propertymark
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Latest property news
Deposit disputes ‘set to rise’ if agents bring inventories in-house after ban
TDS, Propertymark and AIIC are all worried that inventory quality will dip as agents try to cut costs after June 1st.
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Latest property news
Winners! UK’s best estate agents win gongs at Westminster ceremony
Read our report from the 2018 Propertymark Qualifications Awards winners' ceremony at Westminster where the estate agents who won got their awards.
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Charity
Propertymark staff sleep rough for YMCA
Seven hardy members of staff from Propertymark in Warwick spent a night sleeping rough in support of YMCA Coventry and Warwickshire’s Sleep Easy project.
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Latest property news
Revealed: how much rogue estate agents are damaging the industry
The extent to which rogue estate agents are damaging the industry’s reputation has been laid bare today by new research. The problems are most acute in the private rental sector,but affect all of it. For example, 41% of tenants who used an ‘approved’ letting agent signed up to a professional body said problems with their property were fixed within a week, but only 25% of those used an ‘unapproved’ agent received the same service. The research, which covers transactions over the past five years and was completed by Propertymark, highlights the most common problems tenants encounter including poor property management, the slow replacement of faulty furnishings and white goods, and a reluctance to return deposits fast enough. Propertymark’s research also highlights a key challenge faced by the industry as a whole. Rogue estate agents Over a third of buyers and sellers, and 42% of renters don’t bother to check if the agent they are using has signed up to the key regulatory bodies or is a member of a professional organisation – leaving the door open for rogue estate agents. This is creating significant problems for the industry’s reputation, the research shows. Over half of all the buyers, vendors and…
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Latest property news
Gazumping to be outlawed? Government to consider buyer lock-ins
Communities Secretary Sajid Javid has launched another call for evidence, this time as part of a government push to reform the buying process which could see gazumping outlawed. Just days after revealing he wanted to make life fairer for leaseholders, Sajid says he wants to hear from estate agents, solicitors and mortgage lenders about how to stop gazumping, reduce time wasting and ensuring buyers commit to a sale. In his call for evidence, the Communities Secretary says mistrust between parties is one of the biggest issues faced by the industry and wants to introduce lock-in agreement to improve it, highlighting how a quarter of house purchases fall through each year. Other measures include ‘encouraging’ sellers to provide more information before they put their property on the market – which sounds like a ‘lite’ version of Labour’s Home Information Packs – and encourage more digital innovation to help speed up the buying process by making more data available online. This refers to more recent innovations such as the blockchain technology developed by Bitcoin that enables processes to move forward automatically without the need for huge amounts of paperwork and human intervention. The first property in the UK – a retail unit –…
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Latest property news
Women fill key positions at Propertymark for first time
ARLA and NAEA Propertymark have revealed who won their recent leadership elections following a secret four-week hustings. Billed as an opportunity that “allows you to shape your organisation and to have your voice heard” the election was for both organisations’ Vice Presidents, whose role is to support the President and President Elect. The elected Vice Presidents are Michelle Niziol for ARLA, who agents will recognise from BBC TV’s The Apprentice from last year, and Lauren Scott for NAEA. It is the first time women have been elected to both positions at the same time. The new line up is: ARLA President Sally Lawson Sally has 27 years’ experience in the lettings industry, and is CEO and Founder of the national lettings franchise Concentric as well as West Midlands lettings agency Lawsons. The two organisations merged recently. President Elect Peter Savage A former professional drummer until the mid-1980s Peter then set up a property business in Spain, which he sold in 1990 and then returned to the UK. He now works as a consultant to an Essex lettings firm and a block management firm. Vice President Michelle Niziol Until recently 35-year-old Michelle was best known as a founder of IMS,…
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Latest property news
Start of the revival? ‘More people asking for home valuations’
The number of home valuations being requested by homeowners has risen by 26% this spring despite the uncertainty in the market created by Brexit and tomorrow’s General Election. Call answering company Moneypenny logs the calls made to agents via its service and says valuation requests for March, April and June this year increased when compared with the same months last year. “It’s encouraging to see such a large increase in people wanting to book home valuations this spring,” says Samantha Jones, the company’s Commercial Manager. “There was so much activity that affected the property market last year such as the Referendum in June and subsequent changes in Government that people will have been cautious about progressing with sales.” Moneypenny’s figures also appear to show increasing interest among buyers; it says call requesting property detail increased by 9% by the same measure, while calls to book property viewings rose by 8%. “The ‘let’s sit tight’ attitude of last spring is ebbing away as home sellers and buyers return to market,” says Samantha. “The truth is, regardless of political changes, we still get married, divorced, have children and so on. Our needs don’t go away so the market has to move so…
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Latest property news
NAEA rebuffs calls to halt election for Vice President
An attempt to halt the voting process for the post of Vice President of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) has been turned down by Chief Executive Mark Hayward in an email sent to SW-based agent Chris Wood yesterday. In it Mark confirms that he and the NAEA Propertymark board had been made aware of Chris’s request to halt the election process, and that they were also aware of the new processes in place to elect the Vice President, and other posts. The email also says Mark and the board were aware of Chris’s concerns about the process but were “completely satisfied that the process was correct and robust [and that] therefore the election will go forward in the normal manner. Final response Mark also said it would be the NAEA’s final response with Chris prior to the AGM on June 16. On Wednesday Chris had previously written to Mark asking him to confirm whether due processes was adhered to and suggesting that the NAEA appeared to “be playing for time” and wanted to “obfuscate due process”. Chris Wood was one of several agents proposed for the Vice President role but, following a panel interview, not proposed as a…
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Latest property news
Propertymark kicks off sporting spend at Sky-broadcast matches
Propertymark, the new property brand formerly known as NFoPP launched in February, is to promote its new identity on perimeter boards at 20 sporting events to be broadcast by Sky Sports this year. It is part of a significant push by the NAEA, ARLA and NAVA to present themselves as consumer – rather than just industry – champions to the public. The new campaign will include three cricket matches, six rugby matches and a single football fixture, Scunthorpe United versus Bradford City on the 24th March. The rest of the events include a Rugby Union Varsity match at Twickenham on December 7th as well as an under-20s England versus Scotland match and the Rugby League Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford on October 7th. Propertymark says the campaign, which will feature its new green logo, is to be seen by an audience of 9.5 million between the ages of 18 and 65 on Sky during the events. “This demonstrates our commitment to support Propertymark to benefit members by reaching a wide and relevant consumer audience via popular televised Sky Sports events,” says Propertymark. Long tradition Propertymark joins a long tradition of estate agents backing sport financially. In recent years…
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Features
Circle of trust
The property industry has a new, potential disrupter, nudging into its circle of trust, which could be wonderful, but, Andrea Kirkby asks, how many organisations do we really need?
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