WEEKLY NEWS ROUNDUP – 02/06/2023

A roundup of the week’s top property and proptech news stories in partnership with Proptech-X

 

Property market falters with less sales and lower prices

Despite bullish noises from many agents, as we hit the midpoint of the year, the volume of agreed sales is down, and it is definitely turning into a ‘buyers’ market. Correctly priced housing stock is coming to the market and receiving offers in the first two weeks of listing, vendors flying kites are seeing no viewings.

In some ways with property prices having jumped 23% in 24-months, it was inevitable that there would be a slowdown in house sale prices, the biggest question is will the present patchy market turn into a full blown rout, fuelled by ever increasing mortgage rate costs?

Analysis seems to indicate that completions this year will be around 1.15M, down 18% from last year which was an exceptionally high figure, topping the usual 1.2M mark. But there are other factors at play which may see the property market in the doldrums for two or more years.

The most obvious is that the Bank of England are likely to push lending rates to 5.25% by the autumn, which means that fixed rate deals could be hovering around 6.8% for some buyers, and landlords with commercial mortgages are already facing cripplingly high rates, which means some will exit rather than finance property with only a fractional return on profit.

Despite all that the government is stating, inflation will remain high, headline inflation may fall, but the cost of food and the cost of goods and services, until the Ukrainian war and the aftershock of Brexit works its way through means there is not enough money flowing around.

Read the article in full

Keychain Unveils Innovative Platform for Mortgage Brokers to Modernise Client Interactions

Keychain is rolling out its cutting-edge digital platform for mortgage brokers and their clients. The platform enhances mortgage transactions by modernising key interactions between brokers and clients, including fact finding, document sharing, and e-signing of client care documents.

Keychain’s platform boasts custom workflows tailored to each transaction type. Over the last 18-months the company has worked closely with a group of brokers to develop the product and refine these workflows, ensuring easy and efficient data collection across all clients, from straightforward first-time buyer cases to more involved portfolio landlord transactions.

The company recently secured backing from the Land Registry as part of the Geovation accelerator programme, which supports firms focused on improving property transactions. The programme features financial support of over £100k and access to Land Registry data. Keychain was founded by Jack Rogers, a former Bank of England economist, and Ivan Sivukha, an experienced software engineer.

Read the article in full

Novyy sees Renters (Reform) Bill as a positive for Investors and Landlords

“The Renters (Reform) Bill is a long overdue legislation which will consolidate the business of landlording and encourage serious investors to relook at their long-haul strategy which those who wanted to make a quick buck in property are likely to now shy away. The bill if and when enacted will help institutionalise the Private Rental Sector.” says Ashish Saraff, founder and CEO of Novyy.

It is still early days and industry bodies like NRLA (where we are a member) are engaging with the government to ensure that the final bill is considerate towards landlords as well. The government is looking to review comments from the industry and there is a possibility that some of the covenants will be revised in the final version. It is not yet clear when the Bill will be enacted but whenever that is, it will apply to new tenancies from then and is likely to allow existing tenancies for some amount of cool-off or compliance period.

The government has also committed to introducing the Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector. However, it is not in this bill and will come separately ‘at the earliest available opportunity’.

Read the article in full

Andrew Stanton

CEO & Founder Proptech-PR. Proptech Real Estate Influencer, Executive Editor of Estate Agent Networking. Leading PR consultancy in Proptech & Real Estate.

You May Also Enjoy

Breaking News

Housing Ombudsman’s report demonstrates necessity of vibrant and growing private rental sector

Following a recent report from the Housing Ombudsman titled ‘Spotlight Report: Repairing Trust’, which revealed that 2024/25 witnessed a 474 per cent surge in complaints about poor living conditions compared to 2019/20, Propertymark has stated that this demonstrates the necessity for a vibrant and growing private rental sector. Referencing the UK Government’s ambition to construct…
Read More
Breaking News

Inheritance Tax Receipts raise £1.5 billion in two months

Inheritance tax receipts hit £1.5 billion in the first two months of the current tax year, according to data released by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) this morning. This is £98 million higher than the previous tax year, and continues an upward trend over the last two decades. Nicholas Hyett, Investment Manager at Wealth Club…
Read More
Breaking News

Propertymark Responds to Boiler Scheme Consultation

Responding to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme and Certification requirements for clean heat schemes consultation (England, Wales and Scotland), Propertymark has stressed the concerns of property agents that landlords are struggling to afford energy efficiency improving measures and warn that the scheme must evolve to protect the availability of…
Read More
bank of england interest rate
Breaking News

Industry Reaction to Bank of England’s decision to hold interest rates at 4.25%

Following a previous cut in May, the rate has today been held at 4.25%. This comes as a result of inflation easing slightly to 3.4% (May 2025), but remaining higher than the Bank of England target rate of 2.0%. The decision to hold the base rate by the Monetary Policy Committee was the result of…
Read More
Breaking News

Rents Climb as High as 17.4%

The latest market analysis by London lettings and estate agent, Benham and Reeves, has found that rents across Britain have surged by as much as 17.4% in some areas since the Labour Government adopted the proposed Renters’ Rights Bill which is likely to become law later this Summer after the Bill enters the House of Lords…
Read More
Breaking News

Breaking Property News 19/06/25

Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.   Cloud-based practice management platform launches at Taylor Rose Taylor Rose parent AIIC Group rolls out cloud-based practice management platform AIIC Group (“AIIC”), the legal group behind law firms Taylor Rose, FDR Law and Kingsley Wood, is rolling out a new fully cloud-based practice management…
Read More