Jeremy Blackburn
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Latest property news
As Article 50 trigger looms, RICS says a hard Brexit will damage property sector
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says a hard Brexit may lead to 176,500 EU member state construction workers being forced to leave the UK, or 8% of the total building industry workforce. As the government prepares to trigger Article 50 and steer the UK towards an exit from the European Union, RICS argues that for Brexit to succeed “it is essential to secure access to the EU Single Market or put alternative plans in place to safeguard the property and construction sector”. Research by RICS also revealed that 30% of the construction professional it surveyed believe hiring non-UK workers was important to the success of their business. “Unless access to the single market is secured or alternative plans are put in place, we won’t be able to create the infrastructure needed to enable our cities to compete on a global stage,” says Jeremy Blackburn, Head of Policy at RICS (pictured). “We have said before that this is a potential stumbling block for the Government, which is working to deliver both its Housing White Paper and Industrial Strategy.” A recent report by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan shows that a significant majority of these EU construction workers are based in…
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Latest property news
RICS calls for ‘balance’ in letting agent fees ban
The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors has made an impassioned plea to the government to allow agents to recoup the ‘reasonable costs’ of putting prospective tenants through referencing and credit checks when the letting agent fees ban comes in during 2018. The comments have been made by Jeremy Blackburn, RICS’s Head of UK Policy who yesterday published a blog warning the government that there may be unintended consequences of the ban. He says these include rising rents as landlords pass on the extra costs to tenants and reduced rental stock as smaller and more vulnerable landlords decide to exit the market. Blackburn also says that Build to Rent’s capacity to take up the slack of a shrinking private rented sector is doubtful, but says agents will have at least a year to prepare for the changes. He says the Department of Communities and Local Government has told RICS that they re planning to take the longer route to legislation rather than rushing a ban through, and that this will give the industry until 2018 to prepare. But Blackburn also says he is surprised that agents were caught off-guard by the Chancellor’s announcement last week. “For the industry, early warning signals of…
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Housing Market
The growing supply-demand imbalance is pushing up residential property prices
Residential property prices look set to increase further this year, as demand from buyers continues to heavily outstrip the supply of homes coming on to the market, the latest residential market survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has revealed. The report shows that while 44 per cent more chartered surveyors saw prices rise in July, the supply of homes coming onto the market continued the drop with 22 per cent more surveyors reporting a decline in fresh instructions. Furthermore, the shortage of housing inventory worsened further during July, with the average volume of homes for sale per surveyor falling to an all-time low. As a result, all areas of the UK are now expected to witness property price growth over the next 12 months, with the greatest level of confidence currently being seen in East Anglia and Northern Ireland. RICS expect home prices to be pushed higher on the back of the growing supply-demand imbalance, with 41 per cent of members expecting prices to continue to appreciate over the next three months. Increasing prices does not appear to have deterred buyer interest, with new purchaser enquiries growing for the fourth consecutive month, with 25 per cent of…
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