Stronger penalties for Rogue Landlords

Landlords who flout the rules and who rent out substandard and dangerous accommodation should face stiffer penalties, at present Landlords can only be jailed if convicted of illegally evicting a tenant, this should be extended  to landlords who take advantage of vunerable tenants in a serious manner. The Local Government Association (LGA) have appealed for…

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Councils struggle with RTB scheme

Councils are struggling to replace houses sold through the right-to-buy (RTB) scheme, according to analysis of provisional figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) it would appear that just one home has been built for every nine sold through the right-to-buy scheme, this is not at all what was pledged by the…

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£20bn mortgage lending in August

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) they reported £20bn of mortgage deals went through in August, this was slightly down on July’s lending total of £21.7 billion, but 12 per cent higher than August last year, when loans totalling £17.8 billion went through. A mortgage price war  between lenders, with many slashing the…

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Zoopla Property Group appoints Goodstuff

Zoopla Property Group the digital media business that owns and operates some of the UK’s leading online property brands including Zoopla and PrimeLocation, has appointed Goodstuff to handle their media planning and buying business worth £15m. The ZPG marketing team has seen a number of changes of the last few months as they look to…

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Comments on BTL regulation

According to Stefatheno Silvestrin, senior economist at the the Nationwide Building Society who was  speaking at the the Financial Services Expo (FSE) London on Wednesday, the curbing of tax relief on interest-only buy-to-let mortgages for landlords by  George Osborne is unlikely to have a major impact on activity in the sector. Silvestrin said the decision…

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Rent controls..good or bad?

Private rents are becoming increasingly more expensive across the UK, that is a statement of fact, would the introduction of rent controls solve the problem though? Figures recently released by the Office for National Statistics suggest that rents paid to private landlords in the UK have increased by 2.5 per cent over the last year, …

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World’s Biggest Coffee morning

Its always a pleasure to highlight any agents who organise or take part in any charitable event, this time it is  Ellis Winters & Co a Chatteris estate agent and their charity is Macmillan Cancer Support. They will be holding a coffee morning on September 25 to raise funds for the charity, the event  is…

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LSL Property Services / Acadata HPI August

LSL Property Services / Acadata ( England & Wales ) House Price Index for August House prices see biggest monthly boost for a year. Average house prices across England and Wales jumped £1,900 in August, the fastest rise seen for past twelve months. This  takes property values to eighth peak this year, standing at £282,816…

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ONS house price index July

The Office for National Statistics today releases  it’s statistical bulletin: House Price index for July 2015. UK house prices increased by 5.2% in the year to July 2015, down from 5.7% in the year to June 2015. House price annual inflation was 5.6% in England, 0.3% in Wales, 7.4% in Northern Ireland and -1.3% in…

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Property listings down further

According to Housesimple.com the online estate agents, property listings in July were down across the UK by 13.2%, August saw the situation worsen with a further fall of 6.6% in new listings. The capital saw some of the worse figures with listings dropping by 24.8% from June to August research by Houseimple showed, in fact…

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Rent rises moderate across UK

According to the latest findings from the HomeLet Rental Index,  rent rises slowed in every region of the UK over the 3 months to August 2015 compared to the previous 3 months, however rents are still rising at double figure rates on an annual basis and now stand at 10.5% higher than a year ago.…

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Corbyn and Social Housing

The result of the labour leader contest was announced on saturday, against all the odds we saw the selection of Jeremy Corbyn, most commentators and many inside his party are dubious as to whether the right person was selected. This major swing to the left has suprised many, how will it affect those moderates in…

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Private sector rent controls in Scotland

Nicola Sturgeon is an advocate of rent controls, she has outlined plans in the Scottish Parliament to introduce them through a Private Tenancies Bill, personally I have always thought some form of rent control would be the most sensible way of keeping a cap on private sector rents, however this method of controlling rents should…

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Halifax HPI for August

Halifax House Price Index figures for the month of August released today show that house prices for the UK in the 3 months to August  were 9% higher than in the 3 months a year earlier, lower than June at 9.6%, but higher than last month at 7.8%, house prices increased by 2.7% between July…

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London house price rises continue say RICS

House prices are still rising in London caused by fewer instructions to sell and rising buyer demand,  the number of homes coming on to the market remains at its lowest level in at least three decades, according to the latest RICS UK Residential Market Survey, In London 34% more respondents saw prices rise over the…

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