This has been a great program to watch which ended last night and I believe a second series has been commissioned.

It has highlighted the great work done by people such as Paul Shamplina of Landlord Action and Ben Reeve from Lewisham Council's Rogue Landlord Unit tackling both sides of the Private Rental Sector and some of the terrible conditions tenants are forced to live in and the condition of some of the properties are in once a landlord regains possession from a bad tenant.

It highlighted the losses a landlord can face running into many thousands of pounds and the hardship some tenants face especially in areas such as London where rents are unaffordable and renters are at the mercy of some terrible landlords.

As always with programs such as this it is highlighting the minority and for the majority the experience of the Private Rented Sector is a positive one for Landlords and Tenants. Private landlords need to be encouraged to help the housing shortage which has resulted in tenants relying heavily on private landlords to provide housing.

With the growing demand for private rental properties what is evident is that more legislation is required and extra funding for the local housing authorities and Environmental Health Departments to ensure that the properties are safe and properly managed.

For the landlords it wasn’t evident if they had sourced tenants by using an experienced Letting Agent, but none was ever seen. When the process of finding the tenants was discussed it often felt that the landlords might have found them through private adverts with no Letting Agent involvement. Of course it could also be that the agent didn’t wish to appear!

Hopefully this will allow tenants in well managed and maintained properties appreciate what they have and show landlords why it is so important to keep their properties well maintained and managed and should they be managing the properties themselves the importance of regular visits.

I look forward to the next series with maybe a warning that the landlords and tenants in the program are not representative of the majority.

Permitted Development rights were introduced in May 2013 to allow for the change of use of buildings from B1 (a) (offices) C3 (dwellinghouses) subject to a prior approval process by the local planning authority. As part of these requirements there are a number of criteria to adhere to. Associated external physical works may still require planning permission.

The relaxed Permitted Development rights were to run for an initial three-year period with a May 2016 deadline for projects to be completed.

However, the Government had proposed to extend this to May 2019, meaning conversion projects that already have prior approval may not need to be completed until then. 

A recent report said the conversion of offices to homes since the right was introduced had caused problems in areas with a housing shortage, fuelling the fastest decline in the availability of commercial property since 1998.

The report said central office market areas in urban locations faced "a potential supply crunch and rising rental levels" and that pressure from the Permitted Development rights was also being experienced in edge of town and suburban employment centres. However, the rights were having "a positive effect" in some areas "by removing poor quality office space”

In his March planning statement to Parliament, the Secretary of State for Culture and Local Government has outlined a number of changes to the use of permitted development rights (PDR) within the planning system. Whilst the new rules include allowing the conversion to homes without a planning application of arcades, casinos and some storage and distribution premises, one measure that was notable by its absence was an extension of the contentious office-to-residential PDR scheme.

In Dunstable we have seen a number of empty office units converted to residential accommodation in the last year as a result of the temporary Permitted Development rights and at a time when rental accommodation has been in very short supply this has proved to be a good use of otherwise derelict unloved and unused buildings.

There are still a number of properties in Dunstable with the potential to be converted to residential and at a time when accommodation is desperately needed for a growing workforce due to employers such as Amazon locating her it would be a shame if this was no longer available.

For any more information or advice on property investment in Dunstable please call our shop on 01582 343209 or email Daniel Bourke daniel.bourke@belvoirlettings.com

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We all know that for various reasons political or social that has and is pushing the demand for more rental properties but when you have a town such as Dunstable which has the M1 on its doorstep, access to London in 45 minutes using the new Busway/ train from Luton and distribution centres/headquarters for large employers such as Superdrug, Whitbread, WHSmith and Amazon you begin to understand why the demand for rental property in Dunstable is so high.

If you are an investor and carrying out due diligence before purchasing your next Buy-to-Let property you should be calling the local agents in Dunstable to find out how many rental properties they have. Ask for 2 bed properties. Any 2 bed properties, houses or flats and you will be advised there are none available. Try 1 bed flats or 3 bed houses. They might take your name to call you after the viewings they have already scheduled have been carried out, but they won’t need to because they will be snapped up straight away.

