Breaking News
UK House price growth
House prices are on the move up according to various reports, according to the mortgage lender Halifax house prices rose more strongly than expected last month and now the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS) monthly house price balance rose to +21 in March. These reports supported by Bank of England data showing that last…
Allen Walkey
possible legal challenges
Conservative plans as outlined in their manifesto, that would force Housing Associations to sell off homes at a fraction of their value is ruffling a few feathers to say the least, infact it has been reported that there would be legal challenge against any such move. It is still neck and neck at the top…
Allen Walkey
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Allen Walkey