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Hello, I have question for anyone who wants to contribute please.... How do you value a property in a 'hot' or quickly inflating market? For the last year or so, I have found it really challenging to confidently assess the value of residential property in the UK. The normal method I would use, which is mainly Rightmove/Zoopla sold prices for the street and immediately surrounding streets has started to bear very little resemblance to what properties are selling for in the current market. I started to pay more attention to the 'Under Offer' section on Rightmove to get a sense of buyer demand on pricing, but for most properties this is currently significantly higher than sold prices...showing that demand is causing fast inflation in most areas. I would previously usually ignore 'For Sale' prices as these are estate agent valuations, which are generally optimistic and often end up being negotiated down or reduced by the seller. However, it does seem in the current market that there are less properties being reduced in price than in previous years. As the majority of properties are bought with residential mortgages, RICS surveyors are obviously approving the valuations on these properties, even though they are often 10-30% higher than the previous sold prices in that local area. I would really like to get a better understanding of how this calculation is made. Are there certain tools, methods, formulas etc (other than the ones I mention in this post) that can be used to confidently tell that a property is correctly valued when it is priced significantly higher than previous sold prices in that area? I always used to ignore the Zoopla home values estimates https://www.zoopla.co.uk/home-values/ - these are so wide ranging that I felt I couldn't use them to accurately predict what most properties would sell for. However, recently I realised that they presumably include 'under offer' prices and some element of % market inflation into their value calculations...and now I am actually finding that the 'High' estimate in this tool is a closer indication to what most properties are selling for than using Rightmove sold prices. Do you include an element of market forecasting in the valuation, as a way of future proofing the risk? For example, if the Savills residential property forecast for that region shows a predicted 4% increase in the next year...would that be used as a buffer to offset the lack of proof available from sold prices due to the inflated value being paid for the property? It seems that as long as the mortgage deposit (e.g. a minimum of 10% for residential and 25% buy-to-let) is more than the uncertainty or margin of error around the valuation, that lenders are probably not too bothered about inflated values, because they know they could repossess the property and sell it for enough to cover their costs and profit? Obviously this scenario is very bad for the property owner who overpays and then has to sell but unfortunately one of the consequences of a housing crash. Finally, auction guide prices. These would usually be set at least 15-25% below what the same property would achieve on the open market, based on sold prices. However, I have recently looked at some new listings for upcoming auctions and many of the guide prices are higher than Rightmove sold prices for the area. This suggests to me that even the 'discount' end of the market is undergoing such strong inflation that valuing a property is more of a leap of faith than a considered calculation at the moment. How do you know that the prices properties are selling for are not overly inflated and would cause negative equity if the market crashes in the next few years? Obviously choosing high yielding BTL properties with the intention of holding them long term would mitigate this risk to a certain extent...but it would mean you wouldn't be able to remortgage to withdraw funds for further investment for potentially quite a long time. Any feedback and advice would be appreciated please. I am interested from both a BTL and flipping perspective, but also as a home owner. Many thanks, James

Hi guys so my journey in to property has taken a bit of a wild one, I am now managing about 5 properties with some family members and need advice on best way to insure them going forward. As the properties are in different names (all one family) would putting all the properties under a SPV be a good option in terms of getting discount for all being under same name? If not who would you recommend for several insurance deals (2 properties per person)? Had a little look online but as always I try to get the opinions of the guys in here.

Evening all Chris here, a UK expat in HK. I’ve got a few properties in the U.K. (mainly London at the moment but exploring options back home in my Northern homeland). I am looking to kick on with my investments to move away from my current career into property full time within c5 years. Keen to be connected to fellow HK investors to build my network, share ideas and explore collaboration opportunities. Look forward to hearing from you! Cheers Chris

Good day, I am an entry level property investor from South Africa and find your podcasts and discussions very informative. Due to the fluctuation of our local currency in South Africa, any off-shore investment is very enticing, even if it's simply as a hedge:-) I have recently started to look at crowd funding platforms and listen to your podcast regarding this topic. I have also done a lot of research on risk management should one consider investing in one of these platforms and I have created a little list of minimum requirements for myself, which I would like to share: 1. How long has the platform existed and are any public reviews available? 2. Is the company and platform regulated and by who? 3. What kind of insurance and protection do the investors receive and from whom? 4. Is ther transparancy regarding the costs and net amounts receivable? 5. What are the dividend yields? 6. How many shares (%) can an individual shareholder own in one SPV? 7. Is a premature exit possible? 8. Who are the financial backers? 9. What happens if the platform and/or company falls in fonacial distress? 10. What are the minimum investment amounts? 11. On which criterea are properties picked and are these studies based on 3rd party valuations by reputable entities? 12. Are regular valuations done and by whom? 13. What is the history of dividends paid? 14. Is provision made for unforseen circumstances, like rental voids, faulty equipment, etc? I think that property crowdfunding has evolved since your podcast and I believe that this is worth persuing, but I am very interested to here what other, more sophisticated investors have to say. Regards Jacques