According to some, the main reason rents are rising across the board is because we landlords are a greedy bunch who are cashing in on the current high demand for rented properties. But is that a fair assertion, or are there other factors at play?

Well speaking as a landlord, I can categorically state that I do not make a point of increasing my rental charges so I can afford a nice foreign holiday! Sadly, the real reason I am forced to increase my rents periodically is to cover the rising costs I face on a daily basis.

Why are rents rising?

Rental payments very often cover the cost of a mortgage on the property and many lenders insist that rental payments are higher than the cost of the monthly mortgage payment, so if your repayment is £900 per month, you could be expected to pay £1,017 per month, or 130% of the mortgage payment.

If you use a letting or a managing agent, you can expect to be paying any number of rip-off fees and mysterious charges that rise inexplicably during the course of your business relationship, which means that your unfortunate tenants are going to have to foot the bill. Service charges on leasehold properties also have to be factored in, and these can also end up being extremely costly.

So quite aside from the fact that we landlords do actually prefer to make a profit from our rental property business, the rising costs associated with letting properties is the main reason rentals are continuing to rise!

As any landlord knows, a good business insurance policy is vital to help protect you from expenses arising as a result of accidental damage to your property, claims against you by your tenants, and a host of other potentially catastrophic and unexpected costs.

But not all polices cost the same, so smart landlords always shop around when it is time to renew their landlords insurance, and this year there is a further option to try when comparing your annual landlords insurance polices: the Post Office.

The Post Office is now offering business insurance policies to buy to let landlords. Their insurance policies include Employer’s Liability insurance up to £10 million, liability insurance for property up to £2 million, loss of rent and alternative accommodation insurance, legal expenses cover, plus buildings insurance cover that includes accidental damage.

In order to attract new business, the Post Office is offering a like for like price guarantee for all buy to let landlords with policies up for renewal within the next two and a half months. However, there are a few restrictions on the price match guarantee, including the fact you must have three years worth of no claims and an annual premium above £238.50. But if, like me, you are always keen to try and secure a competitive insurance policy when renewal time comes around once again, it is definitely worth obtaining a quote from the Post Office, either by going online, or by calling in to your local PO branch (assuming it has not been closed along with so many other small PO branches).

The NLA published a statement yesterday with their response to the latest Government plans to overhaul the way empty properties are subject to Council Tax. As all landlords know, under the current rules, if you have an empty property, you are still liable for Council tax, so even if the property is empty for the purposes of improvements, you still have to pay tax on it.

At present, the Government is considering changing the rules so that local Councils have the flexibility to give landlords and other property owners tax relief on empty properties or second homes.

The NLA believes this is a good thing, as it will help landlords to use the savings they make to fund repairs, maintenance programs and other property improvements, including essential “green” initiatives.

Personally I think this is an excellent idea and it would definitely help smaller landlords to keep their properties in tip-top condition. As things stand, there is no real incentive for landlords to deliberately keep a property empty in order to carry out essential improvements or repairs, but if landlords are given tax relief on their empty properties, the money saved should help to reduce the number of sub-standard rental properties on the market.

And as the NLA says: “At a time of severe housing shortage, it is imperative that empty homes are brought back into use, but it should not be at the expense of improvements which would otherwise be possible within the private-rented sector.

“Landlords are always keen to ensure that their properties are tenanted, but they must not be penalised during periods that allow them to maintain, repair and improve their properties.”

Owning private holiday accommodation is always a very up and down affair for landlords, but with the current state of the economy, you might be forgiven for thinking that landlords in this sector would be experiencing a sharp downturn in business. However, rather surprisingly, recent figures released from a travel accommodation website have indicated that there has been a steady rise in the number of people looking for private rented holiday accommodation in the UK.

In part, this is easily explainable. With money so tight at the moment, I, like many others, have forgone the expensive package holidays abroad to sunny climates in favour of a cheaper holiday in the UK, and because hotels are expensive and I loathe caravans with a passion, I tend to book holiday rental homes for my annual family break as this is invariably the cheapest way.

There has also been a rise in the number of visitors from abroad over the last few years, particularly from the US and Europe. However, although the increase in visitors is boosting the holiday rental economy, figures show that the average spend per visit has fallen, which suggests that visitors are trying to make savings where possible.

So the upshot of this piece of news is that holiday rental landlords can safely look forward to a rise in their business in the coming months, but for those at the higher end of the market with very expensive properties to let, business might not be quite as rosy with the cost of holiday accommodation becoming the “deal breaker” for many families.

When the bottom fell out of the property market a couple of years ago, most of us assumed that property prices all over the board would be affected and everything would become much more affordable.

But this has not happened and although property prices in the north are still falling, prices in the South East continue to rise, particularly at the more expensive end of the market, and many experts feel that the north-south divide will grow over the next few years. This is borne out by the predicted figures for the next five years: property prices in central London are expected to rise by 33% whereas prices in the North East are only predicted to rise by 1.7%.

How does this trend affect landlords?

Which such a disparity in the property market, it is now more important than ever that you choose your potential properties wisely. A few years ago you might have got away with buying pretty much anything and sitting back while it increased in value, but the good times are no more unless you can afford to buy a few luxury properties in central London—which I certainly can’t!

