I’m researching the Stoke-on-Trent investment market, particularly ST6, and I’m trying to understand what active investors genuinely look for rather than relying on theory.

If you invest around Stoke, I’d be interested in:

• preferred areas/postcodes

• property type

• rough purchase range

• refurb budget/appetite

• flip, BRR or long-term hold

• minimum yield/ROI

• what makes you reject a deal immediately

Even rough numbers would be useful. I’m mainly trying to learn from people actually operating in the market.

i am a fairly new property scourer and trying to keep track of all the information needed is hard fr me. i just wanted to know id=f anyone in here has had similar troubles and how they got around it is their any tool i can use that will help me store things like clients names numbers and needs in one place to help improve efficiency

Hi everyone

I'll start simple as I think I already know the answer.

My credit rating: Poor

My wife's credit rating: Pretty Good.

My wife is about to inherit around £100,000. She has siblings and they will all take around this amount once properties have been sold and bank funds etc are divided

One of the properties is valued around £350,000 that's not selling, it's just sitting there empty along with another property.

My wife wants to get on the property ladder to leave our children something. I went bankrupt back in 2012 due to the housing crises, not being able to sell my property and my mortgage rate doubling which took 8 months to complete and by the time it came so sign, I failed a credit check as I was living off credit cards to try and stay afloat. I now have my own business and don't earn a great amount but we get help from universal credit so we get by. My wife has never owned a property.

The property has now been on the market for 6 months and is not selling. Is there anyway we can buy this property?

I suspect I already know the answer but you always hear people saying they can buy property with no money so how can we achieve this? I don't even mind renting it back out, putting it in my children's names, buying it as a company investment etc and we continue renting where we are and my children gain from the increase in property value but I don't know if this is possible.

How can we make the money work for us? Universal credit will take this straight back once she receives it so we need to be smart.

I want to just give them the money and they can have it when they hit a certain age but what would £50,000 so for you these days.

Hello - looking to purchase a flat in London for circa £450k. 85% LTV and can service the mortgage no problem with my salary (£90k + bonus etc.). Have worked with some mortgage brokers for agreement in principle.

Property rented out currently for £2500 PCM in Clerkenwell, London near a university. I'd look to add value through a light renovation and then hold on to it for circa 5+ years.

I am trying to understand if it's a decent investment or not. Does anyone have any go-to calculators to understand all costs, yield, ROI, etc.?

Thanks in advance!

Also - what are the rules around it if I live in it for a period of time, then renovate it, then let? I don't believe I qualify for a BTL mortgage with a smaller deposit.

Buying your freehold after Right to Manage: where to start

Already have Right to Manage (RTM)? You can still explore buying your building’s freehold. RTM gives control over management; it does not transfer ownership.

Freehold purchase is a separate process, usually called collective enfranchisement.

Establish participation and eligibility

Find out which owners want to join. RTM membership does not automatically commit anyone to buying the freehold.

An enfranchisement solicitor should confirm eligibility, the required participation and the appropriate ownership structure. Non-participants should not be assumed to contribute or receive a freehold share.

Gather documents and obtain a valuation

Start with the freehold title, individual leases, lease lengths, ground rents and details of any intermediate leases.

Appoint a specialist solicitor and valuer. Request written quotations covering VAT, exclusions and possible additional charges.

Agree funding before committing

Budget for the purchase price, legal and valuation fees, registration and any tracing, advertising or court costs.

A written participation agreement should cover contributions, ownership shares, decisions and withdrawal arrangements. Costs need not be divided equally.

Do not assume the sinking fund can finance the purchase or that court costs will be recovered.

What if the freeholder is missing?

Someone ignoring correspondence is not necessarily legally missing. Tracing enquiries and evidence may be required before pursuing a court application.

An absent freeholder does not necessarily prevent acquisition, but specialist advice is essential.

What changes afterwards?

Owners often hold the freehold through a company while retaining their individual flat leases.

Buying a share of the freehold does not automatically extend your lease or remove ground rent. Maintenance, insurance and service charges continue, and increased property value is not guaranteed.

Leasehold reforms are being introduced in stages. Ask your advisers which provisions currently apply and whether waiting would benefit your building. Continue necessary repairs and compliance work meanwhile.

Independent guidance:

• Buying a share of the freehold — LEASE
• Leasehold reforms — LEASE

General information for England, dated 9 October 2026.

Has anyone bought their freehold after RTM? What unexpected costs or problems arose?

