Expat Property Story

#339 A seller paid their estate agent a 2% fee to get the best possible price for their property. They lost out on £100,000 because the branch manager had taken a kickback from another buyer. Damian King was working in that office, and he was paid a couple of grand to keep quiet. Take our 2 min Survey Discovery Call Access Resource Library Our WhatsApp  group Get in Touch Property Engine discounts...

#338 Once a month, auction specialist Jay Howard from Hammered Auctions joins us to report from the front line of UK property auctions. Jay reports that an auctioneer recently told him  that it feels as if we are getting close to a crash Jay, an auction trader and former auction manager, takes that with a pinch of salt and explains why. Then the conversation turns to a Thunderbirds-style house wit...

# 337 Take our 2 min Survey The UK has an increasingly ageing population, and research by the Homeowners Alliance points to a large and growing demand for bungalows, yet hardly any are built anymore. In this episode, I talk to Jo Child , whom I met in Coventry on my recent UK property tour, about the three bungalows she has renovated with her brother, who is a builder. Take our 2 min Survey Discov...

#336 For the first time in 336 episodes, Expat Property Story is running a listener survey. The aim is to understand the main challenges you face when building, or thinking about building, a UK property portfolio from overseas. Whether you haven't bought yet, own one property, or have ten and are thinking about slowing down, your answers will help shape future episodes. Take our two-minute su...

#335 Take our 2 min Survey A text arrives at 5pm Hong Kong time with a batch of discounted UK properties, at least 25 other buyers in the race, and a condition that contracts must be exchanged within six hours. That leaves less than an hour to analyse the deal. In this solo episode, I walk through how to analyse a UK buy-to-let deal from overseas, from the wider area down to the street, the proper...

Send us Fan Mail #334 Once a month, Simon Misiewicz from Optimise Accountants joins us to tackle a UK property tax topic — with one eye always on those of us based overseas. This month we’re looking at what to consider before seeking advice on your UK property investments when you live abroad. If you own UK property and live overseas, the right tax advice depends on more than the property itself....

Send us Fan Mail #333 Would you buy a one bed flat with a short lease, a hole in the roof and the smell of bacon wafting up through the floorboards from the greasy spoon blow? Jess Macaulay host of Phoenix Property Meet did!   She picked it up post-auction for £70,000 because no one else wanted it and after extending the lease, fixing the roof and reconfiguring the layout to add a second bedroom,...

Send us Fan Mail #332 Darren McNeill from our sponsors FMP  joins me for our regular North West spotlight, this time on Darwen, and the numbers he shared make the case for a genuine UK buy-to-let hotspot. Once a month, Darren McNeill from our sponsors FMP joins me to look at the North West property market. Darren reports that Darwen showed 8% asking price growth in January 2026, against a UK avera...

Send us Fan Mail #331 A rising population is one of the classic drivers of capital growth, alongside jobs and infrastructure. But what happens to UK property investing when a country's population stops rising? Demographer Dr Paul Morland joined me to explain what falling fertility and an ageing population actually mean for where you should and shouldn't buy. ExpatPropertyStory.com Check...

Send us Fan Mail #330 The Bank of England held its base rate at 3.75% this month, but that didn't stop UK mortgage rates from climbing. Shaz Ahmed of Elan Property Finance joins me for our regular Mortgage Monday update, and the average fixed rate has now crept up to around 5.59%, from 4.9% at the start of the year. If you're assuming a steady base rate means steady borrowing costs, this...

Send us Fan Mail #329 The average UK property purchase takes 135 days, but a cash buyer who skips every optional check can complete in 24 hours. This episode's guest is Gerard Davis , a solicitor at Talbots Law who spends his working life untangling exactly why that gap exists. We delve into why UK property conveyancing takes so long. And how to speed it up. Access Gerard's 12 Rules for...

Send us Fan Mail #328 Once a month, auction specialist Jay Howard from Hammered Auctions joins us to report from the front line of UK property auctions. August is always a quiet month for UK property auctions, but the headline number still raises an eyebrow. Jay Howard joined me for our monthly auction update, and the official success rate came in at just 60.6%. Once you factor in the lots that we...

Send us Fan Mail #327 Aston Haslam , and his business partners, twin brothers Adam & Alex Flynn are from Bury in Lancashire. Together have raised £10M from investors and scaled their UK property buesiness from two £44k houses to a £12M portfolio in just five years.  However, it wasn’t all plain sailing and they nearly lost everything after a supported living provider went bust. You’re going to...

