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Mark Hempshell

Property journalist, researcher

7216 Profile Views

About Me

Property journalist and researcher with over 20 years writing about the property industry. Contributor to magazines and websites, writing content for property companies, agents and developers. Blogging my thoughts about property on my own blog at propertyinsider.info

Available to hire for copywriting and content writing projects. More details here: markhempshell.com

my expertise in the industry

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Mark's Recent Activity

So basically tell landlords they will be able to raise the rent and tell tenants they won't have any rent rises. Hmm.

From: Mark Hempshell 04 July 2018 07:57 AM

One unforeseen consequence I can see with this is tenancies will have to have an automatic annual rent increase built in - unlike current situation where many landlords are willing to keep the rent unchanged to keep a good tenant. As with all these new measures tenants will end up footing the bill at the end of the day.

From: Mark Hempshell 02 July 2018 09:07 AM

So renting becomes cheaper in real terms - while buying becomes more expensive (due to interest rate rises). No prizes for guessing where that could take the housing market.

From: Mark Hempshell 14 November 2017 09:52 AM

Love the poll, whichever way you answer it can be used to make landlords look bad!

From: Mark Hempshell 07 November 2017 09:16 AM

Think they might be wasting their time here. After the e-petition earlier this year the Government has already said 'now't to do with us, it's up to the mortgage industry'.

From: Mark Hempshell 17 August 2017 08:41 AM

All very laudable, but has anybody told Newham Council that any tax arrears collected won't actually end up in their budget?

From: Mark Hempshell 15 August 2017 09:06 AM

Just charge a bit more rent maybe? Simpler, and unlike a deposit you don't have to give it back.

From: Mark Hempshell 27 June 2017 09:06 AM

So, ermm, landlords should make sure they negotiate with Upad then? It's so easy to shoot yourself in the foot with PR .

From: Mark Hempshell 31 May 2017 09:28 AM

Take a look at someone like Blackpool and you will probably see that rents are already below what would be considered a fair rent in other more prosperous places. The problem in seaside towns is a bit deeper than that.

From: Mark Hempshell 03 May 2017 08:28 AM

Good point on the loans issue Sue. But I'm guessing the cost of referencing for a loan increases the cost of it and it would be the same with rents too. Customer pays the cost one way or another.

From: Mark Hempshell 03 May 2017 08:24 AM

I think this is one of the purposes of an unscheduled election is it not? You can throw away all your bad ideas (as well as all your promises) and then start again with a clean sheet.

From: Mark Hempshell 25 April 2017 08:42 AM

Landperson anyone?

From: Mark Hempshell 21 April 2017 08:55 AM

Fully agree. HMOs are going to look even more attractive to investors than they already do.

From: Mark Hempshell 20 April 2017 09:06 AM

Aren't you supposed to survey before saying a new measure will be brought in, not after you've announced it? Wrong way round surely.

From: Mark Hempshell 11 April 2017 10:45 AM

58% is a pretty good figure I think? The challenge for landlords and agents is to try and rent your property to that 58%.

From: Mark Hempshell 11 April 2017 10:41 AM

It might be helpful here to state what the objectives of The Nationwide Foundation are. They're maybe not quite as pro-landlord and lettings industry as this piece makes them sound.

From: Mark Hempshell 29 March 2017 09:56 AM

The 'short let police'. Now there's an idea.

From: Mark Hempshell 22 March 2017 08:56 AM

My gosh, do people really need to be told a site where buy people buy and sell old junk isn't the place to find a good tenant?

From: Mark Hempshell 16 March 2017 09:06 AM

Good point. And let's remember the general principle of disruptive platforms like BNB is to break existing rules, not make new ones.

From: Mark Hempshell 08 March 2017 09:09 AM

AirBNB being put forward as a paragon of good practice. Oh dear.

From: Mark Hempshell 07 March 2017 09:13 AM

Basically the explanation is this: We can see you're making money - we want some of it.

From: Mark Hempshell 07 March 2017 09:11 AM

But where are these well connected urban sites though?

From: Mark Hempshell 27 February 2017 09:26 AM

Just when you think it can't get more ridiculous, it does.

From: Mark Hempshell 09 February 2017 09:03 AM

Fully agree yes. Instead of tenants paying the fees up front they will be paying them hidden in the rent month after month after month. Tenants who move often might benefit I suppose, but this hardly sits well with the idea of 3 year tenancies - those people could end up paying the most.

From: Mark Hempshell 08 February 2017 10:01 AM

This institutional Build to Rent 'drive' all sounds a bit like something out of the Soviet era rather than Britain 2017. What's gone wrong?

From: Mark Hempshell 06 February 2017 12:58 PM

Optimistic 'business as usual' stories like this are nice of course. But if the BTL market doesn't react isn't there always the risk the Govt will see that there is more money to be made from landlords, and tighten taxes and allowances even further?

From: Mark Hempshell 03 February 2017 13:17 PM

One of the complaints levelled against agency fees was that they were not transparent. Under the new system they'll be completely invisible as they'll be hidden in the rent every month. How is that an improvement?

