Savills announces aquisition of Chainbow Ltd

International real estate advisor Savills  announced yesterday 29th June  the acquisition of specialist residential management business Chainbow Ltd. Established in 1989 by Chairman and Chief Executive Roger Southam, Chainbow employs 28 members of staff, all of whom will join Savills with immediate effect, including managing director, Nigel Bosworth, and associate directors Gail Lawrence and Niccie…

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Nationwide (HPI) June 2016

The Nationwide House Price index June 2016 released today headlines “Sight uptick in house price growth in June”. House price growth increased to 5.1% in June, up from 4.7% in May. The monthly change remained the same at 0.2%. The North – South divide continued to widen in Q2. Commenting on the figures, Robert Gardner,…

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UK Cities (HPI) May 2016

The latest Hometrack UK Cities House Price  Index (HPI) released yesterday 28th June  reveals that Bristol has become the first city outside of the South East to see house prices rise at a faster rate than London for more than six years (January 2010). Latest Hometrack UK Cities House Price Index saw annual prices rise…

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Mortgage Lending in May higher than previous month.

In a news item published on their website yesterday: The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) estimates that gross mortgage lending reached £18.2 billion in May. Lending was 4% higher than April (£17.6 billion), and 14% higher than May 2015 (£16 billion), and the highest May figure since 2008 when gross lending reached £23.7 billion. They…

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Foxtons Profits Warning

Foxtons Group yesterday released a trading update ahead of interim results. The update in part reads: The run up to the EU referendum led to significant uncertainty across London residential markets and the decision to leave Europe is expected to prolong that uncertainty.  Whilst it is too early to accurately predict how the London property…

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House Builders get demolished in the markets.

One of the major downsides to the UK voting out last thursday was the negative reaction across the markets,  the FTSE dropped the least when compared to other exchanges, the Brexit vote has caused an air of uncertainty that extends far beyond the UK and Europe and looks like continuing for some while yet. One…

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Negative Impact on House Prices on Brexit Vote

The decision for a Brexit taken last thursday and announced last friday looks like having a negative impact on the UK property market as well as other sectors of the economy, at least for the short term. The UK has now entered a period of  uncertainty, how much this will affect general confidence and sentiment…

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BBA Mortgage approvals for May

According to the British Bankers Association (BBA) Gross mortgage borrowing of £12bn in the month was 10% higher than in May 2015. Borrowing in the first 5 months of 2016 was £67.5bn compared with £51.7 in the same period of 2015. Net mortgage borrowing is 3% higher than a year ago. House purchase approval numbers…

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United Kingdom Votes To Leave

After 40 years being a member of the European Union the UK has now decided that it has not worked for them and and have made the democratic decision to “Leave”. Nigel Farage was the first to announce in the early hours of this morning that the vote to leave had won on the figures…

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New Chairman for Homes and Communities Agency

This week the Homes and Communities Agency issued a press release informing that  Sir Edward Lister has been appointed as their new Chairman. Sir Edward joins with years of experience of the housing sector. For the last 5 years he has been London’s Deputy Mayor for policy and planning and chief of staff at the…

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Council successfull in prosecuting re subletting fraud.

Westminster City Council have successfully prosecuted Raymond Whittard, a tenant, and Sharon Smith, a subtenant, for conspiracy to defraud through unlawful subletting. The case is believed to be the first time  a council has successfully prosecuted a council tenant and their subtenant, Whittard and Smith admitted conspiracy to defraud in June 2015 at Southwark Crown…

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Households at Risk of Eviction in England

A recent report from the Charity Shelter used various data and analysis exploring the number of rented households put at risk of eviction in England over the past year at a local, regional and national level. Their analysis shows that there are ‘hotspots’ of eviction, where as many as one in every 23 renting households…

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Scotland homes sales boosted by Property Tax change

According to the recent Your Move / Acadata Scotland House Price Index.   Home sales jump 11% annually in the first year of the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT), compared to the twelve months before the tax. Average house prices are down 7.8% year-on-year, due to a lack of higher value home sales. House…

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Just 1 day to go

Just 1 day to go, tomorrow the UK has its chance to decide Leave or Remain in the EU. Every vote will be important so make sure you find time to get to the polling station if you haven’t already voted by post. Many people are still not  sure how they will vote tomorrow,  the…

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Transaction data May 2016

A press release published yesterday from the Land Registry re Transaction Data for May 2016. Land Registry completed 1,491,651 applications The South East topped the table of regional applications with 342,612 Birmingham topped the table of applications by local authority area with 21,981 The Transaction Data shows Land Registry completed more than 1,491,650 applications from…

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