Jeremy dunscombe
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Latest property news
House hunters are returning to the property market, claims Rightmove
The latest house price index from Rightmove reveal rising home hunter activity, an increase in properties coming to market, and asking prices going up in all but one region of the UK. Also, the portal says the contraction in the number of homes being sold in recent months is now losing steam. Its figures, which are for January, reveal that the average asking price has increased by 0.8% across the UK; that the number of properties coming to market rose by 2%; and that agent stock held steady (see graph, right). Also, the number of homes sold contracted by only -1.6% during January, compared to -5.5% in the final quarter of 2017. As well as reporting record traffic to its website at 141 million visits last month, Rightmove says the hottest property market is in the Midlands, where asking prices are rising three times faster than the national average. “The average price of newly-marketed property in the Midlands is up by over 5% compared to a year ago, a marked contrast to parts of London and its commuter belt,” says Rightmove’s Miles Shipside (pictured, left). “Many buyers in the Midlands are willing and able to pay more to secure their…
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Latest property news
£12 billion extra for housing revealed during Conservative Conference
Details of Theresa May’s announcements during her conference speech yesterday about how she will fix the nation’s ‘broken’ housing market have been revealed including measures worth an extra £2 billion. The extra cash will be spent on building additional council homes for rent, which comes on top of the extra £10 billion announced on Monday to fund an expansion of the Help to Buy scheme. The budget for affordable homes is to be increased by £2 billion to £9.1 billion and will see an extra 25,000 homes to rent created that are “affordable for local people”. Theresa said she was “getting government back into the business of building houses” and that she wanted to create “a new generation of council houses to help fix our broken housing market”. “Whether you’re trying to buy your own home, renting privately and looking for more security, or have been waiting for years on a council list, help is on the way,” she said. The £2 billion will also be used to change housing policy on affordable homes – subtly but importantly – to include funding for ‘social’ as well as ‘affordable’ council homes to rent. Help to buy The additional spending comes after Chancellor…
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