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The guide - top ten: How to land a trouble-free tenancy
13/12/2008
EACH week The Scotsman gives you a top ten guide to pertinent financial issues.
Lower rental costs are giving more young, employed adults still living in the family home a chance to secure a place of their own, albeit as tenants.
David Alexander, proprietor of Edinburgh and Glasgow-based letting agency DJ Alexander, gives his top ten tips for first-time renters.
Summing up
28/11/2008
The agents for a double Victorian schoolhouse conversion in Aberfeldy, Perthshire, believe the sums on the development add up perfectly.
From boom to gloom
18/11/2008
David Alexander was among several politicians, officials and senior businessmen asked by The Scotsman to comment on the effects of the banking crisis on the economy of Edinburgh
Prepare to say farewell to all our Scottish fame
21/10/2008
DAVID ALEXANDER. There is no other way of saying this: the proposed takeover of HBoS by Lloyds TSB is a bad business idea, full stop. It is bad for employees, bad for customers, bad for Edinburgh and bad for the Scottish economy.
Lenders must take stock of housing
19/10/2008
DAVID ALEXANDER
THE boom years have ended and banks have got themselves into such a state that the Government has been forced to step in and save them.
Tenants can get extra
05/10/2008
By Greg Gordon
As an account manager for a company that specialises in training financial managers, Nicola Burrell might be expected to know a thing or two about investments. And after trading up to the point where she has built up a large reserve of equity in her Fife home, she says: “It’s a good time to step off the ladder and take stock.”
Top Ten - Survival guide for the reluctant landlord
04/10/2008
EACH week The Scotsman gives you a top ten guide to pertinent financial issues.
It is thought that most landlords now putting a property on to the rental market are not buy-to-let investors, but homeowners who have committed themselves to buying a new house and have failed to sell their present one.
In most cases the preference would have been to find a buyer and move on, so they have entered the rental market only as a last resort. David Alexander, sole proprietor of Edinburgh and Glasgow-based letting agent DJ Alexander, gives his top ten tips for "reluctant landlords".
RENTAL PROPERTY MARKET: The perfect property storm
30/09/2008
Housing market conditions have aligned in such a way as to send rents and demand for rental properties soaring
Home rental market now dominated by ‘reluctant landlords’
28/09/2008
By Nathalie Thomas
So is bank deal a safe bet?
25/09/2008
BILL JAMIESON on the proposed merger of HBOS and Lloyds TSB
Resi retreat
19/09/2008
Double-whammy
Three of the best places to view the Festival fireworks
28/08/2008
NO 1 GRASSMARKET
Worrying rise in rental defaults
23/08/2008
By DAVID ALEXANDER
FOR investors in buy-to-let properties these are, to quote Dickens, the best of times and the worst of times.
New-build flats – a paradox of supply and demand
11/08/2008
By DAVID ALEXANDER
When the BBC recently carried a report on Beetham Tower in Manchester, Britain’s tallest residential building, it said one-quarter of the flats were on the market. Across the Pennines, in Leeds, around 1,000 new flats were lying empty in the city centre – with more in the pipeline.
Rental demand soars as house buyers' dreams are shattered
05/08/2008
RIGSBY would be rubbing his hands with glee. The credit crunch is persuading more and more Scots to give up the dream of buying their own home and opting to rent instead.
GOOD DAY
19/07/2008
David Alexander
Park life
16/07/2008
SOME of Glasgow's finest buildings
Desperate’ builders turn to renting as house prices fall
16/07/2008
SCOTLAND'S faltering housing market is forcing estate agents and builders to move into letting properties instead of selling them.
Builders turn to rental market as sales fall
13/07/2008
By Rosemary Gallagher
HOUSEBUILDERS are turning to the rental sector in a bid to generate income from new properties they cannot sell.
Remember the 1990s housing crisis?This is a whole new ball game
13/06/2008
DAVID ALEXANDER, head of a letting and estate agency based in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Dubai
Gracious living
05/06/2008
A rare opportunity to buy into one of Glasgow’s most exclusive addresses has arisen with the conversion of 20 Park Terrace, situated overlooking the city skyline.
Landlords demand higher rent as hesitant buyers ride the credit crunch
11/05/2008
TENANTS are facing a 50% rent rise in Scotland's two biggest cities as landlords cope with rising demand for rented accommodation.
Ways for buy to let investors to avoid being crunched by the credit squeeze
26/04/2008
Purchased a buy to let investment lately and now wishing you had put your money under the mattress instead?
It's survival of the fittest for landlords in 'Parliament City'
09/04/2008
IT'S been a tough few years being a landlord in "Parliament City". Only a few years ago the market was at saturation point. Tenants were firmly in control. If you could present yourself as a good quality tenant, you were able to negotiate yourself a pretty good deal. Today, we see demand outstripping supply for the first time in a long while.
Housing crisis deepens as city rents soar 20%
07/04/2008
THE cost of renting property in Edinburgh has soared as the city's affordable housing crisis deepens.
Rental properties to the rescue of mortgage-starved couples
03/04/2008
Paul and Kelly Monds wanted to buy the flat they were renting in Edinburgh. But the couple were warned by their bank they would be unlikely to get a mortgage.
David Alexander gives a Sunday Times reader advice on timing
30/03/2008
I am keen to buy an investment property in central Scotland and can’t help but think that the current market conditions make this a lot easier today, than it might have been a year ago. However, I wonder whether I should hang on a bit longer. All the predictions seem to be that the market will get a lot slower yet.
GD West Lothian
Credit crunch may yet turn out to have a silver lining
20/03/2008
Between The Lines - By DAVID ALEXANDER
Priceless properties
09/03/2008
From THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
David Alexander's reader advice column in The Sunday Times
09/03/2008
I live in what was a very large Edwardian three bedroom house in Edinburgh. At some point all three bedrooms were divided. It is rather an ugly solution, but has created six rooms that can just about described as doubles. The property would be a lot more attractive is the dividing walls were taken down - do you think that there is any sense in doing this before I place the house on the market.
Even when targeted by the taxman, buy-to-let does pay
01/03/2008
As The Scotsman revealed last week, the taxman is about to "target" the buy-to-let market. But this should not have honest landlords shaking in their shoes.
Rate cuts will carry few over the threshold
26/01/2008
FUTURE interest-rate cuts by the Bank of England are unlikely to make buying a house any easier for borrowers because the credit crunch is making it more difficult for lenders to raise funds.
If you thought buying a house in Scotland was tough, just try securing a place in London
24/01/2008
Take heart if you have ever had problems securing your dream home. In Scotland we may have the uncertainties of the offers-over system to contend with but even experienced property experts can fall foul of the English system.
David Alexander's reader advice column in The Sunday Times
13/01/2008
I have just learned that my job is to be relocated, almost immediately, from Glasgow to London. I am minded to sell my flat - it is in a nice new development on the south side of the city. My question is, should I let it for six months and then market in May, or do you think that the return will be just as good it I market it in early January?