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Peter Hendry

Author of House Price Virtuoso Solution

6510 Profile Views

About Me

I trained in and qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in the 70's, taking the valuation and estate management option.
My initial work involved property valuation and estate management including commercial property.

I have pioneered and since perfected new methods to improve the way in which houses are bought and sold across the nation having conducted research into the current failures frequently occurring during the agency process.

These failures, cost both the house buying public and the agents servicing their clients' property requirements a great deal of lost time and money through the inefficiencies which are currently being allowed to exist within all local housing markets throughout the country.

My proposals may be read at: www.improvethehousingmarket.co.uk

It is time that all the shortcomings described are addressed and dealt with to bring forward a new and efficient way to transact house sales and purchases initially across England and Wales but across the whole of Britain as well.

my expertise in the industry

I joined the property industry in 1969, trained and qualified in 1974 and have worked within its sectors ever since.
Though I've now retired, I continue to advance my theories regarding how to improve the nation's housing market in particular, based on my extensive working experience over a number of decades.

Peter's Recent Activity

The ultimate remedy for the house price and rent level crisis requires action on the twin fronts of home marketing and planning control in combination. It is not the lack of total supply of places to live, as others now confirm, but the lack of such properties coming to the market to meet the current demand. For the full explanation and remedy please search online for The House Price Solution.

From: Peter Hendry 21 February 2024 10:11 AM

The ultimate remedy for the house price and rent level crisis requires action on the twin fronts of home marketing and planning control in combination. It is not the lack of total supply of places to live, as others now confirm, but the lack of such properties coming to the market to meet the current demand. For the full explanation and remedy please search online for The House Price Solution.

From: Peter Hendry 21 February 2024 09:44 AM

I also look forward to receiving a prompt response to my urgent concerns in asking for the house price solution as recently notified to you, to be brought forward for equally urgent action. Yours sincerely Peter Hendry

From: Peter Hendry 26 December 2023 11:03 AM

Fair points. The private rental sector is unable to cope right now, let alone later, unless a more balanced approach is taken.

From: Peter Hendry 09 August 2022 08:14 AM

It simply wouldn’t help! Economics!!!

From: Peter Hendry 08 August 2022 09:16 AM

Apart from still needing to fix the planning approval problems what Jupp suggests seems pretty good. It still doesn’t resolve the whole housing market price malfunction however. To do that would need the comprehensive review of market practices which I am proposing in The House Price Solution findable by searching online.

From: Peter Hendry 20 May 2022 08:11 AM

Whilst the intention may be laudable, licensing all AirBnB lettings is missing the mark. The real change needed in order to calm rents and house prices while supply catches up is to bring in a new licence regime for all estate agents. Such a regime would require these to act primarily for buyers instead of for sellers. This way buyers could more fairly compete in the market. See the house price solution web site for the detail on all of this.

From: Peter Hendry 21 January 2022 08:28 AM

One problem! With interest rates likely to remain at an all time low, why favour build to rent when it could be more build to buy? People should not be hoodwinked into renting, with all the issues that come with, when they could actually be buying their homes for themselves at similar price points. Profits are being made by developers here, at the expense of the poorest. Please see latest article on The House Price Solution for more.

From: Peter Hendry 20 January 2022 09:04 AM

The ideas set out so far may be laudable but they are directed at dealing with the result rather than examining the cause and dealing specifically with that. I believe what we should be concentrating on is that which would reduce the widening gulf between the extremely wealthy and those less well off and essentially living in poverty.

From: Peter Hendry 24 August 2021 11:38 AM

If only improving all housing markets across half of Britain for the better was possible in a 30 sec elevator pitch - whatever that might be? Thanks for reading some of it though.

From: Peter Hendry 25 August 2020 23:59 PM

LOOK, what policy has Labour got to calm and improve the state of the UK housing market with its lack of provision of adequate housing? So far I see nothing workable being proposed even though I have sent in full details of a new and Fully Workable solution to correct the anomalies responsible for creating poverty in this sector. How can the opposition party amass a consensus if they don’t have a coherent policy for people to support? If they are serious about putting in better provisions for housing, will they please examine my proposals for resolving this crisis and discuss the pros and cons? To read it simply search on House Price Virtuoso Solution. The party should already have my contact details or can obtain them from the web site.

From: Peter Hendry 20 August 2020 09:08 AM

As well as this, or the next step in reforming the house marketing regime logically, would be to improve the way market transactions are effected. Not to do that would leave the housing market in the moribund state it is in right now. For more about this, you can search for House Price Virtuoso Solution where the whole concept for achieving this is revealed.

From: Peter Hendry 28 May 2020 08:18 AM

Unless??? We’re championing a way for renters to retain the dream of becoming owners in their own right. It is to reform the house-buying system to accord with buyers’ affordability instead of mere seller’s aspirations. For more, search for House Price Virtuoso Solution and the whole concept will be revealed. The secondary outcome from this proposal is that house prices themselves can be trimmed more to prevailing market levels, resulting in more house sales across the board - a welcome result for all agents; one would think.

