Breaking News
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
Cheaper to buy rather than rent
When it comes to deciding whether to rent or buy, figures favour buying as the best option, research shows that almost £700 a year in savings can be made by the FTB, this figure however has narrowed as house prices have increased, a savings drop of 34% recorded over the last year. The biggest hurdle…
Allen Walkey
Licensing Welsh landlords and letting agents
Wales certainly appears to be leading the way when it comes to improving letting and management standards for those who rent private accomodation, this autumn the Welsh government will introduce a new law affecting all landlords and letting agents. A new registration and licensing scheme, a key part of The Housing (Wales) Act 2014 will…
Allen Walkey
Response by Shelter to housing shortage
Yesterday in”Breaking News” we had the House Building statistics for England, they were released by the Department of Local Communities and Local Government, amongst all their figures appearing on the Government website it was stated that 131,060 homes have been built over the last year, an increase of 15 per cent compared with the previous…
Allen Walkey
CLG housing completions and starts
The Department of Local Communities and Local Government (CLG) have today released House Building Statistics for June quarter 2015 in England. Seasonally adjusted house building starts in England are estimated at 33,280 in the June quarter 2015, a 14 per cent decrease compared to the previous quarter, the seasonally adjusted level of starts in the…
Allen Walkey
Landlords need to take notice.
In an effort to emphasise the importance of Landlords providing safe and comfortable accomodation for their tenants we are highlighting what can be the end result for a Landlord who does not conform. An article in the Newham Recorder explains how council officers visited a 3 bedroomed maisonette in Forest Gate in July2012 after receiving…
Allen Walkey
BBC Property Expert Opens Estate Agency with a ‘Difference’ in West Cheshire.
An estate agent who co-presented a popular BBC property programme has opened a new venture in West Cheshire. Scott Lucy enjoyed four years working on the “Living in the Sun” series with Nadia Sawalah and the late Kristian Digby where he was its Spanish Property Expert. The father of two has now swapped the Costa…
Christopher Walkey
Housing fraud.
Fraud that is connected anyway with housing such as benefits fraud, or obtaining housing by deception appears to be high on the agenda of councils, housing associations and social security, they appear to be going to great lengths to investegate people who are abusing the system in such a way. The punishment however appears to…
Allen Walkey
Rise in the average house price in UK
UK average house prices rose by 5.7% in the year to June to hit £277,000, up from a rise of 5.6% in the year to May, that according to the Office of National statistics. These figures were reflected by rises in England , Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland however saw a drop for the first…
Allen Walkey
Persimmon reports increase in pre-tax profits
Housebuilder Persimmon reports pre-tax profit has surged by almost a third on the back of solid revenue growth, continued improvement in operating profitability and a strengthening of the company’s financial position. Pre-tax profit for the six months ended 30 June were £272.8m from £208.9m in the first half of last year, on revenue of £1.33bn,…
Allen Walkey
Record house sales for Bovis
Bovis homes the Kent based house builder reported that it had completed 1,525 homes in the six months to the end of June, a 3% rise on a year ago, which saw pre-tax profits lift 9% to £53.8 million, selling prices jumped 10% in the same period to £264,200. Bovis stated that the market experienced…
Allen Walkey