Lettings in Leeds

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Rental figures soar as home owners decrease
The number of people renting a home from a private landlord has increased by more than one million during the past few years, Government figures showed today.

Around 3.1 million people in England rented a property privately during 2008/09, up from 2.1 million in 2001, according to the English Housing Survey.
The increase, which is likely to have been driven by house price rises pushing home ownership out of many people's reach, was accompanied by a fall in the number of people living in their own home.

The research showed that 14.6 million people were owner-occupiers during 2008/09, down from a peak of 14.8 million in 2005/06.
But despite the fall, owner-occupation was still the most common form of housing tenure, accounting for 67.9pc of all households, although this was down from a high of 70.9pc in 2003.
Renting a home from a social landlord was the second most popular option, accounting for 17.8pc of households, while 14.2pc rented a home from a private landlord, up from only 10pc in 2001.
The majority of people in the private rental sector aspire to buying their own home, with 59pc saying they hoped to buy their own place eventually, compared with only around a quarter of those in social housing.
Among those who hope to get on to the housing ladder, 24pc of private renters and 10pc of social renters thought they would buy a place within the coming two years.
Couples with no dependent children were most likely to own their own home at 42pc, while single people were most likely to rent a property.
Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, said: "The latest survey provides further evidence that the proportion of households choosing to be owner-occupiers is continuing to decline.
"Unless housing supply increases substantially over the next few years, the likelihood is that many of those aspiring to buy a home will continue to find such a move out of their reach."
The research, which was put out by Communities and Local Government, also showed that a third of homes were classed as being non-decent in 2008, because they were in a state of disrepair or did not have modern facilities, although social housing was in a slightly better condition than private homes.
Around 22pc of homes also had a "potentially serious hazard", such as narrow or steep stairs.
Meanwhile, Housing Minister John Healey today announced £500 million of funding to build around 8,000 new affordable homes in England.
More than 3,000 of the properties will be available through the Government's Homeboy schemes, which help first-time buyers get on to the housing ladder, with the rest available to rent through housing associations.
The English Housing Survey is based on the responses of 17,691 people questioned between April 2008 and March 2009.
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City living reached for the sky and fell to earth, but is it now bouncing back?

The Leeds city centre skyline.

When LS1 became the most fashionable postcode in Yorkshire, developers and investors piled in for profit and an incredible metamorphosis took place.
A flat building frenzy created almost 10,000 new homes in Leeds city centre plus a plethora of property millionaires.

As plans were approved to cap it all with Lumiere, a shimmering glass skyscraper set to be the tallest residential tower in Europe, the
market collapsed.

At the end of 2007, the decade- long party came to an end, the banks stopped lending and the buy-to-let boom went bust.

Leeds city centre was left with one mighty hangover as developers, including city living pioneer and Lumiere partner KW Linfoot, went out of business and scores of schemes were mothballed.

Yet despite the pain, a new report reveals that the credit crunch and ensuing recession have done city living a big favour.

City Living beyond the Boom by respected academic Dr Rachael Unsworth shows that the number of flats is sustainable and demand for them is high.

While there is no figure for overall occupancy available, a poll of six major lettings agents reveals that 92 per cent are let with rents back up to 2007 levels (costing from £550 a month for a one bedroom and from £750 for a two bed).

Buyers are still thin on the ground but after dropping around 20 per cent of their value and a rash of repossessions in 2008, mostly from West Point, Concord Street and City Island, average prices are also up to 2007 levels and are on course for future growth

Figures compiled by Dr Unsworth of the Leeds University School of Geography finally quash fears of oversupply that have plagued the market.

They show that post-recession Leeds city centre is leaner and fitter after the brakes were put on building and only another 600-700 flats have any chance of being built in the next five years.

More than 30 schemes with planning permission for around 10,000 flats have stalled and are unlikely to go ahead before 2015. Many will be reworked and some won't come out of the ground at all.

Another 5,760 proposed flats presently without planning permission are even more unlikely to be built.