From: Peter Hendry 28 May 2020 08:06 AM

This is an initiative towns up and down the country could all do with. Well done Luton for being first to provide it. Bringing changes in letting agency methods, is a key way to improve the service everywhere.

From: Peter Hendry 12 December 2019 18:30 PM

Buy-to -let landlords are the private sector coming to the rescue of councils which became unable to supply the necessary housing to housing tenants, following the significant sale of council houses initiated by Margaret Thatcher under a Tory government. For these investors to now be subjected to the removal of their rights to re-possess their property and retain the full management control of their investment would seem to be somewhat cavalier at the least. What is needed instead is for replacement new municipal housing schemes to be constructed to replace the lost council houses as soon as possible. The private sector buy-to -let initiative was only supposed to be a temporary fix for the problem in any case. One has to ask how long should the government need to take to remedy the housing accommodation shortfall?

From: Peter Hendry 20 March 2019 08:44 AM

In spite if these alarming predictions Marc von Grundherr doesn't say wether he believes them to be likely or probable. If they were to be seriously probable, a root and branch change in the way such prices are determined ought clearly to be most carefully considered. I have already outlined the need for this and the methods by which such improvements may be achieved. It makes no sense to countenance the financial cruelty predicted here to all future would-be owner occupiers.

From: Peter Hendry 25 February 2019 08:01 AM

Even with the best will in the world, it is impossible to regulate the behaviour and performance of letting (or indeed selling) agents, when the whole system and ethos by which they function is bad. The whole house marketing process needs a complete upgrade. The housing minister Heather Wheeler MP says: “Working with trading standards teams in London and across the country, we are stopping rogue landlords and agents in their tracks. The new measures in our Tenant Fees Bill will save renters around £240m a year by banning unfair letting fees and capping tenancy deposits.” This won’t work because the way agents function, by working on behalf of owners or landlords, needs changing. Until this happens, rogue letting agents will continue to exist because they will have enough incentive to want to flout the rules. Change the rules in a positive way, and rogue landlords will disappear. My blog page explains how this could be achieved using simple economic arguments and my MP knows about it. So far, he and his fellow MPs have taken no steps to investigate this. It is this that is the real nub of the problem and this which is the thing needing to be addressed most urgently.

From: Peter Hendry 13 September 2018 08:53 AM

A cautious step back would be most apposite, especially whilst major changes are already underway within the housing market generally. If the private letting market is largely supplied with properties from private investors (which it is), it’s a question of balancing the aspirations of both landlords and tenants there. If tenants of private lettings don’t actually want longer term commitments but would mostly prefer flexibility, then already knowing that private landlords don’t want minimum three year tenancies, rather suggests that such a requirement would not help the provision, by private landlords, of more properties available for rent and nor would it help tenants by allowing them the flexibility they need whilst renting in the private sector. From this, the private sector appears to only be capable of managing short-term lettings. The clear inference from this is that those tenants who wish for added security ought to be provided with property owned and managed by the public sector. This has worked perfectly well in the past so there are substantial reasons directing that all governments (of whatever persuasion), should provide such tenanted property in the future. Housing associations and charities may naturally be involved in supplying these services as well. There should of course be a symbiotic working relationship between both private and public sectors providing adequate levels of social housing, each supplying properties to suit the different tenants requirements in the best way they can. Surely it can’t be right to try and turn the private sector into an arm of the public sector?

From: Peter Hendry 06 September 2018 09:53 AM

The housing markets right across England and Wales are broken, except for those who want to try and make themselves money from owning property! There is a workable solution however. If this conference does not examine this issue it will miss a golden opportunity to do the right thing. The only realistic remedy is explained online at: www.improvethehousingmarket.co.uk

From: Peter Hendry 05 September 2018 14:47 PM

There are issues needing to be resolved fairly on both sides. It's no good siding with the tenant when in fact it's the landlord (who financed and provided the property in the first place) who needs protection from abuse by wayward tenants.

From: Peter Hendry 13 August 2018 11:21 AM

A useful statistical projection certainly. Is RICS advising (or even being asked to advise) government on what ought to be done to help to resolve this worrying prospect?

From: Peter Hendry 09 August 2018 08:11 AM

A significant problem here includes the very terms of reference of the committee as they must presuppose that the landlord should be the primary customer. In fact the best efficiency of the lettings market, (as well as for house sales marketing) should be for the agent to act exclusively for the buyer, not the seller. This way full transparency concerning the prices being decided as well as basic property selection itself, could be achieved. This simply cannot be done with agents acting for the seller or indeed the landlord. Substantial change needs to happen on this if the state of the housing market itself is to be improved. The reasons for this are fully set out in the blog at www.improvethehousingmarket.co.uk Therefore these terms of reference themselves need to be re-examined.

