RICS
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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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Latest property news
Interest rate rise fears bearing down on sales market, surveyors say
The number of home buyers has dropped for the sixth month in a row helped by jitters among buyers over a potential interest rate rise, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has revealed. Its housing market survey for September found that the number of buyers dipped noticeably over the month with 20% more surveyors noting a fall in buyers than a rise in demand, and that London’s problems are beginning to spread out from the capital. Only Wales and the South West saw more surveyors recording an increase in sales than a decrease, with the rest of the UK remaining flat – although London and the South East lead the declines. On top of this, RICS also says the number of surveyors reporting fewer agreed sales versus a rise increased by 15%, the “softest reading since last July during the aftermath of the EU Referendum”. Stock stable While buyers continue to keep away from the market, the number of homes available for sale remain stable having declined over the past 18 months. On average stocks levels on estate agents’ books are holding up at 43.3 properties per branch. Looking forward, RICS doesn’t expect the market to pick up over…
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Features
House price indices: why we’re Living on ‘Hope Terrace’
Designs on Property tracks and summarises the monthly property indices. Kate Faulkner says, “Lower rates of growth appear to be here to stay, but I don’t think the public or investors appreciate this major shift in property price growth fortunes; we need to be prepared for what happens when they do.”
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Latest property news
RICS calls for more females in property
We're facing the worst skills epidemic in years, says Lynn Robinson, RICS Regional Director.
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Latest property news
Political uncertainty continues to subdue sales, says RICS
The flat sales market is set to continue as the number of properties for sale per branch hits a new low, says the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). According to its latest UK market report agreed sales, new buyer enquiries and new instructions have all dipped as domestic political uncertainty continues to impact the market. Some 44% of RICS members who were surveyed said this was the reason for the lack of activity in the market, while 27% said Brexit was the most important contributing factor. But London’s much more subdued market than the rest of the UK is blamed in equal measure on both Brexit and the recent Stamp Duty changes by the capital’s agents, RICS says. “Perhaps not surprisingly in the current environment, the term ‘uncertainty’ is featuring more heavily in the feedback we are receiving from professionals working in the sector,” says Simon Rubinsohn, Chief Economist at RICS (pictured, left). “This seems to be exerting itself on transaction levels which are flatlining and may continue to do so for a while particularly given ongoing challenge presented by the low level of stock on the market. Looking ahead across the UK over the medium-term, agent confidence about…
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