“Regal Lettings have managed my two student houses for three years as I was living abroad in Asia.

My experience has been very positive.
I have been informed quickly and accurately when any issues arose, and I have been kept up to date on the progress as they are resolved.
Accounts have been kept meticulously, and payments to my bank made in a regular manner.

Overall, I have felt a good level of support from Regal Lettings, and would recommend them to other Landlords without hesitation”.

Mr E

My wife and I came to Kent Looking to purchase a Victorian cottage.
We saw one that we liked online and so decided to call about it.
From that point onwards we knew we had found the right estate agency. Before calling regal we had called many other agencies but they did not truly fulfill our wants and needs.
Regal estate’s in Kent does this and much more.
It has been a few years since our first purchase and we have never been let down by them. So much so that we have purchased other properties that were on their books. It has even come to the point that we will only ever deal with Regal.
Regal has also been managing our properties with great vigor and care. From finding tenets to full property management.
I do honestly believe that no other estate agency can compete or compare to regal, they truly are an asset and I look forward to doing business with them again in the near future

Mr G

Regal Lettings is by far the best estate agent that we have had the pleasure of dealing with. Their staff are friendly, efficient and prompt in responding to queries or concerns. We would recommend Regal Lettings to anyone looking to rent and wanting an estate agent with the tenants’ best interests at heart.”

Mrs H

Please call us NOW to discuss how we can help. We work harder!

The maximum penalty will be six months’ prison and/or a £5,000 fine.

Trespassing will be where someone knowingly enters a residential building as a trespasser, and is either living there or planning to live there without the owner’s consent.

There will no longer be a requirement for the property owner to ask the trespassers to leave before being able to involve the police.

Police will have a specific duty to enter the property to arrest anyone suspected of squatting, and can ignore ‘squatters’ rights’ notices.

The new offence will make it harder for trespassers to claim trespassers’ rights, because their occupation will be a criminal act.

Squatting as a criminal offence will not apply to residential tenants who continue to stay in a property, despite paying no rent. They will still be subject to the normal eviction proceedings.

Nor will it apply to people who think they had permission to live in a residential property. Government guidance specifically gives as an example a situation whereby a bogus letting agent encourages an unsuspecting tenant to occupy someone else’s property.

The offence will not apply retrospectively, so people already squatting in a residential property by September 1 will escape prosecution.

The offence is part of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.

The latest Buy-to-Let Index from LSL Property Services revealed average rents increased by 1.2 per cent in England and Wales last month.

Landlords were charging an average of £734 per month, which is a 2.9 per cent increase on August 2011 and £9 more than July’s record high of £725.

New peaks were seen in London, the south-east, the east of England, the north-west and Yorkshire and the Humber.

Meanwhile, tenants in other parts of the country saw rents decrease, with lower charges set in Wales and the West Midlands.

The data showed that tenant finances improved for the first time in three months in August with just nine per cent of all rent late or unpaid, which is a decrease from 9.3 per cent in July.

The landlord had presented his insurers, Total Landlord Insurance, with a bill for nearly £400,000 after a fire broke out in a block of flats, caused by a tenant cleaning car parts with petrol in the kitchen.

Only when he submitted his claim did the landlord realise he had under-insured his property over a number of years.
 
Although this is a particularly extreme and unusual case, it does highlight the importance of ensuring that your insurance policy is sufficient to cover the full value of rebuilding the property. In the current financial climate, it is more crucial to look at the levels of cover rather than the bottom line premium.
 
Landlords who have taken out policies some time ago are being urged to ensure that their cover is still valid and in line with current market conditions. It is also advised that landlords seek professional advice on the cost of rebuilding their properties. 

Over the past two years, almost 20% of all fire claims settled by Total Landlord Insurance were the result of kitchen fires.  Of these, 10% were due to tobacco smoking, 5% caused by burning candles and 5% by electrical faults.

However prevention of risk is as important as having the correct insuranve and landlords need to understand the correct fire safety provisions.

In Rightmove’s survey 27.9% of those who confirmed they intend to buy in the next 12 months state they will be buying for the first time. This is the highest proportion of intending first-time buyers since Rightmove began its series of Consumer Confidence Surveys in Q4 2009. At that time a marginally lower proportion of 27.6% was recorded, and since then it has plunged as low as 22.2%.
Shipside comments: 
“There is still a minefield of economic uncertainties to navigate for those intending to purchase their first home, though this is the highest proportion since Rightmove began its mass survey of home-movers’ intentions nearly three years ago. These are encouraging signs that the gap is narrowing to get closer to the pre-credit crunch norm where the level of first-time buyers was closer to 40%. This is the proportion typically associated with a more active and healthy housing market, but we are still some way off that, and first-time buyers remain an endangered species in some locations”.
Average ‘on the ladder age’ falls by one year as more ‘get their act together’

When surveyed in October 2011, the average age of intending first-time buyers was 32. In  this survey, some six months later, the figure has fallen by one year to 31 years old. With the economic downturn about to enter its sixth year it has been very clear for some considerable time that you have to plan early to be a successful first-time buyer. The slight fall in average age indicates more are making provision earlier meaning they can gain a year of home ownership at the expense of a year in rented or parental accommodation.
Shipside comments: 
“It has taken time for would-be first-time buyers to come to terms with the paradigm shift in the housing market. Where once they were being pursued by risk-nonchalant lenders, today’s aspiring homeowners must  get their finances in shape and make sure they are fit enough to jump the high credit-score hurdles that are now in place.”