From: Peter Hendry 20 November 2017 08:25 AM

So what if the government has to administer over £7 billion in held deposits. Lucky them. There is a huge burden which many private landlords are having to carry, when letting out property on such a massive scale. Perhaps the deposits held could help wean the government off their ongoing quantitative easing drug which they still seem to be having quite a problem with, after eight years of mostly continuing use! Don't forget by the way, landlords also have court application costs and solicitors fees to defray as well.

From: Peter Hendry 26 August 2017 07:08 AM

Got dates wrong (a bit) - sorry!

From: Peter Hendry 26 August 2017 06:56 AM

Sorry but the Autumn Budget 2017 has already happened and from reading this, the next consultation period does not start until after the spring 2018 budget statement. Opening the Budget representations portal early, as still being posted, happened last year so this is no longer relevant.

From: Peter Hendry 24 August 2017 09:33 AM

I agree. Damage and rent loss deposits should be kept at sufficient levels. Even if the overall amount held totals a significant sum economically. That is no reason to reduce them. For those tenants who cannot save enough for that, they should obtain a tenancy surety so that the landlord has recourse if they do not reasonably look after the property they are renting. I have had a very similar experience to yours just recently where I am having to spend most of the last eight years rental income on re-building the interior. For as long as large numbers of people need to be housed in privately rented accommodation because there is insufficient Housing Association property available, and private landlords step in to provide this service, they need legal and financial protection. If that should be taken away, the lack of incentive for private landlords to keep providing safe clean and habitable accommodation could result in no suitable property being available to rent in England and Wales for significant numbers of families.

From: Peter Hendry 24 August 2017 09:22 AM

Re: Assurred Shorthold tenancy deposits: It's complete nonsense to even have a cap at as little as two months rent when the same amount of clear notice is legally required to be given by the landlord. The tenant will often stop paying rent at that point anyway, resulting in the landlord have no deposit at all to use to cover the cost of any damage chargeable to the vacating tenant. Wouldn't four months rent be more equitableas rule of thumb for a deposit when taking an Assurred Shorthold tenancy?

From: Peter Hendry 23 August 2017 08:34 AM

It's complete nonsense to even have a cap at as little as two months rent when the same amount of clear notice is legally required to be given by the landlord. The tenant will often stop paying rent at that point anyway, resulting in the landlord have no deposit at all to use to cover the cost of any damage chargeable to the vacating tenant. Wouldn't four months rent be more equitableas rule of thumb for a deposit when taking an Assurred Shorthold tenancy?

From: Peter Hendry 23 August 2017 08:28 AM

Well, as we can already see, TM and her minority government is reluctant to commit to a timescale so perhaps they are beginning to realise the wider issues involved! It's obvious that any deposits made to secure a property pending making a commitment by exchange of contracts ought to be fully returnable, no matter what reason is given for withdrawal. That would be acceptable but the question is, why take a deposit in the first place? See the HS for the better way to go about resolving all this.

From: Peter Hendry 01 August 2017 08:47 AM

It's all very well making proposals to try and ban agents from charging fees to prospective tenants but surely the real issue is that of finding a way to calm the high and increasing levels of rents we are seeing in this country? At the Hendry Solution we have new and innovative proposals for improving the way agents deal with lettings, as well as dealing with house sales themselves. These proposals depend upon the ability of agents to be able to charge intending tenants for the services they offer. It would therefore seem sensible to examine highly valuable proposals like these before deciding to go ahead with a ban of this kind. The best way to improve the housing market in England and Wales would be to enhance knowledge (and the transparency of it) within the housing market rather than to arbitrarily block certain sectors of agency from charging perfectly justifiable fees for the necessary services they provide.

From: Peter Hendry 31 July 2017 16:13 PM

The courts will take into account both the existing law and 'equity' when deciding each new case.

From: Peter Hendry 09 June 2016 11:00 AM

The other class action may not be quite so easy to win as it involves already wealthy landlords becoming more wealthy yet, at the expense of people forced into having to rent roofs over their heads?

From: Peter Hendry 09 June 2016 08:43 AM

Do agree. Shooting the private landlord at a time when they are desperately needed to provide a supply of properties for rent smacks of desperation! Where is the policy for increasing the supply of houses available both to buy and to let? It's nowhere to be seen, at present. Surely a whole new housing policy is what is more desperately needed. Stable price levels, as well as fair but adequate returns for the smaller investors, are essential if corporate greed is to be held in check - unless the real policy of this conservative government is to favour the corporate financial institutions at every turn? For a full explation of what needs to be done In preference and why, please Google The Hendry Solution.

From: Peter Hendry 30 November 2015 09:01 AM

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