HOUSING NEWS

The number of homes being put on the market is failing to meet demand from buyers, resulting in rising property prices, a report has found. The frequency of “for sale” signs slowed in April, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). One prospective buyer told the BBC that homes with gardens had “disappeared” […]

UK homeowners borrowed a record £11.8bn more on mortgages than they repaid in March, according to figures from the Bank of England. This net borrowing level was the highest of any month since comparable data began in 1993. The market was stoked up by stamp duty holidays and by low mortgage rates. These factors encouraged […]

UK house prices rose by 7.1% compared with a year ago, the Nationwide has said, prompting one analyst to suggest the market is “on the boil”. The building society said the average property price had risen by £15,916 in the last year, to reach £238,831. The Nationwide said increased savings during lockdown meant some first-time […]

The stamp duty holiday in England and Northern Ireland ends on 30 June – but changes to the amount buyers have to pay will then be staggered. The tax has been suspended on the first £500,000 of all property sales in England and Northern Ireland since July 2020. What is the stamp duty holiday? The […]

Share High Street lenders are now starting to offer mortgages to borrowers offering a deposit of just 5% under a new government guarantee scheme. The policy, announced in the Budget, is designed to help more first-time buyers secure a home. But the launch comes as average house prices in the UK continue to rise to […]

The masterplan to help people upgrade the UK’s homes has been “botched” and must be urgently overhauled, MPs say. The environmental audit select committee says the Green Homes Grant (GHG), which offers people up to £10,000 for insulation, is so inept that it is actually damaging the building sector. It adds that 19 million UK […]

House purchase prices will fall back to a similar level seen last year within three months, according to forecasts by Reallymoving. The firm noted that prices paid dropped 2.4 per cent from January to February – the fifth consecutive month of falls and expects this to continue until May. By then it believes prices will […]

House builders that carry out repairs on newly built homes need to be more open about what work has been required, according to the chairman of Parliament’s Housing Committee. Some home owners say they were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) as a condition of repairs being done. The practice was “appalling”, Clive Betts MP […]

New guidance has been released aimed at reducing the number of wall safety surveys being requested by banks and building societies on blocks of flats… Thousands of flat owners have been unable to sell or remortgage because they cannot get the checks done. The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said it would help lenders […]

The extension of the stamp duty holiday will provide relief for people buying and selling homes, according to property group Knight Frank. “The extension is fair because completion dates for buyers and sellers have been jeopardised through no fault of their own,” says Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank. The conveyancing […]