Base Property Specialists

With, what now appear to be unfounded, fears regarding the London property market we have sen a strong pattern of rental growth on almost all of our rental properties from last year. After a quiet December and January (which is common) February has seen a fantastic increase in instructions and enquiries and there are strong patterns that rents are growing.

Many of our properties are showing rental growth of around 5-8% based on this time last year although there are some exceptions. For quality properties, both character and new build, with good standard furnishings and well maintained interiors tenants are happy to pay that little bit extra. To find out if we can help you boost your rental margins visit our interiors pages or call our offices on 020 7033 1901.

This has been backed up by the following quote released by the Estate Angels website:

‘Buy-to-let rental yields have reached levels not seen for almost two years in January. Paragon has published its Buy-To-Let Index for the month, revealing that the market is going from strength to strength.

According to the index, the average yield increased to 6.3 per cent, a level not seen since March 2006. It is a slight rise on the 6.2 per cent figure recorded in December and is a clear sign that the buy-to-let market is growing in strength.

“Commentators who predicted that the current economic climate would translate into stronger demand for rented homes and higher rents are being proved right,” said John Heron, Paragon’’s director of mortgages. “Since September, we have seen one of the strongest periods of rental growth ever. This, together with the easing of house price inflation, has translated into higher yields,” he added.

Recent research from Property Hawk revealed that the average UK landlord sees buy-to-let as a long-term investment.’

According to a new report from Motley Fool (www.fool.co.uk) new build house prices are showing new strength. In a recent report they stated: ‘Persimmon (LSE: PSN), Britain’s largest homebuilder, unveiled higher profits today. Net income rose 4.3% to £413.5m while earnings per share advanced 2.8% to 136.8p, slightly below analysts’ expectations. Average selling prices nudged up 1% to £189,558 but sales fell 4% to £3bn.

The operating margin increased to 21.8%, up 1% from 2006, boosted by tighter cost controls and synergy gains following the acquisition of Westbury last year.

And in a confident gesture, the full year payout was hiked by 10% to 51.2p for the 11th successive year of dividend growth. But, as ever, investor’s eyes were focused on the statement.

Despite a “very challenging” year and a current cautious outlook, Persimmon anticipates the property market getting stronger when “confidence returns and sentiment improves.”