investment

If you’re trying to sell your home, you want your property to stand out in the crowd for all the right reasons. You only have a short period of time to make a potential buyer to fall in love with your home and you don’t want any minor faults to put them off, especially if they’re easily avoidable, and sometimes the most valuable things you can do to improve your home’s appeal are simple and easy...

It’s a tough time to be a private landlord. Rent freezes during Covid, which looks to be sticking around in places like Scotland, and a recent crackdown on laws regulating the private rental sector, with wide-sweeping reform to keep up to date with - and it looks like it’s only going to get stricter. With all this in mind, now might be the time for private landlords to take that next step with their...

New tax rules for Swindon buy-to-let landlords from 2026 We at Richard James want to make you aware of some important changes that are coming into effect from April 2026. The UK Government is introducing Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax, which will affect how landlords report their income tax to HMRC. The original plan was for Landlords’ income of £10,000 or more from their properties must file...

While the winter comes with lots of happy things, like sparkly frosty mornings, hot chocolates, and, plenty of festivities, it can also come with extra clutter, extra mess (generally caused by more time inside) and the realisation that you have far too much stuff lying around. Like us, you probably try to forget about it before Christmas, thinking you'll have plenty of time to deal with it after Christmas,...

Over the last five years, life has become a little trickier for Swindon landlords, with changes to their taxation status, mortgage interest relief and an additional 3% stamp duty for a buy-to-let property, and has made lots of Swindon landlords ask themselves: ‘Is buy-to-let in Swindon still worth the risk?’ Regarding taxation, in 2016, the Government added a 3% supplement in stamp duty on...

Swindon Buy-to-Let Landlords. Would it surprise you that inflation can be very useful when it comes to protecting your hard-earned savings and investment? Some of you reading this will be old enough to remember the 1970s – the bell-bottom trousers, the huge collars, frayed jeans, disco glitter balls, maxi dresses, midi skirts but above everything else - HYPER INFLATION.With inflation currently standing...

Have you ever felt like stuff just seems to appear in your house? You've got no idea where it came from, and for some reason in the deep, dark, depths of your mind, something is stopping you from getting rid of it. Or, your children have just bought home the 4000th picture they have made at school and you really have ran out of wall, cupboard, and under-the-bed space? We get it, it is easy to walk into...

This April (2022) sees us celebrate the 30th anniversary of Richard James, after opening our doors in Wroughton back in 1992. Since then, we’ve been fortunate enough to help clients of multiple generations find their dream homes and have expanded across 8 offices that cover Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. As well as Sales, we are also home to Richard James Lettings, Land & New Homes,...

With our Sales and Lettings businesses under one roof, we regularly hear from investors looking to invest in properties that they will later rent out using our property management service. That coupled with the abundance of apartments in Swindon, which in our opinion are ideal buy-to-let investments, means we often get asked the same questions regarding the local area, the current market and other...

Buying a house is often the largest purchase you will make in your lifetime. To make the process as stress-free as possible, it is essential to have the correct information to ensure you are informed when making any decisions.  You can speed up your house-buying process by knowing which questions to ask, understanding what your rights are and acting on your responsibilities as a buyer. We've written a...