It is good news for a market that was battered by a barrage of bad publicity after a national newspaper wrongly claimed that 70 per cent of the flats in Leeds were empty and one commentator said they would be the "slums of the future".

That falsehood has caused lasting damage, but it's easy to see why there were fears of apartment overload three years ago. It felt like flats were being thrown up everywhere and most of the apartments were sold off-plan to investors so when schemes were completed, the owners tried to sell or let them in their hundreds, and there were temporary gluts.

Some flats were also badly- located, poorly-designed and struggled to compete against more central locations.

"There was a three-year media frenzy cataloguing the failures of city living in Leeds and it was all based on something that was nonsense. I have no idea where that 70 per cent figure came from," says Dr
Unsworth, whose independent report was commissioned by five agents all determined to fight back.

Morgans City Living, Knight Frank, Savills, King Sturge and Allsop knew what they were experiencing on the ground was very different to the national reports.

Jonathan Morgan, managing director of Morgans City Living, says: "Mud sticks. Developers trying to raise finance or get underwriters in London to back a scheme still struggle because the perception is that Leeds is oversupplied when, in fact, we aren't and we're much better placed than places like Manchester, Birmingham and LIverpool.

"This image of loads of empty flats still haunts us. It's been very damaging and it's not true."

There is one building that is unoccupied at City Island.

It belongs to the Bank of Kuwait who thought they'd ride the storm and sell when the market recovered. They are now planning to let the properties.

The bank, like others who built and bought at the wrong time, will become a reluctant landlord, but at least they will have some income.

Those who bought land at the height of the boom are effectively paralysed.

The banks aren't keen to fund construction, there are few off-plan investors and the land is worth a third of what they paid for it. No one is keen to sell on and realise that loss.

But the report says this gives time for reflection after a period when the city council was overwhelmed by planning applications resulting in a "less than coherent and admirable set of additions to the built environment".

Jonathan Morgan agrees that some of the flats dubbed "rabbit hutches in the sky" were built for investors rather than occupiers."The buy-to-let bubble that drove the first phase of development is finished and we
won't see it again.

"There will be a demand for better quality, smaller schemes with
larger, well-thought out apartments.

"I know of one developer who is thinking of building a mews and
hopefully this will help in retaining people longer than two or three years before they move out to the suburbs," he says.

"I also think we'll see investors buying ready-rented property, an existing apartment with a tenant."

Better design, together with long-term predictions that people will need to live closer to work due to high fuel and travel costs, means this could be a bright new dawn for city living.

"The city centre is a vibrant, popular place to live and we have shown beyond doubt that occupation is high and the pipeline is under control," says Jonathan Morgan.

"In fact, we're more likely to have an under supply of apartments in the future."

In the city

There are about 1.4 people per household in the city centre and there are around 13,000 living there.

The occupation is thought to be 60 per cent tenants and 40 per cent owner occupiers.

City dwellers include young professionals, health workers from the hospitals, a growing gay community, middle-aged people downsizing and high fliers who need a pied à terre. There are students, but they are in a minority and tend to be from overseas. Different nationalities prefer certain developments and tend to group together.

Flats cost around £125,000 for one bedroom and from about £175,000 with parking to £240,00 for a two-bedroom in the popular Brewery Wharf development. Most are back to 2007 levels, with some exceptions. A two bed-flat in the less favourably located Trinity One cost £185,000 in 2007 but recently sold for £150,000. An apartment at 1 Dock Street was £297,500 and recently sold for £325,000.

Facilities have improved and there are now convenience stores and a drop-in health centre. More are in store, as well as tree planting, pocket parks and an arena.

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Warning of money transfer scam for 'phantom' flats

Source: http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk

The charity's network of Citizens Advice Bureaux are reporting cases of people falling victim to a scam where Landlords - who often state they live out of the country - ask prospective tenants to make a 'secure' money transfer to a friend or relative and then send a copy of the receipt to the Landlord to prove they have sufficient money for deposit and rent.

