HOUSING NEWS

The governments said it does not plan to extend the temporary relief offered to house buyers via the stamp duty holiday. More than 22,000 people signed a petition calling for the stamp duty holiday to be extended for six months after 31 March 2021. The petition stated: “Extending the stamp duty holiday for an additional six-months […]

Sales of homes continued to rise ahead of Christmas, but surveyors are expecting a slowdown early next year. Many buyers have been trying to benefit from temporary stamp duty holidays, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said. But there were signs that demand was “losing a bit of steam” in some areas of the […]

UK house prices are 6.5% higher than a year ago – the sharpest rise for nearly six years, the Nationwide has said. The acceleration came as the housing market remained “robust” despite the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the lender said. House prices were 0.9% higher in November than in October, with the average […]

Safety checks that left thousands of people unable to sell their flats after the Grenfell disaster are being eased. Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said homes without cladding would no longer need an EWS1 external wall safety certificate – which involves a survey. Thousands of people have been refused mortgages on flats because owners have been […]

Diane, a mother of two, knows what it’s like to be trapped on a mortgage that charges more than double the market interest rate. Over 10 years, she has paid more than £55,000 more in interest than she would have paid on a competitive mortgage. That’s far more than the arrears that she fell into […]

The cost of the typical UK home has risen to more than £250,000 for the first time, according to the UK’s biggest mortgage lender. The Halifax, part of Lloyds Banking Group, said house prices in October were 7.5% higher than a year ago. Demand for bigger homes had risen, with changing priorities and working from […]

House prices rose at their fastest rate for five years in October as buyers raced to beat next year’s stamp duty deadline, the Nationwide has said. Annual house price growth accelerated to 5.8%, taking the average price to £227,826, the lender said. At the moment, buyers of homes valued at up to £500,000 in England […]

There is very little detail on the idea of supporting first-time buyers with small deposits with new long-term mortgages. Mortgages that offer 95% of a property’s value have been a fairly commonplace feature of the market, but have always been more expensive, reflecting their risk. In recent weeks they have spiked in cost, and become […]

Banks are required to fill out a survey detailing how a zero or negative bank rate will affect services, how reliant they are on third parties to accommodate the change, as well as the time and costs needed to implement the rate change.  In the letter, Sam Woods, deputy governor and CEO of the Prudential Regulation […]

First-time buyers have been finding it particularly hard to buy a property since the pandemic began as lenders have cut maximum loan to values (LTVs). The stamp duty holiday in England and Northern Ireland was also granted to landlords and second home owners, further squeezing those looking to buy their first home as house prices […]