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More help for first-time buyers and plans for homes on the High Street have been announced in the Budget. Most first-time buyers of shared ownership properties will now no longer pay stamp duty, under the measures. Chancellor Philip Hammond also said that the Help to Buy scheme would end in 2023 – an extension of […]

Further evidence of the slow-down in the property market has emerged, with fewer people taking out new mortgages to buy a home. Britain’s High Street banks approved 38,505 such loans in September, a drop of 10.1% on the same month last year. It is the third month in a row that the number of approvals […]

  A rise in the Bank rate in August had little effect on the number of mortgages advanced during the month, new figures show. The Bank of England increased its benchmark interest rate for only the second time in a decade, up from 0.5% to 0.75%. There were 38,000 new mortgages completed by home movers […]

About 40% of young adults cannot afford to buy one of the cheapest homes in their area even with a 10% deposit, according to a new research. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said house prices in England have risen by 173% over two decades. But average pay for 25-34 year-olds has grown by just 19% over […]

Thomas Paris says that shared ownership suited his circumstances Thomas Paris was fed up. He was living in a “horrible ground floor flat” in Bristol and paying rent to a landlord with little inclination to spruce up the one-bedroom home. “I was sick of asking for things to be done to make it an environment […]

House prices in the North West rose the fastest in the UK compared with a year ago, according to official figures. Annual growth in property values in the region stood at 5.6% by July, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. The biggest fall was in London, where prices dropped by 0.7% year-on-year. However, the […]

Owners of leasehold properties could be compensated after the terms of their purchases were “not explained” to them by solicitors, a legal expert says. Some owners have said they may not have bought their houses because leaseholds “can put you in financial ruin”. A number of legal firms are investigating cases across Wales and England, […]

The Bank of England’s governor has warned the cabinet that a chaotic no-deal Brexit could crash house prices and send another financial shock through the economy. Mark Carney met senior ministers on Thursday to discuss the risks of a disorderly exit from the EU. His worst-case scenario was that house prices could fall as much […]

Annual UK house price growth continued to slow over the summer with homes now 2% more expensive than a year ago, the Nationwide has said. The building society said that the annual change had fallen from growth of 2.5% in July to 2% in August. Average property prices had actually fallen by 0.5% in August […]

Investors in Countrywide. the UK’s largest estate agency owner, have approved a £140m emergency fundraising at the company’s annual meeting. The company owns 50 brands including Bairstow Eves and Hamptons International and employs 8,000 people. A £200m debt pile and difficult trading conditions have forced Countrywide to raise funds to stay afloat. Its decision to […]