Sector.

Just before the Christmas break I was chatting with a self-managed landlord from Hail Weston, who didn’t realise the other recent legislations that have hit the Private Rented sector, including the ‘Right to Rent’ regulations which came in to operation last year. Landlords now have to certify their tenants have the legal right to live in the UK.

This includes checking and taking copies of their tenant’s passport or visa before the tenancy is signed. Of course, if you use a letting agent to manage your property, they will usually sort this for you (as they will with the redress scheme when that is implemented).

But if you are a self-managed landlord though, the consequences will be severe because if you let a property to a tenant who is living in the UK illegally, you will be fined up to £3,000. That same Hail Weston landlord popped into my offices last Friday where I checked all his paperwork and ensured he was on the right side of the law going forward.

I offer the same to any landlord in the St Neots area, so if you want me to cast my eye over your buy to let matters at no cost (just bring in some chocolates for the girls in the office!) I would be more than happy to do so.

So… what are all these extra properties being dumped onto the St Neots property market? The records show that the number of properties on the market in St Neots now, as opposed to a year ago, tell an interesting story …

You can see that St Neots doesn’t match the national trend, with the number of properties on the market actually rising by 3% in the last year. Yet it was particularly interesting to see the number of terraced increase by 129%, yet the number of semis on the market drop by 19%.

The whole property market has changed in the last 12 months, with the majority of the change in the number and type of properties for sale due to the owner-occupier market, a subject I will write about soon in my St Neots Property Market blog later this Spring. It’s not landlords dumping their properties on the market which many originally thought.

Nationally, the number of rental properties coming on to the market to rent fell by 16% in Q4 2017 compared to Q4 2016 .. but that isn’t because there are 16% less rental properties to rent – it’s because tenants are staying in their rental properties longer meaning less are coming on the market to be RE-LET.

All the same, some St Neots landlords will of course want to release the equity held in their St Neots buy to let properties in 2018. All I suggest is that you speak with your letting agent first, as putting a rental property on the open market often spooks the tenants to hand in their notice days after you put it on the market (because they don’t like the uncertainty and also believe they will become homeless!).

No landlord wants an empty property, costing you money with no rent coming in. However, there are some letting agents who specialise in portfolio management and will have select lists of landlords that will buy property with sitting tenants in. If you have a portfolio in the St Neots area and are considering selling some, or all of them, drop me a line as I might have a portfolio landlord for you (with the peace of mind that you won’t have any rental voids).