Breaking News
Students pay a higher price to attend top universities.
– Latest research from Accommodationforstudents.com reveals average weekly student rent for 2015 is £82.09, up just £1.43 from 2014. Rents have risen consistently by an average of £1.67 each year since 2010 – Six of the UKs top universities (according to The Complete University Guide for 2016) are in the top ten most expensive cities…
Christopher Walkey
Rise in house prices according to RICS
House prices rose at their fastest rate in a year in July, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported that their house price balance rose from +40 in June up to +44 last month. The shortage of property for sale is a real headache to those looking to buy at the moment, the shortage comes…
Allen Walkey
Zoopla Property Group trading update
ZOOPLA PROPERTY GROUP PLC release trading update. UK Agency membership returns to growth, with a net increase of 213 branches Listings inventory continues to grow, up 7% from 828,000 to 882,000 properties Comparison Services business (uSwitch) is trading well, following acquisition Management remains confident of delivering Group full year results in line with expectations Alex…
Allen Walkey
Tougher mortgage rules for BTL landlords
It is getting tougher for Landlords who need a mortgage to fund their buy-to-let, tighter checks combined with higher interest rates could see less landlords applying to borrow from now on, this comes at a time when landlords are being hit with new regulations across the board, government announcements over the past week made it…
Allen Walkey
Shortage of properties for sale across UK
A severe shortage of properties available to buy across the UK is one of the main reasons for House prices remaining strong and continuing to rise, last month we saw house prices hit a new record average high of £195,621, that was according to the Nationwide. Homeowners just do not appear to want to move,…
Allen Walkey
New national marketing campaign launched by Zoopla
It is just two weeks since Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) announced the launch of a new service Find a Pro which provides its users with access to thousands of professionals and local tradesmen for home-related projects and services. The new service was launched as an exclusive partnership with Plentific.com. Following on soon after from that…
Allen Walkey
First time buyers priority for starter homes
The Government will make available £36m to go towards the creation of thousands more starter homes for first time buyers, £26m of this will go towards indentifying and purchasing brownfield sites and the balance for local authorities to prepare more brownfield land for development. Housing minister Brandon Lewis reportedly said: “Helping young people achieve their…
Allen Walkey
Right-to-Rent pilot scheme
A report out yesterday from the Express and Star, publication covering towns throughout the “Black Country” highlights how the scheme to prosecute landlords for letting to illegal immigrants is working or maybe “not working that well”. The scheme was introduced in the towns of Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Dudley, Walsall and Birmingham by the government as a…
Allen Walkey
City Hall responds re 25% cap
Last friday Property Week Magazine claimed that the London Mayor, Boris Johnson is planning to set a new cap of 25% for affordable homes in key housing zones and opportunity areas, this if introduced would effectively block local authorities from negotiating up from that threshold. A response from City Hall has played down such reports…
Allen Walkey
Interest Rate held at 0.5%
UK interest rates have been held at 0.5% again by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). Yesterday saw for the first time the release of inflation report, policy decision and minutes on the same day. In its latest inflation report, the Bank said the outlook for inflation was “muted”, leading some economists to…
Allen Walkey
Repairs and Maintenance for rented properties.
The Fixflo report for 2015 out at the end of July makes very good reading and confirms how essential it is for Letting agencies to have a repair and maintenance management system in place. Research into the first 70,000 reports through Fixflo in 2015 showed: Busiest times for repairs being reported are between 9am-10am weekdays,…
Allen Walkey
Halifax reports house price drop in July.
According to the latest survey by the Halifax, UK house prices fell 0.6% between June and July, with annual house price growth down to its lowest since December 2014, this was despite the stock of homes available for sale falling to new record lows. Growth in UK house prices dipped to 7.9% for the three…
Alex Evans
Poorest priced out of Oxford.
The National Landlords Association (NLA) is requesting that Oxford City council changes its homes in multiple occupancy licensing scheme (HMOs) and make it easier for landlords to operate them, this comes on the back of claims that strict rules for renting out shared houses is pricing some of the poorest tenants out of Oxford. NLA…
Alex Evans
Corbyn backs campaign against RTB
The labour leadership contest is probably not of that much interest to anyone involved in the property industry at the present time, most people are just happy that Labour and their property unfriendly policies were squashed by the Tory win in the recent election. However a surprise candidate for the leadership of the Labour party…
Alex Evans
OnTheMarket.com achieves record breaking month in July
OnTheMarket.com is pleased to announce another record breaking month of traffic for July with more than 5.2million visits – an increase of 18% on the previous month of June.* It also attracted more than 2.4million unique visitors which was an increase of 17% on June’s figure of more than 2million. Ian Springett, Chief Executive of…
Allen Walkey