Jonathan Hopper
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Latest property news
Extra 2% Stamp Duty for overseas buyers criticised by agents
NAEA Propertymark says additional duty is leading to plethora of sales fall-throughs as purchasers realised additional cost of buying property.
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Latest property news
‘Race for space’ and limited supply push annual house price inflation to 10.9%
Nationwide says stamp duty is less of a driver than has been claimed, and that pandemic has prompted more people to reassess their living space.
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Latest property news
Local lockdowns are beginning to impact housing market activity, warns senior industry figure
Government's attempts to manage the virus during the run up to Xmas are having an effect on buyer and vendor confidence, particularly viewings says Jonathan Hopper.
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Housing Market
Nationwide says latest 1.4% house price dip to be followed by rebound
Figures out today show continuing slide in values, but agents say it's proof of a housing market reset not a collapse.
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Latest property news
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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Latest property news
Brexit fence sitting continues to cool house prices in London, the South and North
Continued cooling of house prices in many areas of the UK is being blamed on buyers sitting on the fence, waiting for Brexit to pass.
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Latest property news
Get ready for 0.25% base interest rate rise tomorrow, says Nationwide
Leading lender Nationwide says tomorrow's expected base interest rate of 0.25% to 0.75% is unlikely to impact the property market.
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Latest property news
Slow-moving prime London property market drives £1 billion January ‘sale’
The pain in the prime London property market continues as research reveals that nearly £1 billion has been knocked off the original asking prices of properties for sale within its upmarket streets. Analysis of portal data by Garrington Property Finders shows that the average reductions is 9% or, by the crazy metrics of the capital’s property market, £223,000. Such dramatic reductions (shown in a heat-map form, above) have been created by a slow market, Garrington says, and in six of the seven areas featuring the greatest reductions more than half of properties currently for sale have been on the market for over six months. The most dramatic reductions in prime London property are in the more expensive enclaves including St James and Victoria, where the average reduction is 14.1% or £765,919 and Knightsbridge, where asking prices have been slashed by 12.1% or £927,188 on average. Well-to-do homes in the City, South Kensington, Soho, Covent Garden and Marylebone areas of London have all seen an average reduction of approximately 10%, the research shows. “2017 was not a year for the faint-hearted in London’s prime property market,” Garrington’s Managing Director Jonothan Hopper (pictured, left). “Acute price sensitivity among buyers continues to force…
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Latest property news
Chancellor’s Stamp Duty giveaway only ‘modest’ boon for market, says Nationwide
The recent Stamp Duty changes announced in last week’s Autumn Budget will have only a modest impact on demand, lender the Nationwide has revealed. Commenting within its monthly house price index published today, it says that in “many regions, first time buyers already paid little or no stamp duty as the price of the typical first time buyer property was below the previous threshold of £125,000”. Nationwide also says the Stamp Duty will benefit mostly first time buyers in London and the South East, and help sure up values for existing home owners in these areas of the UK. Its figures bear this out (see box, left). The Stamp Duty changes mean that in London, for example, 11% of first time buyers who would have previously paid on average £13,102 when they bought a property will now pay no tax, while in the North almost all first time buyers will now pay no tax, although until now they were only paying on average £100 in Stamp Duty. “Despite the enthusiastic reception given to the cut in Stamp Duty for first-time buyers announced in last week’s Budget, it’s too early to detect its impact in the increasingly stagnant picture painted by the…
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Latest property news
Official house price index highlights sales slide in London and beyond
The total fee slice taken by London estate agents each month dropped by over £20 million between 2015 and 2016, the latest house price index reveals. Today’s figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reveal that the number of completed sales during November 2016 compared to November 2015 fell from 9,800 to 6,400. This, based on an average fee of 1.5%, saw agents’ total revenue for the two Novembers dip from just over £67 million in 2015 to £47 million last year. Completed house sales across England also reduced during the same period, down by 21.2% to 62,500 from 79,300. This reduction in supply is the main driver behind buoyant house price figures, most commentators agree. The figures for completed sales, also released today, show prices rising by 6.2% over the past year. The average price for a property in London is now £490,700 compared to £234,800 in England and £145,900 in Wales, the index says. “With only a week to go until Article 50 is triggered, house prices remain indestructible as the average person is paying £13,000 more to own a home than the same time last year, reflecting the health and buoyancy of the UK economy seen in…
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