I came across this very useful business directory that has listings of local businesses by region and business type. A very useful alternative to Yell which only lists paid advertisements.

The site is www.citylocal.co.uk and the manchester business directory can be found at  http://www.citylocal.co.uk/cities/Manchester/.

 Happy hunting!

Darren Shaughnessy, Director Kings Residential, Estate Agents in Manchester  and Letting Agents in Manchester writes:

I have heard many people say recently that the buy to let property (BTL) market is dead. I don’t believe that this is true. In a nervous market where lenders are less willing to offer credit the industry needs to be realistic. Realistic prices need to be demanded by the developers, realistic rents need to be expected, and the investors need to be realistic and consider a BTL investment as a long term investment. There are few quick and easy gains to be had and the adverts promising to make you a property millionaire overnight are a little exaggerated!

Property is and always will be a good long-term investment. In the long-term property prices have always increased. In difficult times you just need to hang in there and wait for prices to rise again. Those that rode out the crash in the 1980′s saw huge profits. This is a relatively minor lull by comparison.

Landlords who have done their research and are subsidising their mortgages by topping up their rental income and have budgetted for this subsidy are likely to see good gains in the long run. Those that have not budgetted and cannot cope with the shortfall may become another reposession statistic.

The buy to let market is not dead, but a few in the indutry are sleeping!

Darren Shaughnessy, Director Kings Residential, Estate Agents in Manchester  and Letting Agents in Manchester writes:

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) Announced that repossessions of mortgaged properties increased to 27,100 in 2007 up from 22,400 in 2006. Whilst there were more mortgaged properties in 2007 than in 2006 the repossession rate rose from 19 per 10,000 mortgaged properties in 2006 to 23 per 10,000 mortgaged properties in 2007.

The CML predicts that the rate will increase further in 2008.

My view is that they are probably right. Quite a few buy-to-let landlords have over stretched themselves and I think that 2008 is the year that repossessions of buy to let properties will peak. Some landlords have been funding their losses by re-mortgaging their properties. With the well publicised credit crunch biting hard re-mortgages of recently purchased buy to let properties will be harder to come by.

The days of using the mortgage lenders money to pay off the interest are over! Those property investors who have carefully planned their investments and take a long-term view of the market should do really well in the long-run.

Darren Shaughnessy, Director Kings Residential, Estate Agents in Manchester  and Letting Agents in Manchester writes:

We all know that property prices are high. They are high in that they have become unaffordable to the lower income earners which in a city like Manchester is most of the population. I have heard media speculation that prices are over inflated by as much as 40%. The danger is assuming that this applies uniformly across all towns, villages and suburbs.

There are new developments in some areas that are too expensive in my view. Where developers are charging £150,000 for a 3 bed house in an area where the average income is £10,000 per annum and the local kids are smashing up cars it is clear to me that these prices are too high.

The problem in my view is that the new build property boom of late has been fuelled largely by property investors. This has artificially kept the prices high in some areas and kept the first time buyer out of the market. First time buyers are essential to the long-term sustainability of the housing market. They are the plankton of the housing market.

The answer it would seem is to get first time buyers back in the market place. This can only happen if there is an increase in affordable housing and this means having landlord free zones. If the local authorities had the will power they could insist that for every property that is sold to a buy to let investor they have to build a property in a zone that has been designated landlord free. If it were illegal to rent out properties in certain small pockets the prices would have to be set at a level that is affordable to the local population and some housing would be reserved for the first time buyer.

Darren Shaughnessy, Director Kings Residential, Estate Agents in Manchester  and Letting Agents in Manchester writes:

The housing market received a welcome but modest boost today as the Bank of England reduced interest rates against the backdrop of depressed levels of property sales.

The Estate Agency business has seen a significant reduction in the number of property sales in the last few months as the media talks down property prices but we have not seen significant reductions in prices. In the city centres, where buy-to-let investors have bought 90% of all properties and where most properties have purchased in the last couple of years, there is no room for discounting prices as there has been no equity growth over this period.  There have been repossessions of properties from buy-to-let investors who have over-extended themselves and in some areas there have been enough repossessions to affect the market values of properties.   

 In the suburbs where property owners are funding their mortgages based on affordability against stable incomes rather than optimistic rental returns there is no sign of an increase in forced sales. There may be the occasional property that is reduced because the vendors really want to sell quickly and to be assured of a fast sale drop the price. However, there are not enough of these to dramatically affect the prices of property in the suburbs. In most cases the vendors want the full market price and are not prepared to drop the prices. In a market with nervous buyers fearing uncertainty, this leads to stagnation of the market and that is what we are seeing now.

As an estate agent I would love to see a 40% drop in prices as this would stimulate the first time buyer market and kick start property sales which would mean increased property sale commissions. The reality is that without some external factor(s) to increase the number of forced property sales, their will be no widespread fall in prices.

The reduction in interest rates is likely to increase confidence slightly so may have a positive effect on the market. It will certainly help those buy to let landlords struggling to meet the gap between the rental yields and the mortgage payments but will it stimulate property sales? I think that in the suburbs it will a little. In high density buy to let zones I don’t believe it will make any difference.

The thing that will stimulate property sales will be affordable lower-end property prices and this does not appear to be close to the horizon.