Month: January 2017

“How much would it cost to buy all the properties in Letchworth?”

This fascinating question was posed by the 11-year-old son of one of my Letchworth landlords when they both popped into my offices before the Christmas break (doesn’t that seem an age away now!). I thought to myself, that over the Christmas break, I would sit down and calculate what the total value of all the properties in Letchworth are worth … and just for fun, work out how much they have gone up in value since his son was born back in the autumn of 2005. In the last 11 years, since the autumn of 2005, the total value of Letchworth property has increased by 51% or £1.73 billion to a total of £5.11 billion. Interesting, when you consider the FTSE100 has only risen by 30.78% and inflation (i.e. the UK Retail Price Index) rose by 37% during the same 11 years. When I delved deeper into the numbers, the average price currently being paid by Letchworth households stands at

read more “How much would it cost to buy all the properties in Letchworth?”

It’s official – letting agents save landlords an average of £1,910 per year!

Good afternoon. There’s a lot of focus on the Lettings industry at the moment and the article below, I thought was quite an interesting read: A new survey suggests that a letting agent saves a landlord an estimated £1,910 a year. The result of an investigation into 500 landlords by insurance firm Endsleigh suggests that there are widespread misconceptions among landlords about the value for money offered by letting agents. Of those landlords suggesting that they could save money by not using agents, the average sum ‘saved’ on fees was £159 per month. However, comparative analysis of the rental income and void periods for those landlords with, and those without, agents suggested that in fact agents saved their clients an average of almost £2,000 each. Most of the savings for landlords are created by agents minimising void periods when compared to landlords who go it alone marketing their property. Some 76 per cent of respondents to the survey reported that their agent helped them

read more It’s official – letting agents save landlords an average of £1,910 per year!