17 January 2020
Councils in Scotland & Short Lets
Housing Minister, Kevin Stewart, announced measures in the Scottish Parliament to provide local authorities with the ability to implement licensing schemes for short-term lets from Spring 2021. The licensing scheme will include a new…
20 December 2019
Looking Back on 2019
So, another year of political turmoil is over and the general election has given the Conservative party a majority in Parliament which will mean that the UK will exit the European Union by the end of the year. Whatever your political view…
27 June 2019
Private Residential Tenancy in Practice
Now the summer has arrived and we have got through the busy HMO period with the first use of the Private Residential Tenancy (PRT) I thought it might be a good idea to reflect on how the new tenancy is working in practice. The first thing…
13 February 2019
Brexit, Brexit, Brexit!
As our supposed date of divorce from the EU draws ever nearer I thought it might be an interesting exercise to take a look into my crystal ball, join many other commentators and add some column inches to the Brexit debate. I would like to…
21 December 2018
2018 Property Review
It seems to me that Christmas comes around ever more quickly as each year passes and this year has been an eventful one to say the least. The main topic of conversation in the country has been the B word, Brexit has taken up more media…
18 December 2018
Why you need property as part of a diversified portfolio
“The most powerful tool an investor has working for him or her is diversification. True diversification allows you to build portfolios with higher returns for the same risk. Most investors…are far less diversified than they should be.” The…
10 October 2018
Are landlords really vultures?
You don’t seem to be able to go for more than week without there being some type of negative headlines about the cost of housing in the UK and it is often Landlords who bear the brunt of these. Landlords are often portrayed as uncaring…
25 September 2018
Minimum EPC for Rental Property
There has been a large amount of press recently about minimum EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) ratings for rented property. At the moment this legislation does not apply to Scotland, only to England and Wales. The Scottish Government…
10 September 2018
The Private Residential Tenancy
The Private Residential Tenancy has been with us now for over 8 months and as a result I thought it might be worthwhile taking some time to see what impacts, if any, there have been. I have looked at the major changes in the PRT here. In…
18 July 2018
Is Rent to Rent a Good Idea for Landlords
This month I would like to examine a business model that has appeared in the residential property market over the last few years with various property ‘Gurus’ offering books, seminars and courses boasting how anyone can turbo charge their…