Leigh on sea Landlords: Do you need to tell the HMRC you rent your Property? Do you have own a rental property?

If your income from property rent is more than £2,500 a year you have to complete a self assessment tax return. If it’s less than £2,500 a year, you need to call the Self Assessment Helpline to report it.

There are different tax rules for residential properties, furnished holiday lettings and commercial properties.

With respect of residential properties -

You or your company must pay tax on the profit you make from renting out the property, after deductions for ‘allowable expenses’.

Allowable expenses are things you need to spend money on in the day-to-day running of the property, like:

* letting agents’ fees

* legal fees for lets of a year or less, or for renewing a lease for less than 50 years

* accountants’ fees

* buildings and contents insurance

* interest on property loans

* maintenance and repairs to the property (but not improvements)

* utility bills, like gas, water and electricity

* rent, ground rent, service charges

* Council Tax

* services you pay for, like cleaning or gardening

* other direct costs of letting the property, like phone calls,

* stationery and advertising

Allowable expenses don’t include ‘capital expenditure’ - like buying a property (repayment element of mortgage) or renovating it beyond repairs for wear and tear.

Should you wish to discuss any other specific properties or just a general chat re the current market, please feel free to contact me on 01702 4777754 
Robert@castleestateagentsltd.co.uk or call in and see me at
 91 Broadway west, Leigh on sea ss9 2b

Another Westcliff steal - 7.89% yield - only £90k

Midweek special! This Afternoon i have Just spotted this little gem, we are back Westcliff again for today’s investment. These properties rarely come onto the market and when they do, they’ll make a great addition to an investment portfolio or an excellent starter property for a new portfolio.

It’s just come on the market Last week with Bairstow eves for a price of £90K. Yes, you read right £90K. OK, its ground floor one bedroom apartment, but all of the main principles of an investment property still remain, with one bedroom properties being in great demand. How much are they in demand, I hear you say? Well one bed properties rent for circa £575 to £600 per month in westcliff and last week, Rightmove shows that they had 2324 searches for such a property criteria. So, 2000+ searches, with only 6 properties on the market as of today, confirms their strong demand.

So the demand is strong, what about the rent and yield? Well, if we were to say that the rent would be circa £600 per month, which is on the cautious side, then this would return a decent yield of 7.89%.

Check it out further at 

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/35818250?

Should you wish to discuss any other specific properties or just a general chat re the current market, please feel free to contact me on 01702 477754  rob@castleestsateagentsltd.co.uk or call in and see me at 91 Broadway west in Leigh on sea

London property prices rise 12.3% and Leigh on sea is booming

The price of an average UK home rose to £250,000 by last December, tipping many properties into the three per cent stamp duty bracket. before the new stamp duty changes.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said house prices in December were up 5.5 per cent compared with a year earlier, partly because of a 12.3 per cent increase in London.

The market may be hotting up in the capital but Essex too is seeing a boom according to  new figures from Castle estate agents Group which has six regional offices in the county. Their research showed that key Essex locations are seeing significant property price inflation.

In Leigh on sea, prices have risen by 12 per cent; Benfleet is also up by 11 per cent; and Southend is 13 per cent  is up, six per cent over the  last 12 months. According to the Nationwide House Price Index, prices across Essex as a whole are up by 8 per cent year on year.

There has been a surge of lower end properties on the market over the last six weeks, as rising prices have taken many home owners out of negative equity says Robert Butterworth, castle estate agents MD: ‘We have seen a huge increase in the number of cheaper properties like starter and small family homes coming on the market, since the start of the year.

When home owners bought properties at their peak in 2007, they soon found that their properties dropped in value as the recession kicked in and demand fell away.

With prices on the up, many home owners are finding they can trade up and the growth of first-time buyers is also fuelling demand.

First time buyer numbers are at their highest levels for over five years, following initiatives such as Funding for Lending and Help to Buy, which have widened access to mortgages and allowed some people who were previously trapped in renting to break free.

Many agents are concerned over what could happen when interest rates rise.

Why I think 2015 will be an interesting year for property investors...

