The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) is demanding a review of Home Information Packs (Hips) because the slowdown in the housing market means that some of the packs are out of date before a property is sold. The packs were intended to simplify and speed up the house selling process but the majority of [...]
Monthly residential property statistics published by the Government will not be appearing in August because errors have come to light. Under stamp duty requirements, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is advised of completed UK property transactions where values are £40,000 and above. The latest update on house sales was scheduled to be published on 21st [...]
The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) is launching a website that will allow its 10,000 members to advertise properties at no charge. The site should be up and running in October and aims to bring solace to a profession that has been hard hit by the credit crisis. It may also provide strong competition [...]
The National Housing Federation (NHF) is predicting that UK residential property will make a strong comeback from 2010. According to the body, which represent 1,300 not-for-profit housing associations in England, the current market downturn will be followed by five-years of property price inflation, during which the value of homes in England will rise 25%. Working [...]
The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) has reported that first-time buyers are making a tentative return to the housing market. In a survey of its members, the NAEA found that in June first-time buyer sales represented 11.8% of the housing market as compared with 9.8% a year earlier and up from 10.6% in May [...]
Homeowners who have chosen to improve, rather than move in the current market downturn, will be dismayed by new research from Abbey, which suggests that the cost of a home improvements is unlikely to be reflected in a sale price. Falling house prices mean that previously profitable projects can now cost homeowners serious amounts of [...]
Friends Provident is urging homeowners to review their plans for financing retirement, if they have been banking on raising cash from property to provide a nest egg at the end of their working lives. The firm’s head of pensions, Jeremy Ward, warns that if house prices continue to fall, people could find themselves in serious [...]
Rightmove has reported that the average asking price of a UK home fell by 1.8% between June and July, indicating vendors’ acquiescence to a significant market downturn. According to the website, the rate of decline took £4,345 off the asking price of the average property and outstripped the previous record for July when, in 2005, [...]
Homeowners sitting out the credit crisis rather than taking their chances with a “For Sale” board are turning to home improvements. Research from personal loan specialist, GE Money, has revealed that property owners across the UK are improving and extending their dwellings as an alternative to entering a stagnating property market where according to property [...]
A new report on the residential property sector in England and Wales is recommending a number of reforms for the property buying and selling industry. The Carsberg Review was commissioned by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) and the Association of Residential Letting Agents. It criticises the system [...]
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has begun a market study into property management services for common and shared residential property in Scotland. Tenements and other collective residential properties in the region use property managers, known as factors, to manage shared areas such as roofs, staircases, entrances and gardens. The study will look at how [...]
Zoopla.co.uk, the property valuation website, is suggesting that UK residential properties have lost a combined £300 billion in value since the housing market peaked, in September 2007. The firm’s database contains details of 26 million dwellings and the estimate of each property’s value is based on a variety of factors including current asking prices, property [...]
Analysts who specialise in futures trading are forecasting a minimum three-year decline in UK residential property prices that will take 50% off values in real terms. According to experts who predict long-term investment potential, the process will begin with a 10% fall in house prices during 2008, followed by a 10.5% drop in 2009. Prices [...]
Nationwide recorded a 2.5% fall in UK house prices in May, the biggest monthly decline since the building society began keeping records, in 1991. According to the lender, house prices have now fallen for the seventh consecutive month (the longest consecutive period of decline since 1992) taking property values 4.4% below May 2007 levels. Earlier [...]
Latest figures from the Ministry of Justice show a 16% rise in the number of mortgage repossession claims in England and Wales, in the first quarter of the year. While a repossession claim is only the first stage in a legal process and may not end in a homeowner being evicted, the figures show an [...]
M&S Money launches 3% cash ISA
M&S Money has launched an Advantage Cash ISA paying 3 per cent, and which allows transfers in from other ISAs. It can be opened with a minimum deposit of £100 lump sum followed by minimum monthly deposits of £25. The 3% rate is variable, but there is no short-term bonus so the return won’t plummet [...]
Google suspends UK Compare Mortgages site
Google has closed its UK mortgage comparison site which it launched in July last year, after it proved to be less popular than expected. Mortgage comparison sites are designed to allow visitors to compare mortgages quickly and easily without having to visit each lender’s individual site. Google was competing with several well-established comparison sites, including [...]
AA launches ‘black-box’ policy for young drivers
The AA is launching an innovative car insurance policy called Drivesafe which could help younger drivers save up to £850 a year. Younger drivers already pay substantially higher premiums than other motorists and these costs are increasing. A new study by Confused.com suggests insurance costs for younger driver have gone up by 5.7 per cent [...]
ATOL scheme updated to protect online bookers
ATOL, a financial protection scheme managed by the Civil Aviation Authority, is being extended to protect up to six million more holidays a year. The scheme ensures that holiday makers do not lose out financially if a travel company collapses, and that they are not stranded abroad. An increase in the number of holidays booked [...]
Home repossessions lowest for four years
The number of UK homes repossessed fell to 36,200 in 2011, significantly below the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ forecast of 40,000, and lower than 2010 when 37,100 homes were repossessed. With interest rates remaining low and lenders adopting a sympathetic attitude to customers in financial difficulty, repossessions fell to their lowest level since 2007. However, [...]
Monthly pay lasting just 17 days
Workers are running out of money just 17 days after receiving their monthly pay, according to new research by the Halifax bank. This means that the average UK worker spends half the month worrying about money. The study, based on the responses of more than 2,000 adults, found that 10 per cent of workers start [...]
Women disadvantaged by auto-enrolment changes
Government proposals to increase the auto-enrolment threshold to £10,000 could put 1.8 million women at risk of missing out on a pension, the TUC has warned. Under the auto-enrolment scheme, which will be phased in from October, private sector employers will automatically enrol workers between the age of 22 years and the state pension age, [...]
Emergency household repairs company Homeserve is taking longer than expected to get back on track after its operations were suspended last October. The company expected customer numbers to fall by 5% this year but it has increased this estimate to 8% and announced the loss of 200 jobs. It estimates that renewal revenue in 2013 [...]
Sale rumoured for Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks
There is growing speculation that National Australia Bank (NAB) may sell Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank after the Australian parent company announced a strategic review of the two banks’ operations. The Australian economy is performing well and NAB reported strong profits for the final quarter of 2011 but with the UK economy at a virtual [...]
More women experiencing debt difficulties
Women in Debt, which offers female-focused debt advice, has warned that the number of UK women facing serious debt has grown significantly over recent years. The organisation believes that more women will need advice on solving debt problems in the future because they are building up an unsustainable level of indebtedness. Women in Debt’s director, [...]
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