Housing Market
News covering issues affecting the UK residential property market, house prices, interest rates and buying and selling trends.
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Transactions to drop by 20% if Brexit negotiations are extended
Read how Paul Smith has predicted the likely outcomes for the housing market for several different Brexit outcome including a no deal.
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Mega mansion ban will just push demand elsewhere, claims leading estate agency
The City of Westminster’s recently-announced ban on super-size mansions and apartment knock-throughs will force buyers to look elsewhere in prime London to build ‘mega-homes’, it has been claimed. The comments come from leading prime estate agency Sotheby’s International following last week’s announcement by the London borough that homes over 150 square metres would no longer be given planning permission. “Russian and Middle Eastern buyers favour these super-size homes more than any other clients and whilst we expect them to continue to purchase in this part of London due to the postcode premium it offers, we may very well find these buyers also looking to new London boroughs where they can still create their dream home,” claims Will Tremlett, Sales Associate at Sotheby’s International (left). Westminster says it has set the new limits on property sizes because mega-homes “under-optimise development of Westminster’s scarce land resource”, it says. “It will still enable generously-sized homes to be developed to meet [demand] from the prime market, but balances that against the other more strategic housing need of the city.” Council madness Sotheby’s is not the only agent to point out the contradictions in Westminster’s new housing policy. Trevor Abrahamsohn, MD of Glentree, says the…
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Price cutting intensifies in housing market as Brexit and Xmas break loom
The latest house price index from Rightmove reveals faster-than-usual seasonal softening of prices as Brexit continues to wreak havoc on confidence.
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‘No pets’ tenancy clauses driving thousands to place cats with leading charity
Read how the UK's biggest cats welfare charity has launched a campaign to persuade letting agents and landlords to allow pets in rented homes.
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‘Brexit limbo’ continues except in lively Midlands newbuild housing market, official index reveals
Read how stamp duty and brexit limbo are being blamed for a continuing sluggish housing market around the UK, except in Midlands where prices are rising by 6%.
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Number of people selling via online estate agents doubles, but just 19% get a sale
Read how Zoopla's State of the Nation report on the UK housing market reveals that the number of people using online agents has doubled.
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Home owners staying put for almost two decades on average
Read how research by both Barclays and Savills published over the weekend reveals the time spent in a home between moves has increased dramatically.
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First time buyers replacing landlords but market remains flat, says Nationwide
Read how the latest nationwide house price index reveals a softening price rises but a market saved by growing number of first time buyers.
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Hard Brexit will prompt property slump, says leading rating agency
Read how leading global rating agency Standard & Poor's says the UK will see house prices slump by up to 10% following a hard brexit.
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Builders are not ‘land-banking’ but their homes are too boring, says Letwin review
MP Oliver Letwin’s long-awaited investigation into land-banking by big developers has failed to find proof of the alleged practice. “The review found no evidence that speculative land-banking is part of the business model for major house builders, nor that this is a driver of slow build out rates,” Chancellor Phillip Hammond said during his budget speech yesterday. But big builders are not off the hook. The report also takes a highly critical view of the homes they build and calls for large estates to be constructed more creatively and offer a wider range of home designs. In recent years big developers have been accused by many experts and lobby groups of ‘land banking’ or ‘sitting’ on land for their own financial gain. But Letwin’s review instead points a finger at the uninspiring and ‘homogenous’ nature of the homes they built as the main culprit. His report concludes that too many developments and the properties within them look and feel the same and this makes them harder to sell – or ‘absorb into the market’, as he puts it. Greater diversity To remedy the problem, Letwin recommends that new planning rules are introduced to force site developers containing more than 1,500…
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