From: Mark Hempshell 07 December 2016 09:18 AM

I'd like to think that the Government actually HAD a policy of any kind towards the PRS. The truth is, they probably don't have one at all.

From: Mark Hempshell 21 November 2016 09:01 AM

90 days a year - so just occasional lettings then. Not the kind of serviced accommodation business that some AirBNBers are operating.

From: Mark Hempshell 18 November 2016 09:20 AM

And first time buyers will buy up all those rental properties cheap and everyone will live happily ever after. Or maybe not.

From: Mark Hempshell 16 November 2016 08:58 AM

The headline of this report suggests it's illegal for a landlord to also be a letting agent????

From: Mark Hempshell 11 November 2016 09:16 AM

Totally agree with this. But it's such an easy-to-use and well established yardstick. What other formula(e) could be used to better calculate returns?

From: Mark Hempshell 09 November 2016 10:05 AM

An odd kind of survey don't you think and I'm not really sure if it tells us anything useful. A leasehold property can still be occupied by an owner-occupier and a freehold property can still be let out .... and both frequently are.

From: Mark Hempshell 04 November 2016 09:22 AM

A situation where a landlord can only regain a property if they wish to live in it themselves is not the basis of a modern lettings market. It is more akin to something from the 1800s. The idea of the tenancy reforms in the late 1980s was to create a modern, competitive property lettings market where landlords could let their property with the confidence they would not end up with an unwanted sitting tenant for decades. And also one where tenants could vote with their feet and move freely and easily to the best deals. The system kind of works as intended. If anything it is the wider property market that is broken, not the lettings market.

From: Mark Hempshell 02 November 2016 09:08 AM

The ever-so-slight flaw in this idea is that if investors couldn't regain their property easily they wouldn't let it out in the first place, as happened prior to 1989.

From: Mark Hempshell 01 November 2016 08:50 AM

Exactly. Govts recent policies are putting property in the hands of a different kind of investor, which may bring its own set of problems in future.

From: Mark Hempshell 31 October 2016 08:50 AM

"By driving rogue landlords that flout the rules out of business, we are raising rents and giving tenants the protection they need." Great news for landlords who abide by the rules then.

From: Mark Hempshell 19 October 2016 08:34 AM

Smart investors have known this for years!

From: Mark Hempshell 14 October 2016 09:01 AM

There is a certain amount of truth in this I suppose. Landlords who aren't faced with rising costs will be happy to keep the status quo and won't want to raise their rents. But are there really any landlords who aren't faced with rising costs?

From: Mark Hempshell 14 October 2016 08:58 AM

There's obviously a market for these short term lettings. I find it odd that no one has found a way of properly catering for what could be a huge business opportunity.

From: Mark Hempshell 10 October 2016 08:47 AM

The Autumn Statement or Budget 2017 is going to be a VERY interesting one for investors. (Not that I have any inside information, just guessing!)

From: Mark Hempshell 05 October 2016 09:28 AM

I would imagine a survey like this shows Blackburn has the best yield improvement mainly because it is pretty much the cheapest place in England to buy property. It might be a good investment, but I would suggest investors ask letting agents about demand and the local market conditions before diving in on the basis of attractive yields.

From: Mark Hempshell 27 September 2016 11:28 AM

A good point. Renting through Air BNB is a bit like hailing a minicab or private hire on the streets. It's cheaper for a reason. But doesn't all this demand for apartments by the day indicate that there is an unexploited business opportunity going begging here?

From: Mark Hempshell 22 September 2016 09:43 AM

So if you save £500 on rent a month you can save £6,000 a year towards a deposit. So it will take about 15 years to save the deposit for an average London house, by which time it won't be enough for a deposit anymore. Puzzled???

From: Mark Hempshell 21 September 2016 09:48 AM

But doesn't London lag just about everywhere in terms of yields anyway? So what's new really?

From: Mark Hempshell 03 August 2016 09:23 AM

Ermm sorry, but wouldn't a property extended to 'accommodate large numbers of students' be a HMO and hence come under existing HMO legislation? Why pick on landlords yet again? (If anything it's the non-landlord extensions that should be scrutinised more closely.)

From: Mark Hempshell 29 July 2016 11:42 AM

It's all a bit more complicated than that though, isn't it? There are thousands of places around the country where an average London rent will buy you a very nice house. Unfortunately they don't have jobs that pay London wages. If anything that creates a bigger letting market in London and elsewhere not a smaller one.

From: Mark Hempshell 22 July 2016 08:57 AM

Surely when the Govt. is planning the Budget they think through all the possible implications very carefully don't they? Surely? OK, well maybe not then.

From: Mark Hempshell 11 July 2016 09:35 AM

Totally agree, but unfortunately not many people have the courage to come out and say this. The good news is that there are plenty of places outside London that still offer scope - lower prices, better yields and good rental prospects too. (Look ooop north for starters!)

From: Mark Hempshell 27 June 2016 10:15 AM

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