Search Results for: Mortgages
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Latest property news
Andrews sells it surveying business to SimplyBiz after shifting “core focus”
Britain’s most ethical estate agency group, Andrews, has sold its chartered surveying business to The SimplyBiz Group for an undisclosed sum. Andrews says that after much research, it believes SimplyBiz is a suitable buyer because it shares the “same moral fibre”. Landmark, which turns over approximately £5 million a year according to its latest full-year accounts and achieved a profit margin of 13.5% or £675,700, no longer fits into Andrews’ “core focus”, says Group Chief Executive David Westgate. Landmark is based in Bristol and will transfer over to SimplyBiz without the loss of any of the 55 people the company employs, Andrews has confirmed. The SimplyBiz Group is a rapidly-expanding umbrella company for a range of services and financial products including mortgages and pensions to financial advisers It was launched in 2002 and now claims some 3,500 clients. Within its latest accounts published in July last year Landmark reported that its profits were down 3.5% and turnover by 2%, largely due to the EU Referendum in June 2016, which “considerably affected volumes”. Landmark was set up ten years ago by Andrews and, after at least six years of losses as it gained traction, began making profits four years ago. “Landmark…
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Latest property news
Open Banking makes its debut in the rental market following new service launch
Online rental payments platform CreditLadder says it is the first in its sector to launch an Open Banking service that enables tenants to improve their credit score without the need for a lengthy sign-up service or their landlords’ permission. These restrictions were a key criticism of the tech sector by Lord Bird when he launched his draft Creditworthiness Assesssment Bill recently in the House of Lords. CreditLadder says it has already processed rental payments worth £14 million since starting up in 2016 and claims to be the first service of its kind in the UK to integrate its tech with the Open Banking ‘revolution’. Nine banks in the UK now offer an Open Banking feed or API that enables third parties such as CreditLadder to plug into and read the amount and date of transaction going into people’s bank accounts, if they give permission. The nine banks offering this so far are Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Natwest, RBS, Santander, Nationwide, The Co-Operative Bank, First Direct and TSB. Individual tenants can sign up to the service, but it is also open to letting agents to offer tenants as an ‘add-on’ to their lettings proposition. Credit history CreditLadder records rent payments…
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Latest property news
‘Estate agents are putting too many buyers and sellers under pressure to buy in-house services’
Estate agents are pressuring too many buyers and sellers into using their in-house services to source mortgages, conveyancing, surveys, insurance and EPCs, it is claimed. Campaigning organisation the HomeOwners Alliance surveyed 2,000 buyers and sellers and found that 55% had felt under pressure to buy a mortgage through the estate agent handling the sale, while 49% felt obliged to buy conveyancing services through them. The figure for surveys was slight better at 41% of buyers and sellers, life insurance at 28%, EPC certificates at 17% and home insurance at 12%. The Homeowners Alliance also says their research shows 25% of all sellers and buyers felt under pressure to use an agent’s in-house services of one kind or another, which the organisation claims indicates some 300,000 people every year, based in industry figures. “It’s not good if buyers and sellers feel under pressure to use an estate agent’s services because they are led to believe doing so will put them in a better position for securing their dream home or get them a preferential treatment by the estate agent,” says its Chief Executive Paula Higgins (pictured, left). “They should be encouraged to shop around to find the best deal.” “Any estate…
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Supplier advice
Rent collection made simple
Rent collection is one of the tricky areas of letting, but Tim Rooney explains how a new service, PAID & CO by HomeLet, can expand your offering, using Direct Debit.
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Latest property news
2018: make or break for PropTech
The next twelve months are likely to be a tipping point for technology in the housing market, say the leading PropTech figures.
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Features
How did the big property portals take over the industry?
Andrea Kirkby takes a tour through the property portals 10 years on...
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Features
Why is the property market struggling despite the booming economy?
Many of us say that we need to build more homes, but is that the real issue? Sam Collins, an experienced property developer shares his views on the state of the UK market.
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Features
Are Ltd companies really good for landlords?
Many of your landlords may be forming limited companies to manage their taxes, but, says Jonathan Amponsah at The Tax Guys, it’s not necessarily the right route for all.
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Latest property news
A Question of Property: Liz Brown, MD of Connells, Midlands
How big is your part of Connells? I look after 55 branches and approximately 140 staff in the Midlands for Connells including land, new homes, mortgages services, sales and lettings. Are online/hybrid agents making headway? They were during the first six months of the year when the market was more buoyant, and the instruction-to sale conversion rate was high up at the 80%. It’s then that we saw a considerable take-up among vendors for hybrid agents. But as the market has become tougher, so this has changed. Vendors are realising the hard way that in more difficult markets, you need a little more expertise and proactive support to achieve a sale. You’ve got to know your customer base much better and be able to be able to put chains together. We are picking up instructions from online agents, which fall into two categories. These are either failed online attempts to sell – people who’ve tried online and haven’t sold and who are then seriously annoyed when they have to pay twice. Then there are the people who do get an offer via a hybrid-type agency listing, but the sale goes nowhere, and they have to abandon the offer and start…
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Latest property news
Buy-to-let damaged by govt’s tax and mortgage changes, says leading lender
The Prudential Regulation Authority’s changes last year to the UK’s lending rules for the buy-to-let sector have led to reduced activity in the market, leading lender Paragon has reported in its full-year accounts. Following a review of the buy-to-let market in 2015/2016, the PRA this year raised the standards it expects underwriters to apply to landlords taking out mortgages. This includes greater scrutiny of a landlord’s overall business financials, in particular for portfolio landlords with four or more properties. Paragon also says the additional Stamp Duty that is now paid by landlords buying properties, and the reduction is tax perks for the sector, also contributed to a bad year. Stamp Duty These factors, the lender says, helped drive modest profits within its business over the past year, up from £143.2 to £144.8 million – a rise of just 1.1%. Paragon appears to suggest that the additional red tape has increased its costs, because its buy-to-lending increased by 20% to £1.39 billion last year. And depsite the “disruption” to the market in recent months, the lender says overall demand in Britain’s private rented sector is expected to continue for the “foreseeable future”. “Against this backdrop the Group’s performance has been strong,…
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