Well, what a year so far, I have already spoken about the decline in the housing / sales market, what effect is this having on lettings ?

We are now seeing the effect of a major over stock of properties to let, mostly consisting of houses that are not selling, those agents previously active in the sales market seem to be carrying the majority of this over stock on their rental books. In real terms there are only so many rental deals to be done in this area so the market now appears to be spread very thinly between agents.

What does this mean ? Effectively no one agent that has started their lettings in the last 12 months is likely to make any major impact.

What does the effect of over stock of properties mean ? Simply that properties to let that are realistically priced will continue to let and those that are overpriced will not.

Let us assume the Sales market will probably return to its former stability in 12 - 18 months when the market finds its lowest point and lending facilities return together with some degree of market confidence. At this stage any successful letting agency will need a managed portfolio of 100+ to retain a profit in this sector. Those who have an agency below this figure with a high mix of let only business will find it tough and will have to reconsider their position.

So, choose your letting agent with care, remember cheap fees usually mean cheap service, we manage in excess of 500 properties and are actively looking to expand further, but all in good time.

I predict that in 2010 we will be back where we were 10 years ago, helping our clients to build their long term buy to let portfolios, remember everything works in cycles and being a landlord is long term…………….Rich………………..oh, and start saving , I will let you know when to start building your new portfolio. But you will need to be one of our clients !

A big up to Pierre, Andre and the boys at Bleriot for putting on a cracking day of golf on at Brickendon a couple of weeks ago. In all they managed to raise over £ 7,000 for two local charities.

We were pleased to win the team competition with a combined score of 119 points, our team consisted of me, tony, ben and matt juniper. The oatsey boys were well gutted but that is life, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes you should pay more attention, hey ho ! Up the ADL all stars !

A big up to David Beckham who came in to the office yesterday, we are helping him build up a lettings portfolio for his boys, anyway we had a bit of laugh and ending up having a penalty shoot out in the car park. Unfortunately David slipped up on a rotten banana skin at sudden death and took out the chinese chef from the Taste of China.

Good luck with the twisted ankle David - hope you are back playing soon.