Norwich Union are advising buy to let landlords to watch out for dope farms - sorry Marijuana Farms. Strong (and hot) lights combined with stolen and improvised electricity supplies presents a high risk of fire. The point is that your insurance might not cover buy to let landlords if they haven’t done some diligence….man.
See the rest of the story on our buy to let landlord and mortgage site – www.nowbuytolet.com
So now the Buy To Let market is causing UK financial institutions a headache or two. Bradford and Bingleys exposure to bad debt in the B2L market has triggerred an £8mn loss in q1 of 2008. And in turn the impending rights issues from RBS and HBOS had to be aggresively defended by the banks.
For Buy To Let Landlords in trouble there will a few sleepless nights coming up. Can they afford to maintain their portfolio, can they increase rents, can they cope with the hassle? The demand for rental property is high – but for some that might not be enough.
It was rumoured a while ago that Bradford and Bingley had a problem but the rumour was squashed. The trading problems though have now come to light. The news was predictable but the method in which two highly respected media companies reported it was interesting and I think maybe even surprising.
The BBC (god bless em) on their site gave a very straight bat report on the financials and the state of the lending book type stuff – informative and admirable.
The Gaurdain (sp?) online was surprisingly different – it led on the human aspect of the story re the ill health of the CEO Steven Cranshaw. I don’t know what the problem is with Mr Cranshaw or whether the crunch has triggered his illness but I wish him well.
I found myself being much more engaged with the Graudian (sp?) story – suddenly the troubles of buy to let landords seemed less important. The BBC only reported Mr Cranshaw’s poor health in its last paragraphs.
I’m not sure what the correct presentation should have been – but I know the one that made an impact wrt an online media point of view.
Get Well Soon Mr Cranshaw.
It wasn’t that long ago that commentators were saying things like they didn’t see negative equity in the UK housing market as a concern. Well I didn’t believe them then so the report from Citigroup confirming that around 250,000 are now in a negative equity situation didn’t come as a surprise. And things are getting worse. Further drops in house prices are expected as a result of credit restrictions, and because of the rising trend in inflation (oil, oil oil).
And the Bank of England ain’t about to drop interest rates to make things any easier either – the boss made that clear a few weeks back.
The only stories that have a note of optimism are those relateed to the buy to let mortgage type world where demand is on the increase as potential buyers get nervous and decide (or are forced) to sit things out.