But although we can no longer expect to see massive returns on our property investments, at least the rental market continues to grow. The demand for rental properties is rising continually as more and more people choose to rent rather than buy and experts in the lettings industry believe that the rental sector of the property market will expand for at least another ten years, which is great news for landlords.

According to a recent survey, as many as one in three landlords have no idea how energy efficient their properties are, which means they probably do not have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) in place for their properties.

Why is an Energy Performance Certificate important?

Apart from the fact a failure to give an Energy Performance Certificate to your tenants could land you with a hefty fine, an Energy Performance Certificate does exactly what it says on the tin: it tells the tenant how energy efficient the property is.

This has two positive effects for landlords—an energy efficient property is easier to let in the first place, and if you already have existing tenants, they are likely to be happier and therefore not planning on moving any time soon. With the cost of gas, electricity, oil, and solid fuel rising all the time, energy efficiency should be an essential consideration of every landlord as an energy efficient property is less likely to have vacant months because tenants have chosen another property that costs less to run.

What happens in the long term if the property is in a lower band?

In the short term, properties with low energy efficiency are less attractive to potential tenants and harder to market, but from 2018, properties that are not energy efficient will actually be banned from the rental market. However, all is not lost as you have plenty of time to get your properties in order and make any necessary improvements to their energy efficiency.

With the current demand for rental property so high, it is likely that for every newly advertised rental property, you are going to have more than one person arranging to view it, and if the property is in a sought after area, you could potentially have dozens of prospective tenants fighting over it.

But whilst this is good news for landlords, not all prospective tenants are going to be the right tenants, so how can you maximise your chances of picking the right person to take on a tenancy agreement for your property?

Tenants that turn up on time for a property viewing are likely to be more reliable. Any tenant with an ounce of sense will think about checking directions to the property before they arrive, and if they can’t manage this simple task, you have to ask yourself how on earth they are going to manage a tenancy agreement.

Forward thinking tenants who are keen to take on your property will bring along essential information such as ID, proof of address, bank statements, references, pay slips, and even a copy of their credit report.

If there are any language issues, the right tenant will bring a decent translator along to ensure nothing is lost in translation.

The buy to let market is booming and savvy investors everywhere are snapping up suitable properties to add to their buy to let portfolios, but not all properties are equal, so given the choice, should you invest in a flat or a house?

Ploughing your savings into property has always been considered a safe investment, and when you take into account the income generated by property rentals, anyone who can afford to step into the buy to let market can easily expect to see a comfortable return on their investment. But although knowing your market is vital as the demand for rental properties varies from area to area, first time landlords do not always consider the differences between flats and houses.

I have a mix of flats and houses in my property portfolio and I have found that each appeals to a different sector of the market, but current research is indicating that family sized homes are fast becoming the most sought after properties in the rental sector, particularly in the prosperous south-east areas of the UK.

Flats might be cheaper to buy, but houses can offer a number of advantages: they give you a better return on your initial investment, they tend to be occupied for longer periods of time, they are freehold, and unlike flats, houses do not come with covenants restricting the types of tenant you can have.

However, your choice of property will ultimately depend on the type of tenants you are hoping to target. If it is students, flats are more appealing, but if you hope to attract the family market, houses are the way forward.

Twenty years ago, the majority of the UK population were either owner-occupiers or tenants in social housing and private rented accommodation was often seen as a short-term solution or a last resort for the desperate. But to paraphrase Bob Dylan, the times they are a changing, and private landlords are fast becoming a major fixture in the UK housing market as millions forget their dreams of owning their own home and move into rented accommodation instead.

In the decades since the Tories gave council tenants the “right to buy”, the number of council owned properties available to prospective tenants in the social housing sector has fallen dramatically. These days, unless you are able to tick an awful lot of boxes, your chances of securing a council house are pretty dire. Buying a home is not much easier. Most of us are all too familiar with the problems facing prospective owner-occupiers: even if you can afford the monthly mortgage payments, your chances of raising a 30%+ deposit are not good if you are a first time buyer hoping to purchase your first home.

As such, private rented housing is becoming increasingly important in today’s housing market and as many as 14% of UK households live in private rented accommodation. With the cost of living continuing to rise, politicians are beginning to realise just how crucial the private rental sector is for the provision of housing in the UK today, as without the contribution private landlords like us make to the housing market, an awful lot of people would currently be homeless.

If you have ever tried to evict one of your tenants, only to have the case end up in court, you are probably more than familiar with the numerous eviction problems faced by landlords. Sadly this is becoming an increasingly depressing scenario landlords have to deal with on a regular basis.

Figures show a rise in the number of tenants defending their eviction case in courts and also appealing decisions made by judges in such cases. So if you are really unlucky, not only does your tenant decide to fight you in court, but even when the judge rules in your favour, the case goes to appeal and the delays caused by court closures as a result of an overwrought legal system leave you in rent arrears for months.

Why is this happening?

There are probably a number of factors at play here. Firstly, with competition for rental accommodation so high, most landlords cannot be bothered to put up with tenants that refuse to pay their rent or abuse the property in some way, therefore we are much more likely to start eviction proceedings with a view to looking for a more amenable tenant next time around. Secondly, tenants these days are much more likely to know their legal rights, which means they are better able to use the system to their advantage.

No landlord wants to deal with this kind of hassle—it takes time to sort out and it can end up extremely costly. So make sure you cover your back, practice due diligence, and always check tenants references before accepting them into one of your properties.