Background to Buy To Let

Time and time again you read about the Buy-To-Let revolution. People talk of Buy To Let emerging in the mid 90's but Property Investment has been around for a long, long time...well before the 90's. It could be argued that Property Investment was around when the first houses were ever built.

The point in explaining the above is simple: it is easy to be fooled into believing that a person has all the answers AND that no one else knows what he/she knows....that person may then charge you several hundred or thousands of pounds for his/her knowledge. The art of being a good Property Investor or Property Developer is all around you...and its free. Look on your favourite search engine: Google, MSN, Yahoo, Excite, Tiscali, Ask....the secrets are easy to find.

So why a Property Phenomenon?

In 1995 The Association of Residential Letting Agents publicised 'property letting' using a new term, the term being called 'Buy To Let'. However, the buy to let phenomenon did not occur with the term Buy To Let it occurred because the AST (Assured Shorthold Tenancy) was introduced.

The AST gave both the landlord and the tenant assurance of the tenancy, and by doing this gave the added assurance to the banks and building societies to lend.....and lend they did...at phenomenal rates and based on simplified criteria.

In summary two parts to the Buy To Let initiative:-

1) Assured Shorthold Tenancy

2) Buy To Let mortgage based on expected rental income NOT the applicant(s) personal income.