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Will changes to EPC law be delayed yet again?

Posted on by prateek

Back in January, we blogged about the ongoing saga concerning changes to EPC law in England. Letting and estate agents are required by law to commission an Energy Performance Certificate prior to marketing a property, but current legislation regarding how much of the report must then be shared with clients is very lax. The EPC gives an indication of how energy efficient a property is, and what can be done to improve its rating and decrease fuel costs.

Since early 2011 the government has been promising to tighten up EPC laws, but the proposed changes have been consistently delayed and pushed back. With the latest deadline of April 6th coming up shortly, it remains to be seen whether or not they will be postponed yet again.

The warning signs look ominous; last week, agents were due to be issued with guidance on the upcoming changes by the Communities and Local Government department. This did not happen. However, Estate Agent Today reports that a government insider has indicated that the changes will ‘definitely go ahead on April 6‘, despite the fact that the redesigned EPC has not yet been approved.

It is widely believed that, after April 6th, letting and estate agents will be required to attach the entire first page of the new-look EPC to all property particulars, although no guidance has yet been issued about online marketing.

While many believe that this marks an important step towards encouraging tenants and homeowners to increase the energy efficiency of their home, others see the EPC as something that is ignored by the vast majority of people moving into a new home. A recent report in The Guardian suggests that ‘nearly four-fifths of people (79%) who had received an EPC when buying or renting a new home had not acted on any of its recommendations to make it more energy-efficient and thereby save money’. The government will be hoping that the redesigned EPC, with a front page that clearly and simply details recommendations for improving the property’s energy efficiency, will have an impact on the amount of people who then act on the recommendations.

At Reside, we have always made the entire EPC available to landlords and tenants and we will continue to do so after April 6th. Examples of our EPCs can be found on the property pages of our website.

Reside and Tenants featured in the London Evening Standard

Posted on by prateek

Yesterday’s London Evening Standard had a great article about more and more city professionals making Bath their family home. Reside’s Tenants Alastair & Marianne Hogg were featured in the article along with Charlie Taylor of Knight Frank’s Bath office.

Whilst the article itself primarily focuses on more Londoners purchasing in Bath, the small interview with our Tenants shows that many people choose to rent first in order to familiarise themselves with the area, with local schools and where they may wish to eventually buy. This is something that is happening more and more often, creating a greater demand in Bath for larger and higher end rental properties.

With London Paddington just an hour and 20 minutes from Bath Spa Station, more and more families are moving away from the city and into Bath. If you have a larger family home that you perhaps thought wouldn’t generate any interest on the rental market, now is a great time to take advantage of this current trend.

Property Portal iPhone Applications. Which is the best?

Posted on by prateek

There’s no avoiding it, Apple’s iPhone is an incredibly popular multimedia gadget and a lot of people are now the proud owners of one. All of the major property portals now have iPhone and iPad applications available to download for free, which are all meant to aid in the search for that perfect property, but just how useful are they?

Rightmove

Rightmove were the first to release their iPhone App back in August 2009. At the time it was the only property search application released by one of the major portals, not being challenged until FindaProperty released their app in February 2010. With a 7 month head start Rightmove had a great chance to get ahead and stay ahead of the competition. Unfortunately, whilst the application is very attractive and simple to use, it did little other than display a few very low resolution pictures with a description of the property. The low resolution pictures also took a very long time to load, some not loading at all. The major part missing was in interactive map.

A series of updates were released for the application in the months following it’s release, simply to address bugs and problems. Since the release of the other property portal applications from FinaProperty and Zoopla, Rightmove have now added an interactive map to the application. Rightmove is currently the highest rated property portal search application on iTunes with a score of 3.5 / 5 from 18880 ratings.

Rightmove Application Score:

FindaProperty

FindaProperty released their iPhone App in February 2010. The major feature of the application was it’s integration with GoogleMaps on the iPhone, allowing a user to search for available properties around their current location or by simply browsing areas of the map. In addition, a user can get directions from their current location to the property they have chosen to view. By integrating the application with GoogleMaps that are already on the iPhone, the experience is quick and rewarding. This feature accompanied with larger images viewable as a slide show in a good resolution meant that the FindaProperty App could do everything the Rightmove App could and a lot more. A much higher standard of property search tool on the iPhone had been established.

