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Latest property news
Is the Brexit effect finally over? Conveyancers and lenders report improving property market
Both conveyancers and mortgage lenders say the property market has recovered significantly in recent months, signalling a return to ‘business as usual’ in many areas of the country. This includes the workload of conveyancing solicitors which has risen to its highest for a year, with some firms experiencing an increase of up to 27% over the past three months, says data firm Search Acumen. Its Market Tracker reveals that transactions “bounced back” between July and September compared to the previous three months, when transactions nosedived. Between July and September conveyancing volumes increased from 210,964 to 254,606 or 21% between the two quarters. Search Acumen says the increase in case-load came directly from an improvement in the property market. But although the number of homes being sold has surged ahead recently, Search Acumen says the property market still has some way to go before it returns to complete health; transactions levels are still 6% down year-on-year, it says. “After the noticeable dip in conveyancing activity revealed by the Q2 2017 edition of the Market Tracker, it’s encouraging to see an uptick in activity through the summer period,” says Andrew Lloyd, Managing Director of Search Acumen (pictured, left). “The conveyancing industry has broadly…
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Latest property news
GoCompare board rejects offer by ZPG to buy company
ZPG has confirmed it has made an offer to buy insurance, mortgages and loans comparison site GoCompare.com but, after the deal was leaked yesterday, is now “considering its position”. Both ZPG, the parent company of Zoopla and PrimeLocation, and GoCompare have confirmed that ZPG made an unsolicited offer to buy the comparison website at £1.10 a share to be paid for in ZPG shares, valuing it at £460m. “This was unanimously and unequivocally rejected by the Board which believed that it fundamentally undervalued the business and its prospects,” a GoCompare statement says. “Since May, [we have] delivered H1-2017 results which were ahead of expectations.” GoCompare also says the offer, which was made last waeek, represented a discount on the value of the company based on its 11 October 2017 share price of £110.5p, although the offer was considerably higher than its later share price of 0.95p on 7th November. Opportunistic offer “ZPG’s Proposal is highly opportunistic and fundamentally undervalues the Company and its prospects,” says the comparison website’s Chairman Sir Peter Wood (pictured, below). GoCompare only recently demerged from motor and home insurance specialist Esure after which, in November 2016, its share price stood at 74.5p valuing the company at…
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Latest property news
Fine & Country signs up to IAM Sold ‘modern method’ of auctions
Fast-growing auction provider IAM Sold has signed up its first prime property agent, Fine & Country, and is preparing to roll out its white-labelled service among the agency’s participating franchisees early next year. The deal will add Fine & Country’s 200 franchised branches to IAM Sold’s existing network of 1,900 branches. The Park Lane based prime property market agency brand, which shares a parent company with The Guild of Property Professionals, made the decision to sign up with IAM Sold because it believes auctions are no longer the preserve of the lower end of the property market. Fine & Country has already sold its first property through an IAM Sold auction, despite the ink still being wet on the contract. This was a four-bedroom Edwardian detached house in Longfield, Kent (pictured) which, after 21 viewings and 34 bids, sold for £1.562 – 84% over its £850,000 starting price. “We are very excited about our partnership with IAM Sold,” says David Lindley, CEO of Fine & Country (pictured, left). “The modern method of auction is no longer reserved for homes at the bottom end of the market. Some of our sellers need to move quickly, so Fine & Country Auctions is…
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Resources
Rising rents across the UK
UK Rents rose by more than two per cent during September, new HomeLet figures reveal.
