Buy to lets can flourish as long as you have the right tenants

The buy to let market is set up for steady returns over the next few years as the housing market looks set to decline until 2010.

With falling house prices making returns on some properties more attractive the canny investor could add to or build a profitable portfolio that should remain lucrative for many years (at least until the banks forget how badly they’ve been burned by the current credit crunch).

For the short term rental properties should be quite rewarding as long as the landlord gets the right tenant into their property.

With the cost of living increasing, some tenants, like their mortgage paying neighbours, are going to start to find it tough to make rent payments on time, with the expectation of arrears set to increase in both sectors.

Therefore it is imperative that landlords do proper credit checks on their prospective tenants and have the right insurance cover in place to compensate for any legal matters that may arise.

With www.insuremyletproperty.co.uk we can offer legal expenses protection with the option to add rent guarantee cover to claim for lost rental income should you have to evict a tenant.

And as it takes an average of 6 months to go through the courts to obtain the eviction order it could leave landlords, without the insurance cover, some £6,000 out of pocket.

August 01^st 2008

• Woolwich cuts rate on BTL mortgage range
• Small falls in rates won’t help the housing market
• Let property investors benefiting from the credit crunch
• Investigation into Instant Access Properties Ltd (IAP)
• Housebuilders desperate, but not that desperate it seems
• Merger creates largest landlord association in the UK
• B and B still to pay for unsuccessful deal
• Prudence is the key for buy to let investors