The FindaProperty Application currently has a score on iTunes of 3 / 5 from 5908 ratings.

FindaProperty Application Score:

Zoopla

Zoopla have the most recent iPhone App released in July 2010. The largest feature that may well hurt the main competitors Rightmove and Findaproperty apps is the ability for Zoopla to offer all the data it has on every UK home. Just like the FinaProperty app, it has map-led search (map and hybrid options) as well as list view and Augmented Reality. While Rightmove and Findaproperty apps only offer For Sale and To Rent searches, Zoopla can give value estimates for all 27 million UK homes, with 15 million+ house prices paid dating back to 1995. Zoopla’s application also provides local market data including average home values by area.

Zoopla’s application can also search for property using the iPhone’s built in camera. By selecting the camera search, the app uses the iPhone’s GPS and compass to display properties on the screen that are available for sale or rent wherever you are pointing the camera. Whilst this may be a bit of a gimmick, it is a very interactive way of searching for property.

With it’s advanced features, high resolutions photos and vast amount of property information, the Zoopla Application is the best property portal application so far. The Zoopla Application currently has a score on iTunes of 3 / 5 from 433 ratings.

Zoopla Application Score:

Tenant demand outstripping supply – Rents increase

Posted on by prateek

Demand for residential rental properties is increasing rapidly through much of the UK, particularly in prominent cities in The South such as London, Oxford and Bath.

The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) recently published their Review and Index for Residential Investment for the first quarter of 2010 (ARLA Review and Index Q1 2010). ARLA carried out research among 531 of its members’ offices plus 382 individual landlords. The results show that during Q1 2010, two thirds (59%) of ARLA member agents reported more tenants than properties available. This is a 50% rise on the last quarter (41%) and in Q3 2009 the figure was just 24%. In the last year, supply has dropped by approximately 60%.

Tenant demand has never been higher in Bath which is clearly shown by the rents we have recently achieved and the short length of time that properties are on the market. In April alone Reside let a number of properties before we began to market them; The Old Vicarage, Winifreds Dale and Walcot Parade were all let before they came to the market, all at very good rents. A house on Great Pulteney Street was let after only 4 hours on the rental market at £3000 pcm and just today a one bedroom apartment on Great Pulteney Street achieved a rent of £925 pcm after only 3 days on the market.

Countrywide’s lettings division recently surveyed its network of 204 UK branches and found that there is now an average of 4.9 tenants for every available property, and rents have increase by 2.5%.

From five bedroom houses to one bedroom apartments, rental properties are in very high demand. If you are a landlord or are considering renting out your property, there couldn’t be a better time to take advantage of Resides superior service!

New HMO Legislation

Posted on by prateek

HMO Legislation

Tuesday the 6th of April 2010 saw the controversial Statutory Instrument 653 come into effect. The new law will see landlords required to gain planning permission if they want to let out their House in Multiple Occupancy (HMO) to three or more unrelated individuals.  The Town and Country Planning Act has created a new planning class for HMOs, designated C4, that now requires landlords to apply for permission to change the use to open a new letting property that is altered from a family home to a shared house.

The legislation is not retrospective and will not affect properties with an existing use. HMOs that already house three or more tenants, will not have to apply for retrospective permission because they already have ‘established’ use from the date new legislation is enforced.

The aim of the legislation is to prevent so-called ‘studentification’ whereby rows of terrace houses in university towns and cities are rented out to students. The Government believes this is a problem, although its own advisers in the Rugg Report said it was not.

Landlord groups have been fighting to prevent the change happening, and David Cameron has tabled an Early Day Motion to get it rescinded. Robert Jordan, former ARLA president, said many agents remain unaware of the changes. He, like the landlord groups, believes that the supply of shared rental accommodation will become restricted, with landlords unwilling to pay the cost of obtaining planning permission with the possibility that they might also have to pay to have their HMOs licensed.

AST Threshold increase from £25,000 to £100,000.

