Breaking News
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
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