Breaking News

Green Manifesto

 

The Green Party has launched its General Election manifesto, a quick scan and one would think they are living in fairyland,  to be fair it would be wonderful if the world could operate with such well founded ideals, the truth is it does not, we are a market economy and there is only so much…

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Allen Walkey

Manifesto full of promises

 

Manifesto,Manifesto and Manifesto, we’ve had the Conservatives and Labour, today we have UKIP and Lib-Dem, the green party are putting theirs out on line, a confetti of promises which will all have to be looked at again on the basis that no party will have an outright majority, so they are all promises with a…

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Allen Walkey

House prices outside London

 

House prices UK wide are predicted to outperform those of London for 2015 with increases of  1.5% nationwide but a dip of 3.6% in London. This change of trend in price performance will be the first time in six years that London does not lead the way in property price increases. The CEBR were quoted…

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Allen Walkey

Tory manifesto to extend right to buy

 

The Conservative manifesto that is being lauched today will be  including an extension to the right to buy, they will be announcing that they will be extending the near 35 year old right to buy your council home that was initially introduced by Margaret Thatcher in the early 80’s to include the 1.3 million housing…

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Allen Walkey

Lib-Dems “Mansion Tax” proposal

 

Nick Clegg unveiled his proposals yesterday regarding how the mansion tax bands would be applied, he confirmed the Lib Dems had scaled back the policy and it would now raise only £1 billion – far less than the £1.7 billion initially proposed. It was reported that in the details of the Lib-Dem proposals, properties worth…

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Allen Walkey

£1m inheritance tax plan

 

David Cameron has put forward a pre election  plan to make family estates that are worth less than £1million exempt from inheritance tax, that would be done by adding a further £175,000 each for couples to the existing £650,000. This increase in the amount that can be left to the children and grandchildren will affect a much…

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Allen Walkey

Halifax House price Index March

 

According to the Halifax, part of the Lloyds Banking Group, UK house prices rose by 0.4% in March compared with the previous month but the annual rate of property price growth slowed, property prices were 8.1% higher than a year ago. The Halifax  which uses data from its own mortgage lending is maintaining the  prediction…

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Allen Walkey

Charity bike ride

 

Let’s give a big thumbs up to Richard Greetham and Robin Burne both from Bradleys Estate Agents in Exeter who have both pledged to undertake a 240 mile bike ride from London to Paris. This mammoth challenge will be spread over 2 days,  London to Newhaven..cross channel ferry…Dieppe to Paris, the finish line will be…

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Allen Walkey

Buyers holding back

 

Now with just four weeks until the election on 7th May it appears the property market is stalling, can anyone blame buyers with some of the housing policies that Labour are proposing. This is probably a blip until the outcome becomes clear, Labour have voiced strongly their intentions about introducing a mansion tax, industry analysts…

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Allen Walkey

Priced out of market

 

According to a report by the Halifax, high house prices and low incomes are seen as strong barriers to getting on the property ladder, this is supported by a recent report in a Shropshire local paper spotlighting a young couple who are typical among hundreds of thousands of young people who are giving up the…

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Allen Walkey

Monitoring of Buy-to-Let mortgages

 

It appears that buy-to-let lending is on the increase with January approvals  up 6 per cent on the previous month and up 12 per cent on the same period in 2014, these figures are not consistent with those for the  overall mortgage market with both first time buyer and house mover mortgages having declined. The…

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Allen Walkey

Countrywide continues to grow

 

Countrywide plc has increased further its regional presence by aquiring a further four lettings businesses in the first quarter of 2015, these aquisitions have been completed in the last three months, Property Links a well established business in Plymouth,  Anderson Residential a full service lettings agency in Sutton Coldfield, the  portfolio of HE Lettings in…

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Allen Walkey

Mandatory electrical safety checks excluded.

 

Mandatory electrical safety checks in the private rented sector have been left out of the Department for Communities and Local Government’s Housing standards review: technical consultation. This comes somewhat as a surprise as the DCLG have taken positive action on Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms, making them mandatory for all properties in this sector. It…

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Allen Walkey

New tax year new start

 

The new tax year heralds a new start for many, no more so than this year when  a certain group of people  will for the first time have lump sums to invest and  who are expected to be  a new generation of Buy-to-Let purchasers. From monday 6th April pensioners from all over the country will…

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Allen Walkey

Supermarkets influence property prices.

 

It appears that the proximaty of a supermarket to where people  live can increase the value of their property. According to research from  Loyds Bank,  on average being in easy reach of a supermarket can add  around 7% to a property value. Lloyds compared the average house prices in postcodes that have a nationwide supermarket…

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Allen Walkey