Posted on by prateek

The Statutory Instruments to increase the maximum rent threshold of an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) from £25,000 to £100,000 have now been published by Parliament and much of it’s information provided to the National Landlord’s Association (NLA).

At this point in time, legislation associated with the Housing Act 1988 (as amended) states that tenancies formed with annual aggregate rent greater than £25,000 cannot be ASTs. These tenancies are formed on a contractual basis and are sometimes referred to as ‘non-Housing Act’ tenancies. Tenancy terms are negotiated and agreed by the landlord and tenant and are not enshrined by statute.

The Assured Tenancies (Amendment) (England) Order 2010 will come into force on the 1st of October 2010 and will be retrospective. As a result, any tenancy with an annual rent between £25,000 and £100,000 in existence on 1 October 2010 will become an AST overnight. Landlords and tenants will nolonger be able to negotiate individual terms for their tenancy. This means that all of the rights and responsibilities associated with the Housing Act 1988 will be extended to higher rent properties for the first time.

The original threshold was introduced in order to exclude ‘luxury lets’, however the limit was established in 1990 and has not been revisited to take account of inflation since. The Government consulted as a result of a Rugg Review recommendation and decided to increase the threshold to £100,000 as a result. This figure will subsequently be reviewed at five yearly intervals.

The most obvious and immediate affect of the increase is that all Tenancy Deposits will be protected under the Deposit Protection Scheme (DPS). The Dipsute Service and other DPS members will see a huge increase in registered deposits overnight.

Announcing the launch of Reside Remote

Posted on by prateek

Reside Remote

Reside Remote is a bespoke online service allowing our Landlords access to their own property portal from anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Developed by Reside and completely integrated into our own website and database, Reside Remote allows a Landlord to login and view Tenancy Details including Tenant’s names, rental amounts, deposit amounts, due dates and more. A Rent Statement page displays all statements with a date and in chronological order. The rent statements can be viewed within Reside Remote or downloaded in .pdf format.

A Property Maintenance page displays all invoices for the property, all dated, named and described in detail. Just like the rent statements, all invoices can either be viewed online or downloaded in .pdf format. In addition to the property invoices, Landlords can view a Property Log fed direct from our own property notes in an effort to provide more detailed information about individual maintenance issues. With all invoices visible to Landlords at any time, we aim to be as transparent as possible.

The final page within Reside Remote is the Your Details page, displaying the details we currently hold for the particular Landlord logged in. Details include an address, telephone numbers and an email address. These can be checked and changed if required.

If you are one of Reside’s existing Landlords and would like to take advantage of our Reside Remote service please do not hesitate in contacting Ben at ben@localhost for a username and password. There is no extra charge for this service.

If you already have your username and password, please login at https://residebath.co.uk//remote/login.php and enjoy!

We hope that anyone who uses the service finds it a very helpful and useful tool in the management of your property. We always welcome feedback and any suggestions to improve the Reside Remote service. This only version 1.1. after all!

RESIDE Bath on Phil Spencer Podcast.

Posted on by prateek

A couple of weeks ago, our resident Property Mark Trustee and Regional Executive (and all-round lettings expert) Mr Toby Martin (MARLA), was invited on to MOVE IQ’s local housing market review podcast with host and MOVE IQ founder, PHIL SPENCER!

MOVE IQ is all about providing all the information and a one site fits all space for all property questions. With a range of property experts and journalists across all backgrounds providing crucial information to the consumer.

MOVE IQ’s site aims untie the common goal of making sure that everyone has no-nonsense access to all market information when looking to sell, buy or rent, away from any bias and to make sure they meet all their readers and listeners needs within a market that is constantly changing.

RESIDE shares this goal of making sure that we too provide all the market information that we can, but on a more local basis here in the City of Bath. With that said, Toby was ever so kindly invited to be involved with the podcast and talk all things Bath rental market. He gives meaningful insight into the growth the bath rental market has seen over the last decade and what this has meant for the market, the growth in the average rent, difficulties landlords are facing and why we need more investment in the sector.

In this podcast Toby talks all things Bath Rental market. All the trends and statistics you could ask for are all here alongside more market insights further afield. If you wish to watch then please click the big red play button in the video attached below!