The spring of 2008 may be looked back at for solvent people who are prepared to take a measured risk as the best ever year for property buying.
With decreasing property prices(especially where a forced sale is involved),increased rent demand and money still available if you are prepared to look bargins can be had.
Gone (for a short while) is any capital growth, but buy right rent right and the yields are the best they have been for a long time.
Don't listen to the hawks from the tabloids and red tops!
Do your research look for hotspots and get your hands dirty, go for a purely yield base approach and hey presto the market is full of opportunities I currently have 10 props but I have remortgaged and I am out there selectively buying for yield and getting up to 27% on the cash invested, buying right will absorb the losses in the market which are still to come but come the turn round bang! you have captured the market at its weak point, property is still in short supply generally the economy is sound people are still moving for various reasons.
To just sit on your posterior and look into the future with the glumness of Gordon Brown at a labour party conference is a missed opportunity get digging get dealing.
the easy days have gone but the best days just may be out there!
A wise old saying swim against the fish
Ian Gibson

This reduction in buy-to-let mortgages is ridiculous.  At a time when more people are having to rent because they cant afford a mortgage, the lenders make it impossible to provide rental accommodation.

I have only one rental property which I have owned for 2 years now and my current mortgage deal is about to end.  Dropping onto the standard variable rate means a 40% increase in monthly payments so obviously its time to change the mortgage onto another deal.  Unfortunately THERE ARE NO ALTERNATIVE DEALS.

When I bought the property I obtained a mortgage with 90% loan to value and 100% rental income to mortgage payment.  I now have a much stronger loan to value of 70% yet the lenders are now asking for 135% rental income to mortgage payment.  135% is impossible to achieve therefore I have two options - sell the property or stay on the lenders variable rate for the time being.  Staying on the variable means I have to find £300 per month just to pay the difference from my rental income so there is really only one choice...

Anybody interested in a 2 bed apartment in West Yorkshire???

Andrew Saville

I am currently in the market and looking to buy to let as I think that this is the best buying opportunity that we have seen for years! My problem is knowing where to buy and how to work out yields etc...??
I have only been viewing properties for a week and have seen a reduction of up to 25% already in some cases!
People have to live somewhere!!

Andrews situation will be repeated throughout the uk.
The property game is a long term investment with interest rates playing a big part.
Here at Finance and Asset Leasing we ensure that the long term position is secure as possible which cleaerly Andrew did not plot, deals are available that would suit the above.
The funding market is  selfish and is not for the benefit of the borrower.
When buying property to let you have to consider the long term options and in the  same vein as looking at your future mother in law to see what your wife will turn out like, you have to see the less attractive side of the game and quantify those risks.
Andrew is in a pickle and has ended up with an ugly partner!however with a time and a bit of treatment she may turn out alright! get hold of a good broker like Swift finance and apply some plastic surgery
Ian Gibson

If you've got money to spare, there's never been a better opportunity to buy to let. The rental market is so strong at the moment, yet prices to buy are crashing. The trouble is, getting a buy-to-let mortgage is impossible at the moment. I own 2 buy-to-lets as well as my residential. I need to remortgage one in the near future, and I have the deposit to buy another property. Prices have fallen by £30,000 in some places I'm looking, but I can't even remortgage the one I've got, let alone buy another. In this market, prices can fall as low as they like. Nobody can get a mortgage, so they won't sell. People look to rent, landlords are unable to help, so what next? I think I'd better get my tent ordered. There might be a shortage soon.

The housing price reduction we are currently seeing is being distorted by the statistical skew caused by the number of house sales that are distressed sales the ordinary home owner is either not selling or keepink his/her price up however the repo/ auction sales are taking a bigger slice statistically and are thus not reflecting the normal sales it is effectively a two tier market if these anomolies could be seperated then you would see a different picture again its the old saying lies damn lies and statistics