BREAKING NEWS – top 5 stories 30/06/2021

Estate Agent Networking Breaking News

Daily bite-sized proptech and real estate news in partnership with Proptech-X. Today, Stanton looks at Help to Buy, Lets Bid, House of Lords, and more.

 

  1. We have flying cars but it still takes 28 weeks to sell a house
  2. Help to Buy scheme has helped over 300,000 buy a property since 2013
  3. House of Lords Built Environment Committee needs your views on the future of housing
  4. Lets Bid doubles its business development sales force to meet demand
  5. Last day of SDLT holiday – will the housing market grind to a halt?

 

We have flying cars but it still takes 28 weeks to sell a house

The hybrid car-aircraft, AirCar, is equipped with a BMW engine and runs on regular petrol-pump fuel.” Prof Stefan Klein, its creator, said it could fly about 1,000km and had clocked up 40 hours in the air so far.

So there we have it…a James Bond car that converts into a plane in two minutes, and yet, if you want to buy a home in the UK, typically it is a 28-week saga. The big question is why? The reach of technology doubles every year and in 1988 two million properties were sold and completed in just one year, before the days of cloud computing and the internet.

Now in 2021, to get 1.2 million properties completed has made the conveyancing, estate agency and lending sectors overheat – yet we can buy online at Amazon and have a cardboard box with a smile the very next day.

 

Maybe Amazon will get into the estate agency business.

Help to Buy scheme has helped over 300,000 buy a property since 2013

The government-backed and taxpayer-funded initiative to give buyers a 20% deposit (up to 40% in London) to get on to the property ladder has in its latest analysis helped on average 35,000 buyers a year to buy a new home.

Interestingly, 80% of buyers using the scheme are first time buyers, and the analysis also poses the question of whether this has fuelled the uptick in property prices, as it artificially enables buyers to buy homes they could not normally afford, and the big deposits allow buyers to get preferential mortgages due to the loan to value ratio.

 

House of Lords Built Environment Committee needs your views on the future of housing

With a closing date of early September, Chair Baroness Neville-Rolfe will be looking into all aspects of what is wrong around housing in the UK. With a remit to look at new homes, regarding the buying and selling of property, the pain points, design and construction issues, such as the Grenfell and cladding issue.

This is a great opportunity for property professionals and proptech professionals to get their thoughts, strategies, and analysis in front of the government. Having been involved with these key meetings over the years where there are calls for evidence, it is great to see the government seizing the nettle.

In an overview, Baroness Neville-Rolfe said: “To inform our work we want to hear from as broad a range of people as possible. If you have a view on housing … let us know what you think … Our inquiry will focus on what shapes the type of housing needed in the UK as well as a range of challenges to meeting that demand. We will then make our recommendations to Government.”

 

Lets Bid doubles its business development sales force to meet demand

Founded by Milton Rodosthenous, Lets Bid Property provides a number of tech solutions for estate agents looking to help the public in the search for their property. He reports that “Due to the fantastic uptake of our services, we have had to double our sales force to keep up with demand. A key winner with agents had been our probate property prospecting service, which pinpoints these properties before they come to the market. These are key buys for the public and, of course, agents love to have a way of sourcing probates which make up 10% of all housing sold each year.”

Agents needing information can visit Lets Bid Property.

 

Last day of SDLT holiday – will the housing market grind to a halt?

Today is the last day for any property that is not exchanged to do so, completing on the same day if the buyers in the transaction chain want to take advantage of the SDLT tax break holiday.

More to the point there will be numerous transactions that will be targeting today as their moving date having already exchanged as they could not get removals for last Friday.

So, what now?

Will buyer sentiment dry up? Will everyone go on holiday on 19th July and leave the property market holding its breath until mid-September, the traditional second wave in the yearly housing market cycle?

Andrew Stanton

CEO & Founder Proptech-PR. Proptech Real Estate Influencer, Executive Editor of Estate Agent Networking. Leading PR consultancy in Proptech & Real Estate.

You May Also Enjoy

Estate Agent Talk

Got a New Home in Nelson UK? Explore Stylish Furniture for Every Corner

Moving into a new home is always exciting, and if you’ve just settled down in Nelson, UK, now is the perfect time to furnish your space with stylish, functional, and long-lasting pieces. At AH Interiors Nelson, we bring you a wide range of modern and classic furniture that makes every corner of your home truly…
Read More
Breaking News

Annual house price growth steady in September

Annual rate of house price growth of 2.2% in September, similar to 2.1% seen in August Northern Ireland remained the top performing area with annual house price growth of 9.6% Outer South East weakest performing region, with 0.3% year-on-year rise   Commenting on the figures, Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, said: “The annual pace of…
Read More
Rightmove logo
Breaking News

Rightmove launches Online Agent Valuation to help agents connect with more vendors

Rightmove, the UK’s largest property platform, launches Online Agent Valuation, a new product for agents designed to give them more ways to reach prospective vendors. The consumer innovation delivers quality leads by connecting agents with home-owners who are serious about moving, but who would prefer to get a valuation from a local agent online. Rightmove…
Read More
Breaking News

September sees highest number of homes listed this year

September brings post-summer surge in home seller activity, with highest number of homes listed so far in 2025 The latest internal data from eXp UK has shown that September has delivered a notable surge in market activity, with the firm recording an average of 81 new properties listed every day over the course of the…
Read More
Estate Agent Talk

Looking into Colin Horan: A Trusted Estate Agent in Irish Real Estate

In the competitive and often unpredictable realm of Irish property, one name stands out above the rest: Colin Horan. With a sterling reputation forged over years of committed service, strategic insight, and unwavering ethics, Colin distinguishes himself as a trusted partner for buyers, sellers, and communities alike. This read delves into his background, philosophy, approach,…
Read More
Breaking News

Breaking Property News 02/10/25

Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.   LettingaProperty now ranked #16 in BusinessCloud’s PropTech 50 for 2025  LettingaProperty.com, an online lettings platform, has been ranked #16 in BusinessCloud’s PropTech 50 for 2025 — a list of the most innovative technology firms reshaping property in the UK. The company earned its place for…
Read More