No jargon, no dodged questions. Written in plain English, for people who read case notes for a living, not property listings.
The case for property, in plain terms.
Property is slow to sell. That's actually why it suits someone with a high, busy income. You're not trying to time the market or trade in and out. You're buying something that earns you rent now, and tends to go up in value over a long enough time.
Greater Manchester has had steady demand for rental homes from a growing working population, and prices that are still a lot lower than the South East. That's a big part of why we source properties here.
None of this is guaranteed. Property values and rent can go down as well as up, and every figure on this site is an example, not a forecast. Use this guide to help you have a better conversation with us, or with your own adviser, not as advice on its own.
Not immune to one. But it tends to bounce back. Here's the honest version.
UK house prices do fall in recessions, sometimes a lot. The 2007 to 2009 crash took average prices down by around 19 to 20%, and it took roughly seven years for prices to get back to where they were before. Anyone telling you property can't fall isn't being straight with you, and neither are we.
What history does show is that every UK downturn on record, in the 1970s, the early 1990s, and 2008, has been followed by a recovery. Over the long run, prices have kept trending upward despite each of those falls. Rent has also tended to hold up better than sale prices in a downturn, since people who can't or won't buy still need somewhere to live. That's part of why rent matters as much as rising property values in the numbers we show you.
The point isn't that property can't fall. It's that the shorter you hold it, the more that risk matters, and the longer you hold it, the more time you give a downturn to pass. That's why every example on this site is shown over years, not months, and why we say plainly that values and rent can go down as well as up.
The words that come up on a call, defined once so you never have to ask twice.
Annual rent as a percentage of the purchase price, before any costs are deducted.
What's left of the rent after mortgage interest, management and insurance. This is the actual cash you keep.
The mortgage as a percentage of the property's value. A 75% LTV mortgage needs a 25% deposit.
You pay only the interest each month, not the capital. Most buy to let mortgages work this way.
Extra stamp duty tax you pay on a second property or a buy to let, on top of the normal rate.
When a property's value goes up over time, separate from any rent it earns.
A property's energy efficiency grade. Most rental properties in England must currently meet a minimum rating to be let legally.
A policy that covers rent if a tenant stops paying, arranged in your name once a property is let.
The ones that come up on nearly every first call.
No. We check and photograph everything before you see it. You're welcome to view it yourself, in person or online, but you don't have to.
We work with a mortgage broker early on, so we know what you can afford before anything's agreed. If a mortgage genuinely can't be arranged, you won't be stuck with a purchase you can't complete.
If it falls through for reasons outside your control, we source another property and go again at no extra charge. See how it works for the full detail.
We help find and reference your first tenant. Ongoing management sits with a local letting agent, arranged in your name, on their own separate fee, not ours.
This depends on your own situation, so we can't advise you on it directly. It's worth talking to an accountant who knows buy to let before you complete.
No. We are a property sourcing and management company, not a financial adviser, and we do not provide financial advice. We are registered with the Property Redress Scheme and compliant with HMRC anti-money laundering regulations.
The fastest way through the rest of them is a call, fitted around your rota.
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