The would-be tenants are reassured that no-one else can access the money, but find when they go to collect it that the money has already been withdrawn and the room or property doesn't exist.

One case saw a student who had been asked to transfer £1,800 to a friend via money transfer to prove she had enough money to rent a room she found online. She did so and sent the receipt to the Landlord as proof. When her friend went to collect the money they found it had been collected by someone else, and were told by the transfer agency that the person had given the Money Transfer Number and shown I.D in the correct name. When the client went to report the crime to the police they said there was no case because she was unable to give sufficient information of how the funds had been collected. Having tried to get this information from the money transfer company, she was told they couldn't give details without a crime reference number due to data protection - so she found herself in a Catch-22 situation and nearly £2k out of pocket.

Citizens Advice Consumer Affairs Policy Officer Susan Marks said "Money transfer, used in any situation other than to send money to someone you know, is not secure. It should never be used as a way of proving funds or as a method of payment to someone you don't know - sharing your money transfer number or copy of your transfer receipt is like handing over your PIN number to a stranger. It's not the same as transferring money from one bank to another, and isn't covered by the same safeguards."

The charity has some Top Tips for anyone thinking of making a money transfer and/or searching for property to let online:

* Never share your money transfer number or copy of the receipt - it's not secure

* Never agree to transfer money, even to yourself, to prove you can afford deposit and rental payments

* If you or the prospective Landlord live abroad, offer to provide references from previous Landlords and other professionals such as a G.P or employer who can vouch for you, rather than transferring money

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Buy to let golden rules: 'Avoid large families and flats in northern cities'

Judith and Fergus Wilson have between them nearly 40 years' experience as landlords. Here are the golden rules they say you should follow for success

Fergus and Judith Wison have some tips for any future buy-to-let landlords. Photograph: Graham Turner

• Buy houses. "An Englishman's home is his castle. He doesn't want to live in a flat," says Judith. The couple own only 30 flats out of 700 properties. "All the problem tenants we've had have been in flats," says Fergus.

• Buy two-bed, not three or four, preferably in the south-east. Yields on two-bed houses with small gardens are the highest, says Fergus. Rents achievable on larger properties don't sufficiently reflect the higher purchase cost.

• Avoid flats in Sheffield, Manchester and Leeds. "They're the new council houses in the sky," says Fergus. "People always want to buy the cheapest property, but you've got to have an exit strategy. What happens when you want to sell? There's a reason they're cheap. They won't be able to sell flats in those blocks for years."

• Avoid large families. "I now take a maximum of two children," says Fergus, following a battle with a tenant and her three children. At the end of the tenancy, the Wilsons deducted £400 from the deposit to cover wear and tear caused by the children to the paintwork. It was challenged by the tenant, under the Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme, who argued the Wilsons were aware she had three children when she moved in and that they caused only a reasonable amount of wear and tear. Fergus says he won – the tribunal ruled a deduction of £375 was appropriate – but doesn't want to go through that hassle again.

• Only accept tenants with a rental guarantee. The Wilsons take out rent guarantee insurance, which costs around £100 to cover a £650-a-month tenant for a year. To obtain insurance, the tenant has to pass various checks and be in regular employment. So it's thumbs-down to students and some benefits applicants among others.

• If a tenant fails to meet the requirements of the rental guarantee scheme, the Wilsons ask them for an upfront payment of at least 12 months' rent. "Oddly enough, I never get asked for a discount on the rent when tenants pay upfront. I'd ask for one if it was me," says Fergus.

• Use a letting agent, but understand their limitations. The Wilsons pay a 10% fee to agents for finding tenants and managing their properties.

• The older the tenants are, the better. Fergus says younger adults still have the capacity to leave and get a mortgage of their own. Older tenants won't be able to find finance, so are likely to stay longer.

• Don't take on tenants who share your surname. Judith was threatened with a spell in Holloway prison, north London, after allegedly failing to pay council tax. However, the local authority had mixed up her name with that of a tenant.

