Breaking News
Rise in remortgage applications
Remortgage applications are on the increase that is according to the most recent figures from the Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB), many homeowners who bought properties more than five years ago are now taking advantage of the increase in the value of their home by releasing cash by way of remortgaging, in many cases to bridge…
Allen Walkey
July market trend data.
Land Registry’s monthly Market Trend Data for residential property prices in England and Wales releases the figures for July, data shows an annual price increase of 4.6 per cent which takes the average property value in England and Wales to £183,861. Monthly house prices up 1.7 per cent since June 2015. The regional data indicates…
Allen Walkey
Homes for a pound
It was a few months back that we reported on the “House for a pound” scheme launched by Liverpool City Council, well now we can report that latest figures reveal that more than 2,500 people have applied, would-be buyers had until July 31 to apply, by the closing date 2,560 applications had been received. The…
Allen Walkey
Petition to reverse planned tax relief changes
In a recent article in one of the major financial papers it warns that the buy-to-let boom is now coming to an end, it puts the reasons as the removal of yield-enhancing tax reliefs and an impending interest rate rise. It reported that 80% of new homes built since the turn of the century have…
Allen Walkey
Slowdown in house price growth
House price growth in Britain slowed in August, according to the mortgage lender Nationwide, this is confirmed in the results from their monthly survey released today. The price of a home increased at a 0.3% month-on-month pace in August, this was below what economists were expecting at a 0.4%. The year-on-year pace of inflation was…
Allen Walkey
Fewer mortgages for London property
Fewer mortgages are being granted to people looking to buy in London, the reason for this is simple, rising housing costs are pricing buyers out of the market, until the housing shortage is resolved the problem will continue to grow. According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders there were 18,800 home purchase loans granted from…
Allen Walkey
Rural productivity plan
This month the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) announced the launch of its first Rural Productivity Plan, the aim is to harness the enormous economic potential England’s rural areas have to offer, both for the prosperity of those living in rural areas and for the benefit of the UK economy overall. The plan…
Allen Walkey
The Property Ombudsman promotes TSI approved Codes of Practice in Sunderland.
The Property Ombudsman, Christopher Hamer recently attended an event organised by Sunderland City Council to promote its Accredited Landlord’s Scheme, a new partnership launched to improve and maintain standards of accommodation in the private rented sector. Christopher spoke about the importance of the redress scheme explaining what TPO represents, how he operates and his role…
Christopher Walkey
Stricter lending criteria for BTL mortgages
High street lenders are getting tougher with landlords applying for mortgages to purchase a buy-to-let property, it has been announced in various publications that lenders are looking to introduce stricter criteria when it comes to checking applications, higher interest rates could also be applied to these mortgages. It has been mentioned that Landlords will face…
Alex Evans
Affect on London property prices
The turmoil in Asian markets is having its affects across the world, we have seen this week share price movements that have never been seen before across markets, on Monday the Dow Jones dropped during the day by a record amount, thankfully for investors recovering by the end of the day. The Chinese economy has…
Allen Walkey
Consultation period for Scottish letting agents
Only recently we covered a new initiative by the Welsh Government that this autumn they will be introducing a new registration and licensing scheme for letting agents and landlords. Since Monday 24th August the Scottish Government have begun a consultation period on a statutory code of practice and training requirements for letting agents in Scotland,…
Allen Walkey
Increasing pace of rent rises
I think most agents would agree the housing supply figures are confusing to say the least when it comes to working out why there is a shortage of affordable housing, this shortage however is the problem behind house prices and rents continuing to rise. Rents are up 4.6% on a year before, average rents in…
Allen Walkey
New Letting Agency Award To Highlight Great Service.
Following the success of raterAgent’s ‘Estate Agent of the Month’ award, which has seen hundreds of agent branches vying for the exclusive trophy each month in 2015, the innovative rating and review website has teamed up with Fixflo to launch a new, lettings-specific monthly award. Free for any letting agent branch to enter, all they…
Christopher Walkey
Fewer first time buyers in the market
According to the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) the number of first time buyer sales in July fell from 29% of all sales made to just 23%, the release of these figures come at a time when housing supply figures show an increase in July and the number of house hunters reaching its highest…
Allen Walkey
OnTheMarket challenges Zoopla figures
It was just over a week ago that Zoopla released figures in a trading update to the London Stock Market, in that update it reported that its listings number had increased from 828k to 882k as at 31 July 2015. OnTheMarket is challenging the figures released by Zoopla, they are claiming that they might be…
Allen Walkey