It must have been about 15 years ago when I realised that some people who declare themselves as being property investors need to think again, as they seem to be on ‘thin ice’. I recall one lady, who had told me she was an estate agent, had asked me ‘what’s yield’ when I mentioned the term to an audience at a property networking event. The facial expressions that night from some other members of the audience at her comment was ‘open mouthed’.
Having met and spoken with hundreds of investors and landlords at property events over many years, unfortunately I would say that individual was not alone in lacking some basic knowledge about property investing fundamentals. Compared to 20 or so years ago, acquiring and developing a portfolio of buy to let properties is more complex nowadays, due to various factors including ever more regulatory requirements and of course taxation. As such it really is important to ensure you understand the basic principles and regularly update your knowledge about investing trends and regulatory requirements.
We recently exhibited at the Property Investor Show at London Excel and once again a number of companies were exhibiting and whose business is to provide education and training for property investors. One organisation who attended the event was the Property Investors Bureau (PIB) and they run an accreditation scheme for property educators which also has a redress scheme to handle customer complaints. The PIB recently held its second annual gathering in Mayfair, London where a range of property educators and related service providers attended the event to talk about current market trends and to openly share ideas about best practice.
I subsequently spoke to two of the accredited members of the PIB’s ‘Property Educators Accreditation Service’ to gauge their opinions on what property investors now need to consider in order to make buy-to-let work successfully in 2024 and beyond. To be clear, both these individuals are very experienced landlords and investors themselves with portfolios created over many years.