As we enter the second month of 2015, you might agree that it’s already gearing up to be an exciting year. Some of the reasons why I think 2015 will be an interesting year include:

• We’ve had a revamp of the stamp duty system
• A close election just around the corner
• Agents Mutual have just launched their online platform (OnTheMarket.com) to combat Zoopla’s and Rightmove’s duopoly
• The European Central Bank  is moving forward with quantitative easing
• Lenders are becoming more creative with their products such as mortgages where you can fix your rate for 10 years

In my local investment area (Leigh on sea), property prices are certainly continuously inching higher which is causing the more astute investors to become more creative with how the realise value in their property deals.

I’d like to hear your views about what’s happening in your investment area and what you think will happen to the property market this year?

Should you wish to discuss any other specific properties or just a general chat re the current market, please feel free to contact me on 01702 477754  rob@castleestsateagentsltd.co.uk or call in and see me at 91 Broadway west in Leigh on sea

Landlords begin 2015 on an historic high

Just three in 10 landlords had experienced a void period in Q4 and a similar figure (32 per cent) had faced tenant arrears in the past year, the survey found, while 37 per cent of landlords said that demand had increased in Q4 from tenants - compared to just 7 per cent saying it had declined.

Tenant demand is reported as being particularly strong in Outer London, the East of England, and the South East, where more than two in five perceive it to be rising. Central London saw the largest positive increase in landlords reporting increased demand in the last quarter, with the number seeing an increase in tenant demand up nine percentage points on Q3. At the other end of the scale, in Wales the net increase of landlords reporting increased demand was down 11 percentage points to 29 per cent.

Around half (48 per cent) of landlords report seeing rents increase in the areas where they let over the last 12 months, with the average rental yield rising to 6.3 per cent in Q4. The North West saw the highest rental yield in Q4 at 7.1 per cent, while London saw the lowest at 5.4 per cent (Central) and 5.9 per cent (Outer).

The average buy to let portfolio is worth £1.1million, and generates a gross rental income of £50k.

Following an 18-month period of improvement, landlord’s confidence in the UK’s financial market fell significantly in Q4, with just 24 per cent rating its prospects for the next 3 months as good / very good compared to 37 per cent who were upbeat in Q3.

As such, landlords are becoming more acquisitive and the research found almost one in 5 landlords purchased a property in Q4, with three in 10 intending to do so in 2015.

Phil Rickards, Head of BM Solutions, comments: "Landlords continue to have faith in their portfolios and in tenant demand, with rental arrears and voids at historic lows. This is filtering through to their expansion plans, and we’re seeing a high proportion expecting to grow their portfolios in 2015.

"With inflation low and the economy growing, interest rate rises are not expected any time soon, but even when they do landlords claim to be well insulated, with the typical landlord saying it would only start to cause them serious problems if they rose to 7.3 per cent."

Its cold today! Westcliff on sea - 7.8 % yield

Good morning readers. Bit of a cold day out there on this Tuesday morning. Having said that, look what the winds just blown in ...it’s a bargain in Westcliff on sea.

It’s just come on the market this morning and yet again, it’s ticking all the right boxes with regard to the rental market. It’s the right place, right price and also good condition. Just waiting for a tenant to move in!

As ever, these properties are in great demand with two similar properties being rented by us in the past week in Westcliff on sea. With a conservative estimate on the rental figure, I would reckon that this property should rent out at a minimum of £475 per month, which at the asking price of £68,000 will give you a yield of 7.8%.

Check this one out at the following link and give the agent a call Hamlet homes on 01702 568635

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/34754205?

Should you wish to discuss any other specific properties or just a general chat re the current market, please feel free to contact me on 01702 4777754 Robert@castleestateagentsltd.co.uk or call in and see me at 91 Broadway west, Leigh on sea ss9 2b

Ok people out of my normal area, but a brilliant Deal....

Get calling them today

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/35876926?

Now, I might be taking a bit of a risk with this property because there are no internal photos, it could be just because the agent hasn't been able to get in there, or it could be because it is a dump! I'm hoping it's not the latter.

These flats are very popular for rentals as the location is good. We would expect this to rent in the region of £675 pcm.

It has just come on the market for £79,995, which is priced realistically in my opinion, of course, it's always nice if you get a little bit off the asking price, although this is getting trickier now.

If the figures all work out, this would gross you an annual return of 9.7%, which for a property Close to the town centre, is pretty good by anyone money

If you would like any information on how to go about searching for a buy to let property, pop in and see me in our office on Broadway west