It shouldn't happen to a landlord …

The cannabis farm The occupier of a semi-detached house adjoining one of his properties called Fergus to discuss the need for repointing a chimney. To examine it, Fergus went into the back garden and it was then he noticed something odd about the house. "It was like something out of a science fiction plot inside," says Fergus. "In the cellar and in all the bedrooms, the walls were covered with plastic sheeting, huge ultraviolet lights and hydroponics. Cannabis plants were growing everywhere." He took a video of the scene and called the police. But he was stunned when they said they weren't interested. "I even offered to let them install a camera in one of my properties across the road so they could catch the guys. But they said, 'Mr Wilson, you've been watching too many television shows'." Soon after, the criminals cleared the house of its crop and equipment, escaping conviction.

According to the National Landlords Association (NLA), gangsters are attracted to rented properties for growing cannabis and manufacturing crystal meth because they are often in quiet residential areas where their activities can continue undisturbed. Typically, they pay the rent six or 12 months in advance. The NLA gives advice to landlords on spotting a cannabis factory. These include blacked-out windows, heat emitting from the property and some rather pungent smells.

Cops and robbers A tenant stopped paying his rent, claiming he was no longer working and was applying for housing benefit. Fergus later discovered the tenant had been in receipt of housing benefit from the outset of the tenancy, having lied about his status. But that was just the start of the story. It later transpired the tenant, who happened to own a business and some property of his own, was convicted for his part in one of the biggest multimillion pound robberies the UK has ever seen. The police were rather more interested in this case than in the cannabis factory, and information supplied by Fergus, who had files of information on the man, helped in their enquiries.

Fergus says that as a major landlord, inevitably some tenants will be engaged in crime. He says four murders have been in some way connected to his tenants – all renting flats, not houses. "It's another reason I don't like buying flats," he says. He has received a number of death threats but has never taken any seriously.

Dodgy boilers Parts of Kent have the hardest water in the country, claims Fergus, who won a court case against a boiler maker when new combi boilers in his properties broke down after failing to cope with chalky water.

At their peak, the Wilsons employed 20 workers to deal with maintenance issues, but in his early years as a landlord Fergus tried sorting out problems himself. "One Friday I got a call from a tenant complaining that her hot water was not working. I taught maths and physics when I was a schoolteacher and fancied myself a bit when it came to fixing things. But I couldn't work out what was wrong; the pilot light was on and there were no electrical faults. Then I discovered the problem. It wasn't the hot water – there was no water at all. She hadn't paid her water rates and those were the days when they could still cut you off for non-payment. Somehow she thought they had only cut off the cold water."

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Dog attack tenant goes on the run


A housing association tenant whose dog attacked a housing officer has gone on the run after being sentenced to 14 days in prison.

Blackwood Magistrates Court handed Bron Afon Community Housing tenant Nicola Hope, 36, the jail term last week, but yesterday evening she had still not been arrested.

Ms Hope was given the prison sentence for breaching an order banning her from keeping dogs at the Bron Afon property in Blaenavon, south Wales.

She was originally given the order last July, after her Staffordshire bull terrier attacked a housing officer, causing injuries that required the officer to have thirty stitches to her face.

In December Ms Hope was given a 28 day suspended prison sentence for breaching the order. Bron Afon then applied to evict her from the property, on the grounds of ignoring the injunction, causing anti-social behaviour, and having £1,800 of unpaid rent.

She was evicted on 1 February, but Bron Afon staff found her back in the property on 8 February, with two dogs – including one believed to be the same animal that attacked the housing officer.

As well as the prison sentence, her injunction has now been amended so she is banned from the Capel Newydd area of Blaenavon, from approaching the housing officer her dog attacked, and from approaching any member of Bron Afon staff and causing them to feel harassed, alarmed or distressed.

Bron Afon chief executive Duncan Forbes said: ‘The outcome of this case clearly shows just how serious we are about protecting the personal safety of our staff, tenants and the wider community.’

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