Land Registry
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Latest property news
Faster home purchases promised as Land Registry begins putting councils’ local search data online
The Land Registry is to begin digitising the UK’s hundreds of Local Land Charges or ‘local searches’ registers in a bid to speed up the house buying process, a move it claims will help up to 125,000 house purchases over the next two years. Waiting for local searches to be completed by councils can be both frustratingly slow and, the Land Registry says, varies widely across the UK in speed and cost. This has created a ‘local search lottery’, it claims. Costs vary from £3 to £76 to complete searches which in some areas can take up to 30 days to complete, unnecessarily holding up thousands of home purchases every year. Local Land Charges information, which include checks on restrictions such as tree preservation orders, listed status and conservation areas, will soon be available within an updated central online database that solicitors will be able to access as either searchable PDFs or Excel spreadsheets. “This is a significant step forward in the Government’s ambition to make the house-buying process simpler, faster and cheaper,” says Land Registry Chief Executive Graham Farrant (pictured). The digitisation project has begun at 26 local authorities and the first to offer the service will include Blackpool,…
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Agencies & People
Online rental fraud: scams create landlord nightmares
Rental fraud is on the rise, fuelled by a highly competitive rental market and low cost, or free-to-list platforms for advertising property. Research conducted by YouGov in 2013 estimated that over 1 million people had fallen victim to rental fraud, with at least a further 315,000 new victims each year, showing just how widespread the problem has become. Reported incidents increased by 44 per cent from 2014 to 2015, from 2216 reported incidents in the year ending March 2014, to 3193 in the year ending March 2015. However, it is likely that these figures underestimate the real scale of the problem – the Local Government Association claims that only 5 per cent of fraud incidents are reported. Classified advertising sites have become breeding grounds for scammers to post fake or misleading adverts at little cost and with few security measures. It is estimated that bogus landlords are making £775 million per year through rental scams, with an average cost per victim of roughly £2400. Now, the property classifieds site TheHouseShop.com has implemented a unique ownership verification process, using Land Registry databases, which, they say, combined with their numerous other security and safety checks, sets a new standard for security in…
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Latest property news
House price index: April 2016
A new House Price Index (HPI) has been launched by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which replaces the previous House Price Indices separately published by ONS and Land Registry.
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Housing Market
House prices stable as transactions dip
The latest house price data from the Land Registry shows that house prices in England and Wales remained stable on a monthly basis, despite figures from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) revealing that there was a drop in transactions. Although prices remained flat overall on a monthly basis, there were parts of England and Wales that saw rises, led by London where the average price of a home appreciated by 0.7 per cent month-on-month. On an annual basis, the Land Registry data revealed that prices rose by an average of 4.6 per cent in the year to May 2015 to £179,696. Again, London led the surge, with prices in the capital increasing by 9.1 per cent year-on-year. “Land Registry data shows that house prices are continuing to march upwards with London and the South East seeing the greatest annual growth,” said Brian Murphy (left), Head of Lending at Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB). “The trend is not deterring homebuyers, as mortgage approvals are also at their highest since the Mortgage Market Review (MMR) was implemented according to the British Bankers’ Association (BBA). But it does mean that the average borrower is taking out a bigger loan than at any point since…
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Uncategorised
Buzzing builders and buyers
REPORT HEADLINES Rightmove: “House prices close to all-time high – will ‘granlords’ drive them higher?” Home.co.uk: “Home prices take a spring leap.” NAEA: “A third of all house sales made to first time buyers.” RICS: “Steadier demand and tight supply push price expectations higher.” Halifax: “House prices in the three months to March were 2.6 per cent higher than in the previous three months.” Agency Express: “Confidence continues.” Land Registry: “The February data shows a monthly price increase of 0.5 per cent.” Kate says: “It’s great to see that we have a much healthier market in 2015. Although most places are still stuck with a shortage of homes, especially versus the number of agents fighting for business, we have a market that is moving, but not ‘too fast’ and not ‘too slow’ at the moment. And better still, it’s being driven mostly by first time buyers getting themselves on the ladder, relieving some of the pressure on rental stock (or mum and dad’s house!). The other good news is that it is driving more sales of new builds. I haven’t seen so many new build sites buzzing with activity as I travel up and down the country since the start…
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Housing Market
Transactions fall across England and Wales
The number of residential property transactions in the three months to January fell by 18 per cent at an average of 71,090 a month compared to the corresponding period a year earlier, the latest figures from the Land Registry show. The data also reveals that the average price of a home in England and Wales dropped by 0.8 per cent in March, following several months of slowing activity. The figures, which are based on sold prices, put the average price of a property at £178,007, 5.3 per cent higher than in March last year. The month-on-month decline in property prices reflects the fact that inquiries from prospective homebuyers has fallen in recent months, while mortgage lending has dropped. Despite the overall decline in prices, two regions, London and the south east of England, did record month-on-month price increases of 0.8 and 0.2 per cent respectively. In contrast, the north east of England witnessed a 4 per cent fall. On an annual basis, double digit price increases continued to be recorded in London and the south east, but growth was far more modest in other regions, while in the north east prices fell by 2.9 per cent year-on-year. The highest property…
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