I picked up the keys for a 2 bedroom house in Houghton Regis on Thursday at 1pm. One of our landlords had just completed that day, but we had advertised it earlier in the week. I had 9 viewings lined up from 3pm that afternoon with an offer on the day and 3 more the next day. With some internal cosmetic work by our maintenance contractor this Sunday, a gas safety and professional clean early next week the tenants should be moving in on Wednesday/Thursday next week. Property purchased, tenants found and fully referenced, works carried out, tenancy signed and occupied within a week.

Our door is always open (especially in this weather) to talk about your next investment, where to buy and what type of property. With my background of 30 years working for Architects in London and my position as the Lettings Specialist at the Luton property Investors Network (PIN) meetings I know a bit about buildings and can quickly assess the suitability of a property as an investment. Yes I know I said ‘Luton’ Pin but my presence and knowledge of the Dunstable market had made a number of investors make their next Buy-to-Let purchase in Dunstable instead of Luton.

If you would like to discuss the property investment market in Dunstable call our shop on 01582 343209, drop into our shop at 18 Church St,Dunstable, email me on daniel.bourke@belvoirlettings.com or come to the next Luton PIN meeting where you will find me giving the Lettings update. If it is your first time and you contact me I can give you a free invitation.

When starting out in buy-to-let, the type of property you choose will not only be determined by how much you have to spend but also where you have chosen to invest and the type of people looking for rented accommodation in that area.

If you are a novice landlord, it is important not be too ambitious with your first acquisition. Consider purchasing what is known within the trade as a “vanilla” property.

These are typically standard 1-2 bed flats and 2-3 bed houses that can be let to families, working couples and single professionals and in Dunstable and Houghton Regis the typical tenant will favour the following:

1 bedroom apartments are favoured by single people who then move on within a year.

2 Bedroom apartments are sought after by young couples looking for their first apartment, who might have a young child or need a second bedroom to work from. We are seeing an increasing number of young couples moving out of London as they decide to start a family and will only have one person’s income. Dunstable has affordable 2 bedroom properties to rent and is still close enough to London.

3 bedroom properties and above will appeal to families. We see more families who have sold their own property moving into rented accommodation until they find a new property to buy or couples in a 2nd relationship who have children already and need the extra room.

Sticking to this type of property and tenant will afford you a much greater choice when it comes to securing a buy-to-let mortgage. Yields on these properties if you have done your homework and purchased wisely, typically average around 6% each year.

According to research the most popular investment choice for landlords remains the terraced house.

Terraced houses tend to be easy to let because they appeal to a wide variety of tenants, they are often fairly economical to run and are regularly situated in towns and cities close to good amenities and transport links.

Semi-detached houses, Victorian/Edwardian houses converted into flats and purpose-built apartment blocks are also firm favourites with renters.

Lots of lenders will not lend on flats in high rise blocks, particularly where the block is council or housing-association owned.

When you become more confident in your abilities as a landlord you might want to consider purchasing properties that generate a higher yield but that generally require more time and understanding to run.

Higher yielding properties are typically harder to finance because they sit outside of mainstream buy-to-let lending criteria. One type favoured by the experienced Landlord is the HMO or House in Multiple Occupation

A House in Multiple Occupation occurs where multiple, unrelated tenants have exclusive access to their bedrooms but share common living areas such as kitchen and bathroom. This type of accommodation is commonly associated with students and professional sharers. The property can be let on either one Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreement or each tenant can have his/her own AST although most lenders will take the former into consideration when making a lending decision.

Some HMOs require a licence from the local authority based on the number of storeys and/or the number of people/households living in the property. These properties also have additional health and safety regulations, so make sure you do your research because lenders will want proof that all the necessary permissions and licences are in place. Running an HMO (regardless of whether it needs a licence) is hard work but the financial rewards can make it worthwhile.

Finally, if you are new to property investment, steer clear of properties in need of renovation until you know what you are doing – unless of course you are in the building trade. Not only do these properties require hard work but you will have fewer buy-to-let mortgage opportunities. You may even need bridging or development finance.

 We are currently working with a number of first time landlords making their first Buy-to-Let purchase and are assisting them with research and rental valuations.

If you would like any advice on the rental potential of a property you are considering buying call Daniel Bourke on 01582 343209 or email daniel.bourke@belvoirlettings.com