RICS
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Latest property news
London sales slump stabilises as housing market booms in the north
London's housing market slump may be over as the regions outside the Home Counties continue to see rising prices and property sales.
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Latest property news
Landlord tax take is hitting rental market hard, claims RICS
The latest property market report from RICS reveals severely reducing supply as tax take hits landlords hard across the UK rental market.
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Latest property news
Burnham-on-Sea cartel agent is expelled from RICS
A Burnham-on-Sea agent and partner in Greenslade Taylor Hunt has been expelled from RICS after helping organise a fee fixing cartel in the Dorset seaside town.
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Latest property news
New property sales instruction rise for first time in 27 months, surveyors say
The number of new property sales instructions increased last month for the first time in more than two years, surveyors have reported, helped in part by rising buy-to-let activity. This promising news for estate agents is contained within the latest market survey from RICS, which says there a “few signs of life as houses start to come back on to the market”. Agents shouldn’t crack open the bubbly quite yet. RICS also says average stock levels per branch remain not far above recent historic lows at an average of 42.5 properties. “It therefore remains to be seen whether the increase in May truly marks the beginning of supply pressures easing,” it says. Also, nearly a fifth of member surveyors canvassed by RICS said the number of valuations they completed last month was lower than the same period last year. The institute also says that recent declines in buyer interest are beginning to ease off, and that the number of agreed sales has held steady as more surveyors report positive results, the best RICS has recorded for over a year. “Although agents are suggesting that a little more supply may have come onto the market in May, some of it from…
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Regulation & Law
Crackdown begins on agents who ignore bribery, corruption and money laundering
RICS is set to require member agents to adopt personal money laundering statement including promise to report both fellow agents breaking law and sporting donations.
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Features
Do the property industry associations do a good job?
If ever there was a time the property industry needed someone to fight its corner - but are the punches being thrown effectively?
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Latest property news
Government’s first time buyer Stamp Duty give-away has failed in South, claim surveyors
The government’s attempt to kick-start the first-time buyer market by removing Stamp Duty and Land Tax (SDLT) for all but the wealthiest has proved a damp squib in London and the South, surveyors have claimed. In last November’s Budget Chancellor Phillip Hammond eliminated SDLT for 80% of first time buyers, and cut the duty for 95% of those who pay it. But the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) says in its latest property market snapshot that new buyers’ enquiries fell for the eleventh month in succession. “This would appear to suggest that the government’s attempt to breathe fresh life into the market through eliminating the stamp duty charge for most first-time buyers in the Budget is not having a significant impact on overall demand,” says RICS’ Residential Market Survey for February. Affordability is the key to demand among first time buyers, the figures show. The SDLT stimulus appears only to be working in the north of the UK where house prices are more affordable; the number of enquiries to agents from first-steppers increased in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Yorkshire, Humberside and the North, but stalled elsewhere. RICS also says the number of properties available to sell has continued to drop.…
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Latest property news
Think again about “simplistic” longer tenancies, landlords warn government
The National Landlords Association (NLA) has called on the government to think again about its proposed longer tenancies legislation following a meeting with new junior housing minister Heather Wheeler. The NLA’s CEO Richard Lambert met with her yesterday along with representatives of ARLA, RICS, NALS and the RLA to discuss government priorities for the private residential market ahead of a busy year for the government. This will include widening regulation within the HMO sector, the tenant fees ban, stricter energy efficiency regulations and a consumer and industry consultation on longer ASTs to increase tenant security. It is this last measure that is exercising minds at the NLA. During the meeting, the organisation says it pressed Heather Wheeler (pictured, below) to “think beyond simplistic calls for longer tenancies and look at how best to incentivise landlords to offer a wider range of tenancies to cater for the increasingly diverse range of what tenants may need”. ARLA also made an interesting point on longer tenants recently, which is likely to have also been put the minister, based on research by Capital Economics. It suggests that by abolishing tenant fees, which is scheduled to become law next year, the market will favour those…
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Latest property news
RICS to expel members who behaved badly at Presidents Club dinner
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) was hoping to spend this year celebrating its 150th anniversary, but instead it is now busy dealing with the consequences of last month’s The Presidents Club charity black tie do in central London. RICS now says it may expel any member proved to have broken its ethical code of conduct while attending the event, where it is alleged hostesses were propositioned for sex and groped. It is over two weeks since the scandal broke after a Financial Times reporter gained access to the event while posing as an agency hostess, but RICS now says it has been moved to comment about the “inappropriate behaviour towards female hostesses” working at the black-tie do at The Dorchester hotel. This follows the publication of the guest list by The Guardian last week, which revealed that the property industry was heavily represented at The Presidents Club event. In response to this, the venerable institutions says: “RICS does not regulate the entire real estate sector. “As a professional body, RICS has a code of ethical conduct for members of its profession. It applies to all members of the profession, at all times – there is no moment or…
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Latest property news
RICS launches PropTech insight paper
RICS has published an insight paper on tech revolution and the future of residential property, examining what PropTech means for the residential property sector...
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