Property News

The China Cafe trompe l'oeil decorates a building in St Austell, Cornwall

China plan to solve housing crisis

The Chinese housing market went into crisis in 2020 following the government's introduction of a strict debt policy. The sudden decision to stop the flow ...
Money to buy property anti-money laundering register AML

Annual value and number of homes sold in England down by almost half

The value of homes sold in England during 2023 was around half that of 2022, according to an analysis by eXp UK, the platform for ...
ruined building

Council forcing sale of private property over owner’s debt of £800

Cumberland Council has started a process of enforced purchase on a property that has not been lived in for twenty years. The body has been ...
House plans for a traditional house

Older home owners choose not to downsize

It is estimated that every month the average homeowner spends an extra £100, and 12.6 hours of their time, running and maintaining a property that ...
build the house wording written on house

Perils of a Shared Appreciation Mortgage

Between 1996 and 1998, Barclays Bank and Bank of Scotland offered a type of mortgage known as the Shared Appreciation Mortgage. The product was interest ...
London skyline

Property register fines of £1 billion not yet enforced

Analysis by the BBC reveals that the UK has not yet imposed fines of up to £1 billion on foreign companies for violating a landmark ...
Old stone steps leading to house and home

Ditching Manchester property for un beau reve

A British couple have swapped the hectic nine-to-five of city life and their Manchester property for the more relaxed lifestyle of a historic village in ...
The reluctant gardener pot plants London banned ornaments

Pot plants banned for safety reasons

Greenwich Council has enraged the residents of a London estate by imposing a blanket ban on garden ornaments, benches and pot plants, even sending in ...
house keys to your new home

Purplebricks online estate agent sells for £1

Online estate agent, Purplebricks, has been purchased for £1 in a rescue deal by rival estate agent, Strike, after the company claimed to be just ...
Floor boards on stairs

Private landlords aren’t the only problem, Mr Gove

It is the policy of most Housing Associations to remove floor coverings between tenancies, often leaving bare floors in its place at the start of ...
building materials

UK property investment firm collapses

The collapse of a UK property and construction firm has left investors out of pocket to the tune of £30 million. The company has been ...
Bamboo no better than Japanese Knotweed

Bristol builds back garden homes to resolve housing shortage

Bristol City Council is supporting a local charity to help tackle the local housing shortage, in conjunction with the Charity, We Can Make, which is ...
new house report housebuilding UK

Mortgage default predicted for thousands of households

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has warned that thousands of households could be forced to default on their mortgages over the next two years. The ...
Electrical system in the home

Lack of electricity may delay house building

Housing developers and local councils have been warned by the Greater London Authority (GLA) that a lack of capacity in the power network may limit ...
House plans of a traditional older building

Property investors accuse FCA of failure

The Financial Conduct Authority failed to act on warnings that a Manchester-based investment scheme  used suspect techniques between 2016 and 2018 to sell to ordinary ...
London high street property

Birds of a feather nesting in London’s posh areas

Wealthy property buyers have bought nearly three billion pounds worth of property in London in the first half of 2022, according to Savills. Among these, ...
London skyline

London property developer loses billion pound contract

A  redevelopment contract with a Chinese property developer worth one billion pounds has been terminated by the Greater London Authority after years of inactivity. Advanced ...
Dawn breaks over the River Cam

Council with local housing shortage markets new homes overseas

Around 500 new homes on two sites are being built in Cambridge in a partnership between the council and property developer, the Hill Group. Around ...
New houses housing market stamp duty

Property ownership struggles predicted

This month, interest rates rose to a 13-year high of 1%, as the Bank of England increased the Bank Rate in a bid to tackle ...
image of house keys

Canada proposes ban on foreign home buyers

Since the pandemic, Canada's housing market has suffered from a low supply of available homes and soaring housing costs that have increased by more than ...
New houses roofs property mortgage highest multiple

Lenders predict house price slowdown

Mortgage lender, Halifax, has said house price growth is likely to slow down "considerably" over the next year, despite the likelihood that housing supply will ...
sign Purplebricks online estate agent

Online estate agent facing compensation claims

The failure to properly serve legal documents on behalf of landlords has potentially left Purplebricks open to compensation claims. Since its set up in 2012, ...
substantial property in Wales

Who benefits most from house price rises?

A recent study has concluded that the rich have benefited most from the house price boom, in particular Londoners. Research by the Resolution Foundation and Abrdn ...
Robin Hood rental cottage to let sign displayed in house window

South West home affordability at breaking point

Home affordability is under more strain, as an analysis of figures released by the government reveals the number of second homes in England undergoing change ...
Building works at house

Worst builder in Britain … or angry builder and typical home improver?

A home owner in Leicester has accused his 'angry builder' of demolishing his property with a digger. The five bedroom property at 26 Guildford Road ...
Rural Commission report on Yorkshire

Trying to get on the map? Be careful what you wish for

In 2019, the Withernsea Pier and Promenade Association, representing the town of Withernsea in the East Riding of Yorkshire, asked for help in getting the ...
online property advertising boom

Online property advertising boom

Some people are looking for a new property to buy. Others are simply interested in keeping an eye on the local property market in our ...
overseas property investment in regions

Regions attracting property investment from overseas

As city-dwellers seek to move out of the capital towards a better life in the country, it seems that foreign investors are following suit. After ...
New homes

Persimmon sales higher than before pandemic

The UK's largest new home builder has reported revenues of £1.84 billion for the first six months of 2021, higher than the record revenues the ...
roof work on building

Housing less affordable in many OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries

The UK is not the only country suffering from less affordable, high quality housing - in fact, many of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and ...
planning application

Totnes community building project gazumped

The well established plans of a local community group to build affordable homes have been thwarted, after a property developer gazumped them to purchase the ...
old brickwork

Whinger moves in to silence 110 year old noise

The village of Kenton in South Devon sits on the doorstep of the impressive Powderham Castle, on the banks of the River Exe south of ...

