Going In Blind – Nasty Surprises For New Home Owners

Slough, BerkshireA survey produced by the insurance firm LV (formerly Liverpool Victoria) found that almost half of people (49%) of those who has bought a new home since the beginning of the year discovered unexpected damage after moving in. Almost a third of people (some 29%) of those who had bought a property already so far this year believe the seller deliberately concealed problems at the property during the sale.
To read the whole article, click here.

The Property Market Monthly Fact File – June 2014

fowey hall foweyThe 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 help many persons with an interest in property gain an accurate view of what is happening in the UK property market as a whole.
To read the monthly fact file, click here.

House prices surge beyond £1m in 43 areas

New report identifies 43 locations where houses now sell for an average of more than £1 million, including several outside London. Compiled by estate agents Savills and analysts Property Database, the document also charts how house prices have risen over the past decade.

Some areas have outstripped the national average of 29.7% over the last 10 years by over 10 times and 34 of the 43 areas averaging over £1m are in Greater London, including Knightsbridge and Belgravia at No. 1.

Cities excelling outside of London include Bath, Oxford and Cambridge.

If you are thinking of investing this sort of money in a property, a report by a Chartered Surveyor will substantially mitigate the risk of your investment and help you manage your new home. Find your local surveyor at www.propertysurveying.co.uk

As Energy prices rise more than 10%, can they be justified and what is the solution? Depends on who you ask…

What's behind the energy price hikes?

Consumers have in recent weeks been hit by price rises of up to 11.1 per cent – equating to between £100-200 extra per year on the typical household’s fuel bill. A number of the “Big Six” energy firms have claimed that the increases are because of rising wholesale prices, but recent data doesn’t support this.

Statistics released from Ofgem, the energy regulator, suggests that wholesale prices rose by only 1.7 per cent over the last year – a mere fraction of the levels energy companies are attempting to justify. The figures will undoubtedly prompt fury across the country as homeowners prepare for winter and questions are aksed as to what the real reason is for these rises?

We look into the issues, the real reasons and potential solutios here…

Are you one of the est. 1,400,000 landlords not paying their full tax liability?

HMRC wants property landlords to declare all property income and capital gains and to pay what’s due to the government before the January deadline. For the UK’s 500,000 landlords already registered with HMRC this is business as usual. But estimates put the real number of landlords at between 1.4-1.9 million.

Why the big deficit and what tax mistakes are all too common? Read on here

Foxes, hares and rabbits all in decline – but deers boom

www.PropertySurveying.co.uk

urban foxes - a dying breed?Despite frequent tales of the deviance and destruction wrought by urban foxes and a strong media presence concerned with explaining, educating and protecting against their impact, a new study in the European Journal of Wildlife Research has shown that numbers in the UK are actually down by 20% in the last two decades.

This is despite the hunting ban of 2004 . Deer numbers, on the other hand, are exploding – with 181% growth for Reeve’s muntjac and 89% for fallow deer.

Is nostalgia fast becoming a luxury we cannot afford?

A recent report from London Councils, a body representing all 33 of London’s local authorities, has suggested that only 250,000 new homes will be delivered by 2021 in the nation’s capital – a long way below the target of 800,000 they believe is required to maintain London’s future as a global city.

In which case, do contruction companies need to be incentivised to take a very serious look at alternative technologies and construction techniques – moving towards faster erection times over meeting Design Quality Indicators?

Read the whole article here

Property Price Watch

After a period of relative calm when it comes to property and land prices, new growth and renewed optimism is throwing up stories from across the UK of fresh booms and inflating prices. We look at three items we have selected from land and property in an article published in our monthly newsletter for September.

Read the whole article here

A Property Owning Democracy?

What was Thatcher’s True Property Legacy?

On the day of her public funeral, we issued a special, single-article edition of our newsletter, analysing through editorial comment the legacy the late Baroness Thatcher leaves to the UK property market.

Baroness Margaret Thatcher’s death has prompted vigorous debate on the matter of her controversial political legacy. In the wake of the passing of a woman described as “the most admired, most hated, most idolised and most vilified public figure of the second half of the 20th century”, we analyse the indelible mark she left on the British property market…

Read the rest of this popular article at this link.

Man in Cardiff reduces own home to rubble with sledgehammer

cardiffbuildingsurveyors.co.uk – A brother has demolished his own home in Cardiff over a will dispute that has dragged on 7 years.

Reaching the end of his wits, Mr McGuire took a sledgehammer to his semi-detached house to demolish the extensions and additions he had made to it during an 8 year residency (for which he had reputedly invested £200,000).  Police stood by powerless as he destroyed the private property.

If you have a property issue in Cardiff, put down the sledgehammer and call your local Chartered Surveyor to assist and represent you.