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Welcome to the Property Advice Newsletter
Written by Independent Chartered Surveyors
of the UK wide network of Property Professionals

www.PropertySurveying.co.uk

Publication date: August 2017

In this month's edition ... we look at the updated Money Laundering regulations, discuss how some communities are using the Neighbourhood Plan to control local development, ask why we are still building on floodplains, and discover how much could be lost in tax revenue due to unregistered buy-to-let landlords ...

The Property Market Monthly Fact File

The property market fact file is a collection of data compiled each month by our Chartered Surveyors and the propertysurveying.co.uk team; collating survey data, statistics, trends and information from the property market. This aims to provide a single place where anyone with an interest in UK property can find the information they need.

Money Laundering Regulations update takes effect

In an attempt to further address the estimated £24 billion a year 'generated' by organised crime, the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 came into effect on 26th June 2017. The new regulations repeal and replace the Money Laundering Regulations 2007.

The changes are significant for property professionals, particularly those with connections to estate agency.

Neighbourhood Development Plans used to limit the building of second homes Neighbourhood Development Plans (NDPs) enable local people to have their say on the development of their area, including where houses, schools and businesses should be built, how they should look and what infrastructure needs to be in place in order to support the development. Communities around the country are reaping the rewards of adopting a NDP, as planning applications are influenced by strong local opinion. In the majority of referenda, local turnout has been over 80%.

Water facts and how to save water in the home One billion people worldwide are still without access to clean water. Many exist on only ten litres per day, which is as little as a single toilet flush. Millions of people are displaced each year through water shortages - more than the number fleeing war zones. By 2025, it is estimated that over two billion may be without access to water. A third of the water available to us in the UK is lost through leaky pipework before it even reaches us.

Why are we still building on floodplains? Following a twelve month study, a Salford University team estimates that 90 per cent of floodplains across England have been altered so extensively that they no longer work as they would in their natural state. The report predicts that flooding will worsen unless action is taken to reverse the damage.

Build-to-Rent housing scheme proposed for Belfast

In 1991, the population of Belfast City Centre was half what it was in 1926 but, after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, it has become one of the fastest-growing economies of the thirty largest cities in the UK over the last decade, while having one of the lowest city centre populations in Europe.

In a proposed £12 million scheme that will be the first of its kind in Northern Ireland, developers have announced plans to build Belfast's first large scale 'build-to-rent' housing scheme.

Intergenerational care - Channel 4's Old People's Home for 4 Year Olds says: 'Improving older people's lives is child's play'

Residents of a retirement village in Bristol shared daily activities with ten four-year olds from local Bristol pre-schools, over a six week period, as part of a two-part programme broadcast in August 2017.

Legal and General enters retirement property market

FTSE 100 company, Legal and General, has entered the retirement property market in a direct and quick way by buying the Inspired Villages Group.

Buy-to-let tax fraud costing UK government one billion pounds every year

A University of London professor says we should "all be very angry" with the government, as he estimates that losses in undeclared tax from buy-to-let landlords could be as much as one billion pounds annually.

And Finally.... 

'Constable Country' village looking to change address

Upset that Babergh District Council has 'ignored the neighbourhood plan', the villagers of East Bergholt in Suffolk are campaigning to defect to Essex.

This newsletter is a free service by PropertySurveying.co.uk for those with an interest in the UK Property Market. As well as being posted online here, it is emailed direct to our subscribers all across the country.