The proportion of buyers who intend to purchase their first home over the next year has edged up to 24.3%, up 1.4% on last quarter and 1.5% year-on-year. 

However raising a deposit emerges as the single biggest concern for four in ten of the survey sample (39%) and around one in twelve is concerned about their ability to meet the monthly repayments of a mortgage. 

A third of first-time buyers now cite finding a suitable property to buy as their single biggest concern, a jump of 6% on last quarter. This shortage is driven in part by a ‘first-time seller’ shortage, with the number of terraces and flats fresh to market in Q4 of 2011 significantly down. 

First-time sellers, are suffering from a lack of equity, lack of confidence to stretch themselves financially and, in certain markets, difficulty in identifying a suitable property that they would like to move to. 

First-time buyers are integral to any property market as they start off chains that chains that allow other home-movers to trade-up. 

However, first-time buyer levels across the country remain historically low and way below the 40% level required for a more healthy and active property market.

Job worries and raising a deposit are the main hurdles to home buying

Over half of those questioned identified difficulties in raising a deposit (57%) and concerns about job security (55%) as the main obstacles to buying a property. Respondents also picked out household finances (33%) and the general availability of mortgages (30%) as major barriers to buying a property. 

The cost of renting is expected to continue to rise in 2012

Significantly more Britons believe that private rents will rise than fall over the next 12 months. 61% predict that the cost of renting in the private sector will increase over the next twelve months, compared to just 3% who think that rents will fall.

The research that covers 377  local authority districts, shows only Rochford in Essex and South Lakeland as the areas in the UK where house prices are currently higher than they were in 2007 and then only by 1% and 0.1% respectively. 

The research demonstrates that, since the peak of the housing market in 2007 and the subsequent period of declining prices, homes throughout the UK are still short of those peak historical values. 

The list of 20 areas where prices have performed best since 2007  is dominated by areas in southern England with only four of the top 20 outside that part of the country. Three of these areas South Lakeland, Derbyshire Dales and Ceredigion are popular holiday areas where there is significant housing demand from retirees and second homebuyers. 

Aberdeenshire is the other area outside the south in the top 20. The market here has been supported by the buoyancy of the local oil industry, which has fared very well in the past few years. 

The nine worst performers in house price terms recently are all in Northern Ireland.  The biggest decline has been in Craigavon where the average price has more than halved from £213,844 in 2007 to £103,383 in 2011. Average prices in Northern Ireland were the highest in the UK outside London and the South East in 2007. Northern Ireland now has the lowest average prices of any region in the country.

 All the areas in the bottom 20 are outside Southern England.

Regal Estates is a member of The Property Ombudsman, ARLA and complies with the Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme. These memberships provide sellers, buyers, landlords and tenants with an assurance that they will receive the highest level of customer service in accordance with current regulations.

IEL02-3 Code of Practice for Residential Letting Agents

Code of Practice for Residential Estate Agents

Appendix B Arla Code of Practice

TDS Customer Service Standards

Rightmove has identified some early signs of widespread increases in consumer confidence in the housing UK market:

More mortgage deals
Compared to a year ago there is more competition from lenders to attract a greater volume of quality business. The number of available products for both borrowers with a 10% deposit and buy-to-let investors has risen by 35% and 25% respectively over the last 12 months1. There are some attractive five and ten year fixed-rate deals too.

While the £250,000 band stamp duty holiday for first-time buyers ends on 24th March, incentives for buyers of new build properties (which are not included in the Rightmove Housing Index) are set to be enhanced with the launch of NewBuy. This is an industry-led initiative supported by Government to increase the availability of higher loan-to-value mortgages for those buying a brand new me.

Good time to buy?
60% of the 32,000 questioned in a recent Rightmove survey stated they feel the current housing market favours buyers, a clear indication that there is buyer bidding- power in their area to get a lower offer accepted. The same survey also found that just over half (51%) viewed property as lower risk when compared to other investment options, providing further evidence of confidence in property as an asset class.

Adjusting to ‘the new norm’
Record January search activity on Rightmove indicates a pent-up desire to move that out-weighs the uncertain economic outlook. With sales transaction numbers having been depressed for the last four years, many households will have a pressing need to move, and some of those that are able to do so seem to be springing back to life.