Hello readers. I thought that I would kick off this week’s update by saying a big happy birthday to Captain (now Colonel) Tom, who is 100 today and has raised around £30m for the NHS as they fight the war against COVID-19.

Please join me by adding your congratulations to Colonel Tom as well as thanks to all those who are putting their lives on the line in the war against COVID-19. Our key workers are doing such a fantastic job and I have personally been so very inspired by their many stories of passion, dedication and devotion over the last few weeks.

As we turn to property, I am pleased to let you know that I have finalised an in-depth, essential guide to help you when handling any rental payment holiday requests from tenants. A number of landlords that I have gone through the guide with have found it extremely helpful, so I thought I would make it available for you to download here.

The past week has been an upbeat one in terms of the UK property market. Following last week’s positive news in relation to the rental market, I have been reading about how some of the big lenders have begun to make it easier for people to qualify for a loan over the past few days.

For example, Nationwide have now resumed their 85% LTV product and Halifax have also resumed their 85% LTV products. Other examples are how Virgin Money have increased their maximum loan size from £300,000 to £500,000.

Is this perhaps a sign that things are beginning to return to normal quicker than most people initially thought? I’m not sure but it is certainly an optimistic outlook!

Interestingly, whilst the sales market has stalled significantly over the past few months, we do not seem to have seen a significant drop in house prices (yet) as many were predicting. We still have a long way to go, and no one knows how deep the effects of the pause will hit when the economy begins to re open up again. So I think this is one to watch, and if there is to be a major fall expect to start seeing signs over the next few months.

Earlier this week, I read an interesting article which quoted Nick Sherratt, Managing Director of online mortgage broker, Mojo Mortgages talking about how there have not yet been any significant movements to house prices. Here is a short section of Sherratt’s quote that I found to be particularly encouraging:

“From a purchase perspective, I am not expecting any significant movements in the short term. We are seeing purchase transactions going ahead… I think once lockdown ends, we will naturally see a spike in transactions, where people have been waiting to try and get their homes in place.”

For property investors, whilst we do have some way to go, this news comes as a welcome relief. For those who are needing to remortgage, raise finance or carrying out a flip this news should mean that their end value calculations are likely to be less affected than they may have first thought.

For those in the process of selling, this update means that you should hold out on your sale price and not consider any reductions (unless you need to sell, or have identified better opportunities) yet as the market does not seem to have reflected any significant changes.

So that’s it for this update. I hope you are all staying safe and sane during these crazy times!

Hasan