Breaking News
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…
Allen Walkey
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, …
Allen Walkey
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…
Allen Walkey
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…
Allen Walkey
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…
Allen Walkey
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…
Allen Walkey
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….
Allen Walkey
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…
Allen Walkey
Landlords and tenants in despair as Oliver Knights shuts shop.
Landlords and tenants are in despair as a London letting agent, Oliver Knights, is thought to have closed down, owing thousands of pounds in unpaid rent and holding deposits. Landlord Action had been instructed only weeks ago to recover more than £10,000 for one landlord and £8,000 for another, but with signs the company has…
Christopher Walkey
Waterfords celebrates 20 years as a leading local estate agent.
On Tuesday 1st September, Waterfords turned 20. To celebrate this special occasion, the Waterfords team spent the week in Camberley town centre running competitions, raising over £400 for local homeless charity, Step by Step, and catching up with happy home owners. From Monday 31st August to Sunday 6th September, the Waterfords team set up home…
Christopher Walkey
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…
Allen Walkey
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…
Allen Walkey
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…
Allen Walkey
NLA response to DCLG’s new regulations
The National Landlords Association (NLA) responded yesterday to the Department of Communities and Local Government’s (DCLG) new regulations, which are due to come into force on 1 October, they will introduce new obligations on landlords to provide specific information to their tenants, and restrictions on the use of the section 21 notice no fault possession…
Allen Walkey
Greater powers when tackling rogue landlords
The London Mayor wants greater powers to deal with so called rogue landlords who rent out property to tenants in the capital, Richard Blakeway the lead for housing to the Mayor is calling for additional powers for local authorities when dealing with these rogue landlords, including the ability to impose minimum fines. These demands made…
Allen Walkey