Send us Fan Mail #326 This month's tax topic with Simon Misiewicz of Optimise Accountants is stamp duty land tax, or SDLT, with one eye firmly on those of us buying from overseas. If you'd like a free PDF summary of everything below, you can grab it by subscribing to our email list (Don't forget to click 'Accept Marketing) ExpatPropertyStory.com Check out our shorts on YouTube...

Send us Fan Mail #325 The Renters' Rights Act came into force on 1 May 2026. This episode is a plain-English summary of what changed, what landlords must do now, and what the penalties are for getting it wrong. It includes clips from past guests and a real eviction case study to show what the new rules mean in practice. This is not legal advice — for anything specific to your situation, speak...

Send us Fan Mail #324 Seven UK property news stories this week. Six are the kind you can act on. The seventh is the one to stay for. ExpatPropertyStory.com Check out our shorts on YouTube Our WhatsApp  group Property Engine discounts (Code: EXPAT) Starter: 30 day trial Pro: 30 day trial/3 mths 1/2 price, Ultimate: 1/2 price 3 months Goalsetting Leave a review 37 Question Due Diligence Checklist /...

Send us Fan Mail #323 Expat Property Story · The twice-weekly UK property podcast for remote investors If you’re a UK landlord managing properties from overseas, you’ll already know the Renters’ Rights Act has changed the landscape. Section 21 is gone. The grounds for ending a tenancy are narrower, the notice periods are longer, and getting referencing wrong from the start is a far more expensive...

Send us Fan Mail #322 Hello there and welcome back to Expat Property Story, the twice-weekly podcast for remote investors in UK property. It's Mortgage Monday again. Once a month I hand the mic to Shaz Ahmed of Elan Property Finance, our resident expat mortgage UK specialist, so you get the numbers instead of my usual musings. This month's chat turned into something more than a rates rou...

Send us Fan Mail #321 I’ve trawled through more than 300 episodes to pull out the 10 principles that I keep coming back to... The ones that have shaped how I think about UK property investing and that I’d want any expat investor to have in their head before they spend a single pound. Each principle comes with a clip from a past guest who said it better than I could. If you’re new to the show, this...

Send us Fan Mail #320 Once a month, auction specialist Jay Howard from Hammered Auctions joins us to report from the front line of UK property auctions. Jay and his business partner Piotr Rusinek are property traders, authors of the UK's number one bestselling book on auctions, and the people behind the Auction Buyers Club , Property Trading Academy and Beyond the Hammer This month: a market...

Send us Fan Mail #319 About six weeks ago, in Episode 305, UK Property Market 2026: Is Now the Time to Buy?   I talked to James Sproule , chief economist for Handelsbanken's UK division and former senior economic adviser to two UK prime ministers at 10 Downing Street. That conversation was about whether you should buy UK property at all right now. James walked us through affordability, yields...

Send us Fan Mail #318 On Tuesday the 28th of July, I spent the day with Darren McNeill from our sponsors FMP driving along the M65 corridor through Rawtenstall, Darwen and Burnley. This episode reveals what I found. ExpatPropertyStory.com Check out our shorts on YouTube Our WhatsApp  group Property Engine discounts (Code: EXPAT) Starter: 30 day trial Pro: 30 day trial/3 mths 1/2 price, Ultimate: 1...

Send us Fan Mail #317 If you own an HMO in the UK and you're managing it from abroad, this episode is for you. Today's guest is Mithila from Ideal Urban Group (Tel: 07300 204451) — an HMO specialist agency covering Surrey, Berkshire, Hampshire, and Greater London. Mithila and her business partner Lisa didn't start the agency because they saw a gap in the market. They started it beca...

Send us Fan Mail #316 Once a month, Simon Misiewicz from Optimise Accountants joins us to tackle a UK property tax topic — with one eye always on those of us based overseas. This month: Section 24. If you hold UK property in your personal name and you have a mortgage on it, this one directly affects you. And if you're a higher-rate taxpayer, it may be affecting you far more than you realise....

Send us Fan Mail #215 Hello there. Can you imagine going to refinance your UK property and the lender's surveyor comes back with a zero valuation? That is the reality for owners of an estimated 258,000 leasehold flats across the UK logged with dangerous cladding since the Grenfell Tower fire. Today's guest is James Barry — an expat, a property investor, and someone who has been living th...