Posts Tagged ‘letting book’
What impact will an agency sector dominated by mega-businesses have on us independents?
Adam Walker (right), a well-known broker who specialises in selling letting businesses, recently wrote a very interesting piece about the consolidation of the lettings industry where he forecast “that within the next five to ten years the lettings market will be dominated by a small number of mega-businesses with independent agents becoming increasingly rare”. If…
Read MoreA Huge Vote Of Confidence In The Letting Market
The recent sales of Stirling Ackroyd, Chestertons and Alexander & Co represents a huge vote of confidence in the UK letting market. Despite endless articles about the decline of the buy to let market, it seems that a private equity fund and a large European property conglomerate still have enough confidence in the sector to…
Read MoreDon’t Forget The Customer
I don’t usually write about the same subject twice but this subject is an important one which is very relevant to letting agents and a lot has changed since I wrote about it last year. The topic is the rapid consolidation of the veterinary sector. Over 50% of all veterinary practices are now owned by…
Read MoreWill The Buy to Let Sector Survive?
Our government seems to be intent on destroying the buy to let sector. Changes to taxation have made it far more difficult for landlords with mortgages to make a satisfactory return on their investment. Frequent changes to legislation have imposed huge extra costs on landlords and have left them in fear of being hit with…
Read MoreBe Prepared for the Worst in Business
Unfortunately, I am often asked to sell businesses for people who are seriously or terminally ill. I am also regularly asked to sell businesses by the relatives of people who have died. These situations are always harrowing to deal with but a recent case was particularly difficult. The owner of a small letting business passed…
Read MoreIs Your Letting Business More Compliant Than Purplebricks?
The recent problems at Purplebricks are a sharp reminder of how easy it is for letting agents to incur enormous fines for technical breaches of compliance rules. According to The Telegraph, Purplebricks could be facing costs of up to £30 million for mistakes made by their Letting Divisions which contributes less than 10% of their…
Read MoreWhat does the future hold for buy-to-let?
The press has been full of doom-laden prophesies again about the future prospects for the buy-to-let market. Speaking both as a landlord and as a former letting agent, I don’t believe any of them. So why do I say this? Well, in short, I believe that whatever the problem is, the market will, given time,…
Read MoreThe End Of Let-only Contracts?
It is commonly accepted that the property market has survived Covid-19 well but this is not entirely true. The truth is that some sectors of the market have done very much better than others. Residential sales agents have been to hell and back. When the first lockdown was announced last spring, many agents felt that…
Read MoreWhy buying a letting book makes sense
Several of our big business sales have been announced over the last few weeks and the trolls have been busy slagging off the buyers. Their view is that the buyers have paid far too much money for what they have bought and that they will never get it back because the landlords will all leave…
Read MoreWhy Buying a Letting Book Makes Sense
Several of our big business sales have been announced over the last few weeks and the trolls have been busy slagging off the buyers. Their view is that the buyers have paid far too much money for what they have bought and that they will never get it back because the landlords will all leave…
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