ARLA: www.arla.co.uk

Council of Mortgage Lenders’ buy to let guides: www.cml.org.uk

Landlord Mortgages: www.lml.co.uk

The Move Channel: www.investment-property.themovechannel.com

Related Internet Links

• Property guides

A guide to househunting on the web

Househunting goes high-tech: technology is transforming the way we search for our next home. Our buyers test-drive top property websites

• A step-by-step guide to selling your home

• Gumtree founder, Simon Crookall, puts his £1.5m home for sale online

BACKGROUND

• Why can’t we sell our home?

• ‘I didn’t want a profit; I just wanted out’

• How to sell your home in a hurry

BACKGROUND

• Overseas property: where, how and what to buy

• How to get onto the property ladder

• Guide to buying above a shop

BACKGROUND

• How to sell your home

• Buying a property at auction

• Home improvement

• Eco homes

• Step-by-step guide to buying your first property

Related Links

• Buy-to-let: a step-by-step guide

National Landlords Association: www.landlords.org.uk

Jargon buster

HMO: a House in Mulitple Occupation - a house or flat which is let to three or more tenants who form two or more households and who share a kitchen, bathroom or toilet. If you are the landlord of an HMO you must purchase a license from your local council. The cost of the license is at the discretion of the council – fees range from £250 to £1,100.

Libor: the London Interbank Offered Rate. This is the rate at which banks lend to each other, and influences how much borrowers pay for their mortgages.

Loan-to-value: the LTV is the ratio of the amount you are permitted to borrow to the value of the house. Traditionally, buy-to-let lenders offered LTVs of no more than 70 per cent; today it is possible to get an LTV of 90 per cent.

Rental cover: With a standard residential mortgage, a bank will consider your income when determining how much it is prepared to lend; with a buy-to-let loan, rental cover is key. Traditionally banks have asked for rental cover of 125 per cent – in other words, your monthly rent should be 125 per cent of the monthly interest repayment. Recently, rental cover requirements have been relaxed, and it is now possible to obtain a loan with rental cover of 110 or even 100 per cent.

Voids: Void periods are those when the investment property is not let: it should be every landlord’s aim to key voids as low as possible.

Yields: the gross yield is the return on a property before costs; the net yield is the return once costs have been deducted.