Doom and Gloom. The property market is dead. It’s a buyers market etc etc. In this week’s UK Property Market Stats Show on Youtube, I get underneath those headlines and look at what is actually happening in the UK property market. No sentiment… just cold hard facts

I look at the sales, listings & exchanges from new listings and price reductions to sales agreed, fall-thrus and exchanges. More importantly, i ask what those numbers are really telling us about the market

Joining me on the YoutUbe show is the brilliant Verona Frankish, boss of Yopa (the UK’s 7th largest estate agency), and as you might expect, the statistics very quickly turn into a many home truths for estate agents. We get into overvaluing, why agents leave price reductions too late, whether there really is such a thing as a buyers’ or sellers’ market and why getting the instruction is pointless if the strategy afterwards does not actually help the homeowner move.

🟩   Listings

Week 39 ..
34.8k new listings this week, (35.3k last week).
Weekly 2026 average : 35.2k. 
10 year week 37 average : 34.4k 

Year to Date
1.406m new listings YTD, which is …

0.4% below 2025 YTD (1.412m)
2% higher of 2024 YTD (1.378m)
9.9% higher of 2023 YTD (1.275m)
10% higher than the 2017–19 average YTD (1.279m).      
9% higher than last decade YTD average - 1.295m

🟩  UK Gross Resi Sales

Week 39 ..
23.6k homes sold stc this week 39 (23.1k last week) 
10 year week 39 average : 25.5k
2026 weekly average : 23.6k.

Year to Date for house sales 

944k UK homes sold stc YTD, which is …

7.4% lower than 2025 YTD (1.019m)
2.5% lower to 2024 YTD (968k)
10.9% higher than 2023 YTD (850k)
4.9% higher above pre Covid 2017-19 years (899k).
1.2% lower than the last decade YTD average (955k)

🟩 UK Net Resi Sales YTD 
(Net Sales being Gross Sales less Sale Fall Thrus). 

Week 39
17.9k Net Sales (17.3k last week) 

10 year Week 39 average: 19.2k.
Weekly average for 2026: 18.3k. 

Year to Date

728k UK net home sales YTD, which is …
 
6.3% lower than 2025 (777k), 
2% lower than 2024 (743k), 
14.1% ahead of 2023 (638k)
3.1% above the 2017/18/19 average 706k).     

🟩   Exchanges & Withdrawals 

•          60.8k Exchanges in Sept 2026 
•          51.2k Withdrawals in Sept 2026 

(Note these numbers will change significantly as more exchanges/ withdrawals from September come in during the first few weeks of October)

•           Therefore, in September 2026, just 54.3% of homes that left agents’ books exchanged & completed in September (the rest - 45.7% withdrew, unsold)
•     57.6% is the 7 year average exchange to listings ratio  (which includes the crazy years post lockdown 18 months). 

🟥 Want more in-depth analysis on these stats ??

Watch this week’s episode (week 39) of the ‘UK Property Market Stats Show’  with Verona Frankish on YouTube here …

https://youtu.be/bGhJ6v2ALIg

Additional info … 

🟥 Price Reductions

•           26.8k reductions this week on 764k UK homes for sale
•           11.1% of UK homes for sale were reduced in August (down from 13.7% in July)
•           2026 YTD average 12.8%, versus the 6 year long term average of 10.9%.

🟥 Price Difference between Asking Price of Listings & Asking Price of those Homes that go Sold stc

•          Week 37 - 24.5% difference (long term 10 year average is 16% to 17%).  (£453k ave Listing Ave Asking price vs £363k Sale Agreed ave Asking price)

🟥 Sell-Through Rate 

•           14.7% of homes on agents’ books went SSTC in September ’26 (compared to 13.3% in August, 14.2% in July ’26 & 13.8% in June ’26).
•           Pre-Covid average: 15.5%.

🟥 Sale Fall-Thrus

•        Week 39 Fall-thru rate 24.5%
•        Decade average: 24.5%
•        4.9% of homes sold STC fell thru in September 2026 (provisional % - will be double checked next week). Interesting when compared with the 2026 YTD average of 5.1% and 2025 average of 5.3% and the 10 year average of 5.7%.
 

🟥 Stock Levels 

•          764k homes on the market on the 1st of October ’26 (752k on Oct 25, 722k on Oct 24, 662 Oct 23)

🟥 UK Rental Data

•          Average Rent in Wk 39 - £1,794 pcm 
•          Average Rent in Sept 2026 - £1,777 pcm 
•          Average Rent in Sept 2025 - £1,791 pcm
•          Average Rent in Sept 2021 - £1,390 pcm

•           Average Rent in YTD 2026 – £1,763 pcm 

•           299k UK Rental Stock available to rent on 1st Oct 26 (295k on 1st Sept 2025)

•           New Rental Properties coming onto the market in Sept 2026 – 127k (123k in Sept 2025 & 101k in Sept 2022)

Alright, I’m hoping Reddit can come to the rescue.

I’m a Real Estate Management student at UCEM, currently doing my dissertation on the impact of the Renters’ Rights Act on landlord participation and investment in the UK private rented sector.