‘Saddest ever’ house build may actually be completed in 2021!

Fans of television’s Grand Designs will remember the enormous, modernist ‘light house’ that was built to replace a family’s North Devon clifftop family home – ...
London skyline

City of London converts offices to houses

As the UK moves steadily out of lockdown, businesses are reconsidering the long-term ongoing working arrangements of their employees. Many employers have found it a ...
image of Spon Street in Coventry which contains medieval houses and shop buildings as well as modern properties

Chartered Surveyors 2021 ‘manifesto’ published

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has published its new 'manifesto' prior to the  English local elections in May 2021. RICS represents over 80,000 ...
image of house keys

Estate agency put on red alert list

The pandemic has suited some businesses rather better than others, but one estate agency has found itself on a red alert list, thanks to its ...
Robin Hood rental cottage to let sign displayed in house window

Gwynedd hits back at second home owners

Gwynedd Council has announced it will increase its council tax premium for second home owners and long-term empty property in the 2021/2022 financial year. The ...
disused building survey roof collapse

Flipping property

England and Wales are enjoying a 12-year high in the number of homes that are 'flipped'. Flipping property is the term used for properties that ...
new build properties large house builders

Bradford new build homes worthless

Homeowners in Bradford have been advised to take legal action against their conveyancing solicitors for negligence, after the new build homes they bought in 2014/15 ...
Robin Hood rental cottage to let sign displayed in house window

Warning of economic clearance in rural areas

Mirroring many other rural communities around the UK, Islanders in the Hebrides and Skye are becoming fearful of being priced out of their local housing ...
MDR rules changing

Demand for homes surges, but not due to stamp duty holiday

The government has announced a stamp duty holiday until 31st March 2021, with property news sites widely reporting that, just a fortnight after the announcement, ...
Extract from new Property Agent regulation report

Unscrupulous ‘quick sale’ estate agents leave homeowners stranded

The government has been called on to instigate the reforms to estate agency that were detailed in a report by the Regulation of Property Agents ...

Energy companies overcharging household customers

The energy regulator Ofgem has forced the UK's largest independent energy supplier, Ovo Energy, to pay £8.9 million to a voluntary redress scheme to help ...

43% rise in empty private homes in Wales

In May 2019, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said the number of empty homes in England in October 2018 was 634,453, ...

New-build homes falling down before they can catch fire

Home owners in Kent fear their new home is unsafe after they were awoken in the middle of the night with a ‘massive crash’ as ...

Gove makes £870,000 at taxpayers’ expense as MPs handed £42 million gift

A 'property bonanza' of second homes sales has given 160 MPs a windfall of £42 million, paid for in part by taxpayers. Until the expenses ...

English Housing Survey

The latest national English Housing Survey 2017/18 headline report has been published. This is the first release of data from the annual survey that will ...

Countrywide fined over money laundering failures

Estate agent Countrywide has received a £215,000 fine from HMRC for failing to ensure that policies, controls and procedures regarding money laundering are upheld within ...

Basildon Council sells £1 million land for £1 – we’ll offer £2 (stc)!

Basildon Borough Council is planning to sell a five acre parcel of vacant land for £1 to a 26-year old property developer who plans to ...

To Let estate agent boards banned in Lincoln

Estate agents' 'To Let' boards could be banned from some areas of Lincoln, after the government gave the City Council permission to prohibit them. Complaints ...

Government scheme lets housebuilder triple profits in six years

Negative publicity has dogged the highly profitable Help to Buy market, and the housing minister, James Brokenshire, is reviewing the continued inclusion of new build ...

Doctors owe £422m of unpaid property payments

NHS Property Services, which manages around 10% of the National Health Service’s estate, was set up less than six years ago, to run NHS properties ...

Barry homebuyers move in despite enforcement action

Planning permission was originally granted at South Quay Parkside, Barry Waterfront, on condition that no properties would be occupied until a range of District Centre ...

Is ‘down valuation’ myth – or fact?

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has responded to industry reports that ‘down valuations’ are making it difficult for buyers to obtain a mortgage. Estate ...

Can’t afford to switch to a cheaper deal? Help on the way for (some) ‘mortgage prisoners’

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) estimates there to be around 30,000 ‘mortgage prisoners’ in the UK, and a further 120,000 home buyers tied to a ...

First recorded rise in home ownership in 13 years

New official data released by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show that 62.6% of the 23.9 million homes in England are now ...

Landlords accuse retailers of abusing CVA system

Company Voluntary Arrangements (CVAs) are being abused, according to the British Property Federation (BPF), as House of Fraser has become the latest retailer to restructure ...

400,000 homes deemed ‘virtually unmarketable’ by estate agents

The number of registered sex offenders has risen by over a third in England and Wales over the last five years with more than 40,000 ...

Estate Agents still walking through the minefield that is advertising standards

The advertising rules regulator, Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) has criticised the industry for ‘repeat problems’ in advertising.  It has called for immediate action and ...

Legal and General Enter Retirement Property Market

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

First time buyer struggles to get on the housing market

While recent changes in Stamp Duty Land Tax will benefit the first time buyer, making lower-priced property more affordable, the tax will further increase government revenue on more ...