For this edition:
Author: Mike Naylor
Editor: Joe Staines
Senior Editors: Emma Gibbs and Ros Walford
Designer: Nicola Erdpresser
Graphic Designer: David Ball
Senior Prepress Designer: Daniel May
Picture Researcher: Marta Bescos
Proofreader: Mandy Tomlin
Account Manager: Michael Stanfield (Rough Guides)
Digital Operations, DK Delhi:
Head of Digital Operations: Manjari Hooda
Senior Editorial Manager: Lakshmi Rao
Assistant Producer Suruchi Kakkar
Assistant Production Coordinator: Manish Bhatt
Producer: Rahul Kumar
Legal & General:
With thanks to Anna Doman, Sam Richards,
Chandrika Suri and Will Symons.
This second digital edition published September 2016 by
Rough Guides Ltd , 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
www.roughguides.com
in partnership with
Legal & General , Legal & General House,
St Monicas Road, Kingswood, Surrey KT20 6EU
www.legalandgeneral.com
Rough Guides, September 2016
978-0-2412-8922-8
002284686Sept/16
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from
the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.
This publication is intended to provide authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered and, to the best of the publishers knowledge, the content was accurate and current on the date of publication. However, it is distributed with the understanding that neither the publisher nor the author is engaged in rendering accounting, financial or other professional services and the ideas and suggestions contained in this book are not intended as a substitute for financial advice. If you require financial advice or other expert assistance, you should seek the services of a competent professional. Neither the author nor the publisher shall be liable or responsible for any loss or damage allegedly arising from any information or suggestion in this book.
The author has asserted his moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
NAVIGATING THIS EBOOK
Weve highlighted handy Top Tips, text boxes, infographics and tables so you can pick out useful information thats relevant to you, or delve deeper by reading through each chapter. Any word or phrase that is coloured and underlined has a hyperlink, which connects to other parts of the guide or to external websites (see Colour Key below).
COLOUR KEY:
blue hyperlinks : Click to access useful resources for further guidance.
.
orange text underlined : Click to move to other parts of the guide.
Note that words coloured orange but not underlined do not have hyperlinks.
Visit www.legalandgeneral.com/roughguidefinance to download all the free guides in The Rough Guide to Personal Finance series.
THE ROUGH GUIDE
TO
PROPERTY
Mike Naylor
A note from Mike
As a nation we seem to be obsessed with house prices, but where we live has such a big impact on our lives and happiness that its important to spend time thinking about property whether its planning a house purchase, finding somewhere to rent or working out where to live in retirement. I have been helping people manage their finances for almost twenty years, and questions about property, mortgages and renting come up often.
The Rough Guide to Property, the fifth in our series, gives you plenty of information and guidance about the many aspects of owning or renting a property. It shows you how renting works, how to get your first foot on the property ladder, and how you might make your property work for you. Whatever your income or the stage you are at in your life, this guide will help make an often complicated topic seem a lot more manageable.
Dr. Nigel Wilson, CEO, Legal & General
Foreword
At first glance, travel and personal finance seem worlds apart, as do our two organizations. But dig a little deeper and a common purpose emerges: visiting new countries and sorting out personal finances are both, to a greater or lesser extent, journeys of discovery .
For more than thirty years, Rough Guides has provided independent and reliable guides to countries and regions across the world. I and my family have used them on many occasions and have discovered and learned about new places as a result theyve enabled us do things which we might not otherwise have done, like visiting Myanmar (Burma) and South America.
We want The Rough Guide to Personal Finance series to achieve the same result by acting both as a prompt to get started on the financial planning path and to serve as a reference throughout the different stages of our lives.
We are ambitious our intended audience is everyone. A young persons decision on the purchase of a pension plan is as important as how someone nearing retirement should spend and their pension pot. Too often, these crucial decisions are made with insufficient knowledge, information and guidance. Indeed, we devote more time and energy to planning holidays than our financial future.
The Rough Guide to Personal Finance series was commissioned to help fill that gap. The series will cover the key events of life and is firmly independent: the authors of each ebook have been selected by Rough Guides and are respected personal finance writers . They have been chosen for their expertise, personal experience and no-nonsense approach to financial planning.
At Legal & General we make a promise that every day we will help make financial security easier to achieve. This Rough Guide is an important new tool to help us fulfil that promise. It is designed to help you take control of your finances and plan for the future , whatever financial life stage you are at.
Dr. Nigel Wilson
CEO, Legal & General
Mike Naylor
Mike Naylor is a personal financial expert, writer and broadcaster and has worked in financial services for more than twenty years. He is a passionate consumer advocate and has campaigned on bank charges, PPI and consumer rights. Mike worked for Which? and Which? Money magazines and helped set up a helpline for their subscribers. He specializes in writing about and researching personal finance in print and online, and he regularly appears as a personal finance expert on TV and radio. He has a keen interest in property and has bought and sold many properties. As a freelancer Mike has written consumer guides for BBC1s Rip Off Britain series, contributed to books, magazines and newspapers and has worked for the Financial Services Consumer Panel, Moneyvista and Zopa.
Picture credits
The publisher would like to thank the following for their kind permission to reproduce their photographs:
6 Legal & General
8 Corbis: Fiona Jackson-Downes and Dirk Lindner/cultura
13 Getty Images: John Eder
14 Alamy Images: Alex Segre
23 Alamy Images: Pat Tuson
24 Getty Images: Alys Tomlinson
40 Getty Images: Paul Mansfield Photography