Breaking News
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
Council clampdown on renting out unsafe buildings
Landlords who rent out unsafe outbuildings in the Borough of Redbridge are being given a strong message that it will not be tolerated, Redbridge Council has taken action to close 93 outbuildings which have been illegally rented out as accommodation. The authority said many of the outbuildings did not comply with housing safety standards or…
Allen Walkey
Council to buy homes outside of borough
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has created a £10 million fund to buy up homes for temporary accommodation in cheaper parts of the country, it has indicated that the money will be used to purchase a significant number of high quality homes in and around London, M25 area and southern counties of England….
Allen Walkey
Private rent rises cause concern
Official figures show that private rents have risen across England by an average of 2.5% in the last year, this has caused a reaction by Housing campaigners to push the government to act to stem such rises. The Office for National Statistics index of private housing rental prices show the biggest rise was in London…
Allen Walkey
House prices up in July
According to the Nationwide house prices rose on a month on month basis by 0.4% in July, that was in line with with forecasts and followed a fall of 0.2% the previous month of June. Annual growth was also up from 3.3% in June to 3.5% in July. Nationwide economist Robert Gardner reportedly said “After…
Allen Walkey
New Halifax mobile tool for customers on the move.
Halifax has announced today that it has launched a mobile Agreement in Principle (AIP) tool which enables customers to receive an instant lending decision while they are on the move in less than fifteen minutes. This new tool will provide a simpler and more efficient way that customers can get an agreement in principle, they…
Allen Walkey
Interest rate decision time again thursday.
Interest Rate decision time again, this thursday the Bank of England will announce whether interest rates rise or remain the same. New analysis by estate agency Hamptons suggests that a quarter-point jump in rates could add £20 a month to the average UK mortgage; but wide variations in house prices mean that would translate into…
Allen Walkey
Landlords to face jail who rent to illegals.
Illegal immigrants are the focus of a new governemnt crackdown shortly to be included in a forthcoming Immigration Bill, landlords who fail to evict migrants who do not have the right to live in Britain could be jailed for up to five years. Stronger powers will be given to Landlords who will be able to…
Allen Walkey
Branch number 8 for Nock Deighton Estate Agents
It is always a pleasure to highlight good news in the industry especially when it concerns one of the more established independent estate agent groups, Nock Deighton is one of Shropshire’s oldest estate agents, having been formed in 1831, it has just added another branch in Newport, this follows the opening in recent times of branches…
Allen Walkey
Greater transparency to fight fraud.
David Cameron has announced new measures designed to end the use of offshore companies to diguise the purchase of high value UK property with “laundered money,” he was reported as saying that more than 100,000 property titles worth £122 billion are currently registered to offshore companies. His speech followed closely on from the recent report…
Allen Walkey
Countrywide half yearly results
Countrywide PLC interim results posted today: Group income grew to £338.6 million, however, a difficult UK housing market led to £41.0 million of EBITDA versus £45.0 million in the same period last year. Grenville Turner, Chairman at Countrywide plc, commented: “While we remain cautious, we are also optimistic as our broad-based business with diversified revenue…
Allen Walkey