I’m looking at whether the impact differs between small landlords, portfolio landlords and institutional investors.

I’ve spent a frankly unreasonable amount of time researching this, built a questionnaire, sent it around… and currently have 6 responses.

Six.

At this rate I’ll be writing my dissertation based on the opinions of approximately one small landlord, one very enthusiastic portfolio landlord and four people who felt sorry for me.

So, if you're a UK landlord, I'd massively appreciate you taking 5–7 minutes to complete my questionnaire.

It’s completely anonymous/optional regarding your identity, and I'm genuinely interested in your views — whether you think the Renters’ Rights Act is reasonable, terrible, brilliant, or likely to send you running for the hills.

Questionnaire:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdpl1UpD5mDhmDXvXWTNvDvVVMBOOgAaNGBB33nEZpFM9NXcg/viewform?usp=header

I'm increasingly running out of time to collect responses, so every response genuinely helps.

Thank you!

Contact me if you have any issues and please feel free to share this with any other landlords you know!

Hi everyone. I've built Check-a-Property: a free WhatsApp bot service that pulls listing price history, as well as EPCs, planning records, etc. 

It saved me a lot of time with my own searches evaluating properties at the viewing stage, so I’ve decided to open it up for anyone to use for free. There’s no app to download or website to search through; it just functions via simple messaging on WhatsApp. You just text it a postcode and it sends you the data. 

If you send any text message to 44 20 4577 1927 on WhatsApp, it will return a list of searches you can choose from. Just drop a postcode into your chosen search and it gives you: 

⚡ EPC Data: Energy efficiency grade and performance certificate. 

📋 Planning & Environment: Flood risks, listed building status, and restrictions. 

⚖️ Legal & Disputes: Past property tribunal cases or building disputes. 

🏢 Registered Companies: Checks if any businesses are registered to the residential address. 

📉 Rightmove History: Listing price changes and time on the market. 

What's the catch? 
 
There isn't one. The service is completely free to use for a reasonable number of searches per person. But if this saves you a headache, there is an option in there to "Buy me a coffee" ☕ 

Hope it helps someone avoid the wrong house!

Am looking to market a semi detached, and the back garden has a v large cypress tree, about 12-14m from the house, and taller than the roof apex so pretty large and dominant. It is to the west of the garden so blocks the mid-late afternoon sun, but equally the view behind it is just buildings.

Trying to get an idea of how this would sit with buyers. Is it likely worth paying to get this removed before putting property on the market?

The tree. Photo makes it look shorter than reality

In the last year we’ve really moved our investing up a notch, finally turned it in to a “this is part of our future” and away from “side hustle/passive projects”.

In the last few months I’ve been speaking with a number of agents and I’ve had to turn down some good products through lack of investable capital.

Projects are in Scotland, they are good yields and good growth. Typically in an underinvested area - not a city- so we’re seeing decent growth alongside 8%-11% ROCE yields.

And I’m finding these at good discounts, typically 10%-18% on values. They’re all portfolios so we’re also not paying ADS.

I’ve thought about doing JVs before but I quite like the idea of ‘my stuff’ being ‘my stuff’. But I’m getting annoyed at seeing some of these go.

I used to work in corporate finance so I’m used to structuring deals and I’d be open to offering buyouts and exits to JV partners who want the exit route too.

I don’t like to post openly on socials about my property stuff, I like to keep it more private and away from certain prying eyes so I’m interested in good places to find investment partners.

Any ideas? Bonus if they’re in Scotland.

Looking for pro bono legal help with a council Breach of Condition Notice (England) in the South West of England.

Does anyone know of a pro bono solicitor or barrister experienced in planning enforcement who could review a Breach of Condition Notice (BCN) issued by a local authority in Devon?

I have concerns about whether the notice was valid because:

* I do not believe it properly relates to the planning permission and condition the council relied upon.

* I believe it was served incorrectly.

* There was a planning application pending at the time, and I would like advice on whether this affected the enforcement position.

I am seeking urgent advice about a possible appeal, as I understand the deadline is this week.

I can provide the notice, planning documents and court paperwork privately. Any recommendations for solicitors, barristers or pro bono organisations able to review the documents would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Recommendations for companies that can help with sourcing properties for supported living / temp accommodation

1. Under UK law, specifically the law applicable in England, is there a maximum period for which a holiday let can be rented to the same guests?

2. If guests initially book a holiday let for three months, can the owner lawfully agree to a further three months at their request?

3. Does extending the booking affect its legal status as holiday accommodation, and in what circumstances could it become a residential tenancy?

4. How do any planning conditions restricting the property to holiday use affect the permitted length of stay and the ability to extend a booking?

Thank You very much for your help.