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Latest property news
Countrywide results reveal digital ‘pause’ to evaluate hybrid roll-out
The latest Countrywide results for the third quarter of the year show year-on-year revenue increased by 2% compared to the previous three months, but was down by 7% year-on-year. And after rolling out its hybrid/digital proposition across half of its network, and despite CEO Alison Platt revealing last week at the Negotiator Conference that its digital Every Customer Counts strategy was delivering better performance, the trading statement suggests this roll-out has now been paused while the company evaluates the strategy’s results so far. But the bullish headline figures in the trading statement also mask some alarming figures from the sales market. Countrywide’s estate agency business’ revenues dropped by £10m or 23% to £47.8m even though transaction levels increased compared to the first two quarters of the year. Countrywide results Compared to the previous quarter, overall revenues increased by 1.5% in London and by 2% across the UK, while its lettings business saw a decline of £2 million year-on-year. Highlights of the quarter include the company’s mortgages business where total lending increased by 16% year-on-year to £4.7 billion although overall its financial services division revenue dipped as property sales continued to decline. “We have a clear strategy founded on being the…
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Latest property news
Next year is make or break for proptech, say leading portal exec
The next twelve months are going to be a tipping point for technology in the housing market, two of the industry’s leading proptech figures have said. Speaking at this week’s conference organised by The Negotiator at The London Hilton hotel, Paul Whitehead, Chief Strategy Officer at ZPG and James Morris-Manual of 3D tours platform Matterport both made the prediction, although from different perspectives. Paul (pictured, below) told the audience of agents that although the past two years had seen a huge “flurry of activity” in the proptech world, he thought it was time for them to deliver. “A lot of these businesses are getting to the point where there needs to be either good traction in terms of customer usage or product deployment”. “I think the rubber needs to start hitting the road a little bit and the next year will see of the proptech companies either coming through and making a success of it, but inevitably some are going to fail too.” ZPG has invested in or struck partnerships with several proptech start-ups including neighbourhood info platform PropertyDetective, repairs company Fixflo, peer-to-peer lender Landbay and online mortgages firm Trussle. James from Matterport (pictured below) said he agreed that the…
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Latest property news
Interest rate rise – will it turn the dials in the housing market?
The decision by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to introduce an interest rate rise of 0.25% a percent to 0.5% in order to keep inflation in check was applauded in most business circles as a prudent first move to ‘sensible’ interest rates after nearly eight years of rock bottom rates. The move is intended to dampen down the economy mildly and rein-in inflation, which currently stands at 3% and is expected to peak higher than that before the MPC’s measures kick in. Bank of England Mark Carney said the inflation increases were due largely to the weakening of Sterling following the Brexit vote. “The decision to leave the European Union is having a noticeable impact on the economic outlook,” he said. “We need to support the economy during this adjustment process.” But what does the property industry think of an interest rate rise? Russell Quirk of eMoov, who was first out of the blocks into the news studios yesterday, said the rise would only add £16 a month the average mortgage holder and would be “water off a duck’s back for those with a fixed rate security blanket”. But what did the rest of the industry think.…
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Latest property news
Hybrid rollout is delivering results, claims Countrywide CEO
Countrywide CEO Alison Platt yesterday made a robust defence of the company’s recently-launched digital hybrid offering, saying it has improved the performance of the businesses within which it’s been rolled out. In June last year Countrywide introduced what is essentially a parallel hybrid offering at the branches of several brands including Austin & Wyatt, Frank Innes and Spencers, where customers are offered a low-cost digital-only services both in-branch and on each agency’s websites, as well as their more expensive high street offering. Alison says the roll-out, which so far covers 25% or more of all its branches and is part of a strategy called Every Customer Counts, enables vendors to upgrade from Countrywide’s fixed-price online offering at any point to its full high street service, if they “feel they need the extra help and support”. “For the business, the brands where we’ve rolled out Every Customer Counts have seen better performance at every step of the journey, increased traffic, more valuations, better conversion, improved sales progression and increased revenue,” Alison said. Online mortgages The Countrywide CEO also revealed that the company will be launching its much-discussed online mortgage offering for both consumers and brokers and that leading tech firm Blenheim…
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Features
What’s behind the government’s attack on buy-to-let?
Does the Government really hate buy-to-let landlords? Andrea Kirkby investigates the changing focus on housing tenure.
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Latest property news
HSBC: 93% UK buyers’ homesearch is online
UK house hunters are the global leaders in online property research according to an HSBC study which found that 93 per cent of UK homebuyers use online channels for their property search, ahead of the global average of 83 per cent.
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