NAEA
-
Features
Property market – regional cities shine as London loses lustre
Designs on Property tracks and summarises the monthly property indices. Kate Faulkner says, “Birmingham leads cities like Cardiff, Liverpool, and Manchester in terms of house price growth.”
Read More » -
Features
The benefits of belonging
It is perfectly possible to run a property business without belonging to a professional or trade body, however, if you take the truly independent road, just how much support and inspiration are you missing out on?
Read More » -
Latest property news
New Presidents take the reins
ARLA and the NAEA have welcomed their new presidential teams for the year ahead. Nik Madan succeeds Peter Savage as President of ARLA, and Sally Lawson is appointed ARLA’s President Elect. Nik has 20 years’ lettings experience, including 12 years at John D Wood & Co. in Central London and he is now Group Lettings Director at Connells Group. David Mackie succeeds Martyn Baum as President of NAEA, while Katie Griffin becomes NAEA’s President Elect. David has 25 years’ experience in the residential property market, as an estate agent, letting agent and consultant. He has also held various roles with NAEA including deputy Member Advisory Forum representative and chairman of the Scottish branch of NAEA.
Read More » -
Features
The EU Referendum
NAEA and ARLA say that an ‘Out’ vote risks major construction skills deficit, jeopardising plans to expand British housing stock, but a Brexit could help first-time-buyers onto the property ladder…
Read More » -
Associations & Bodies
Question time
Have you ever wanted to collar the industry’s leaders and get stuck into a decent debate about the challenges and future of the industry? Nigel Lewis puts them to the test.
Read More » -
Movers & Shakers
Christopher Hamer joins NAEA and ARLA
The NAEA and ARLA have announced that Christopher Hamer will join the Associations as a Special Advisor. Having recently retired from nine years as The Property Ombudsman, Christopher is looking forward to using his experience to help develop proper practice in the property sector, through developing legislation and establishing best practice. He said, “I very much look forward to working with NAEA and ARLA. As Ombudsman, I always emphasised that the development of best practice in the property sector was an important commitment. Ensuring fair and consistent treatment of customers should be an aim of all agents, and keeping up to date with new legislation will make for greater consumer satisfaction across the industry.” Mark Hayward, MD, NAEA and David Cox, MD ARLA, said, “We are thrilled to bring Christopher on board as an advisor. He brings a unique skill set that we can use to continue campaigning for regulation and ensuring professionalism across the sector. The housing market is reaching critical point – and is very high on the political agenda at present, so Christopher’s appointment has come at a great time.”
Read More » -
Latest property news
Housing ‘no place for dirty money’, says NAEA
The NAEA has joined forces with the Transparency International to oppose money-laundering in the estate agency sector. The NAEA and the anti-corruption body want to see four major changes introduced to the sales and purchase process in a bid to combat the problem. This includes ensuring that all foreign companies are transparent over their ultimate beneficial ownership of property titles in the UK, anti-money laundering checks are carried out by estate agents on the purchaser, as well as the seller of high-value property, make sure that agents adhere to anti-money laundering regulations, and that meaningful punishment and sanctions are imposed on agents who break the rules and support criminal money laundering. Following on from the Channel 4 ‘From Russia with Cash’ documentary in the summer, the NAEA’s Mark Hayward said that there is still ‘not absolute clarity’ in relation to anti-money laundering among those in the property sector, despite the very clear legislation in place and regular training and updates from within the industry. “It is now time to step up the level of scrutiny that the sector comes under to ensure that a small minority of agents do not support criminal activity and those that do are appropriately sanctioned,”…
Read More » -
Housing Market
House prices set to rise
Residential property prices look set to increase by an average of £60,000 over the next five years, hitting more than £320,000 in 2020, according to Cebr, the Centre for Economics and Business Research. The economic forecaster expects the average price of a home in the UK to reach £263,000 this year, up 5.6 per cent on last year, but believes that the market offers further room for growth of 3.5 per cent in 2016, with further annual price rises of in the region of 4 per cent in the four years that follow. If accurate, these price hikes will take the average price of a UK home to £321,600 during 2020 – £58,600 more than the average residential property price in 2015, according to Cebr. Nina Skero, CebrEconomist and main author of the report, believes that capital growth will be primarily fuelled by a growing “reduction in the number of properties being put on the market” as a result of low levels of housebuilding, as well as other factors such as an ageing population and the rising cost of moving up the property ladder. He commented, “The price gap between a first-time home and a larger family home has skyrocketed…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Anti-money laundering rule change needed to help London agents
Central London based Sandfords has accused the Government and HMRC of a lack of understanding about the way in which the London housing market works and has called for a major overhaul in existing anti-money laundering legislation to help support London agents in their everyday business. Andrew Ellinas (left), Director at Sandfords, is urging the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) to lobby the Government to change the rules on sub-agent due diligence, thereby making it easier for agents in London to “carry out their daily working routine”. HMRC took over supervision of the estate agency business last year and has since published guidance on how to stay on the right side of money laundering regulations. But Ellinas believes that the existing rules work against agents in London and therefore need amending. He said, “The current legislation doesn’t allow for agents in London to carry out their daily working routine and the NAEA need to speak up and apply pressure on the Government before agents are heavily penalised for simply doing their job.” The Director of Sandfords insists that agents understand what is required of them, but says that there is an issue when it comes to sub-agent due diligence,…
Read More » -
Housing Market
Housing demand soars to 11-year high
The UK housing market continues to be propped up by growing demand from buyers, which the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) says is now an 11-year high, fuelled by greater political stability, a strengthening domestic economy, record-low mortgage borrowing rates, rising employment levels and Government housing schemes such as Help to Buy. The NAEA’s latest monthly report found 439 house hunters were registered on average per NAEA member branch in June, 15 per cent more than in May when 383 house hunters were registered per branch and the highest since August 2004 when 582 were recorded. “What we’re seeing is a market that lulled over the general election period, coming back to life in full force,” said the NAEA’s Mark Hayward (left). “There’s also an impetus to buy right now in light of the impending interest rate rise as buyers fight to buy and fix mortgage rates.” But while demand increases, the supply of housing coming onto the market continues to plummet, with the NAEA reporting that housing stock had fallen to just 44 houses available per branch, widening the growing gap between supply and demand. “The fact that demand is at an eleven year high without the housing…
Read More »
