RICS
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Latest property news
RICS says tenant passports are solution to rental woes
Letting agents and landlords could soon be able to review tenants’ rent payment histories if proposals from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) for a national system of tenant passports becomes a reality, a direction of travel that industry leaders say the government has already embarked on. The RICS Rented Sector Policy Paper published today outlines a national passport system using a database of all the UK’s ten million social and private sector tenants, along with a similar database of landlords. RICS says this would help more vulnerable tenants because, by offering more details on a person’s payment track record, landlords and agents would have a greater understanding of them than currently offered by referencing checks. The idea is a more ambitious version of several local tenant passport systems already being trailed including in Kettering, Northamptonshire where the local borough council offers a voluntary tenant passport scheme for those moving from social to private rented sector housing. RICS says this enables potential landlords to see that they have been good tenants, even though they may have a bad credit history. “An ever-increasing proportion of the population is looking to rent. By 2025, we know that there will be a 1.8 million shortfall…
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Latest property news
RICS calls for ‘balance’ in letting agent fees ban
The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors has made an impassioned plea to the government to allow agents to recoup the ‘reasonable costs’ of putting prospective tenants through referencing and credit checks when the letting agent fees ban comes in during 2018. The comments have been made by Jeremy Blackburn, RICS’s Head of UK Policy who yesterday published a blog warning the government that there may be unintended consequences of the ban. He says these include rising rents as landlords pass on the extra costs to tenants and reduced rental stock as smaller and more vulnerable landlords decide to exit the market. Blackburn also says that Build to Rent’s capacity to take up the slack of a shrinking private rented sector is doubtful, but says agents will have at least a year to prepare for the changes. He says the Department of Communities and Local Government has told RICS that they re planning to take the longer route to legislation rather than rushing a ban through, and that this will give the industry until 2018 to prepare. But Blackburn also says he is surprised that agents were caught off-guard by the Chancellor’s announcement last week. “For the industry, early warning signals of…
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Latest property news
RICS sets standard in property measurement
An international coalition, including RICS, has launched a property measurement standard for floor space to benefit residential property investors, developers, real estate agents, professionals and ultimately consumers. This new international measurement standard will offer more clarity and consistency to users of residential property services, whether they’re buying, selling, renting or investing. The International Property Measurement Standards (IPMS): Residential Buildings will provide a uniform global method to determine the size and dimension of floor space measures that can be used anywhere in the world. Currently, the way residential property is measured can vary significantly from one market to the next. As a consequence, owners, occupiers and investors in domestic property are often left confused or misinformed when it comes to the reported floor space. This causes substantial issues when property is listed off-plan or bought by investors, but it has also led to disputes where rental calculations and service charges have relied on erroneous measurement information. Published by a coalition of more than 80 property organisations around the world and drafted by an independent group of 18 experts from 11 countries, IPMS: Residential Buildings is the second in a series of global open-source standards aimed at creating a uniform approach to…
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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?
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Resources
Brexit and holidays create the perfect storm of inactivity
Designs on Property tracks and summarises the monthly property indices. Kate Faulkner says, “There is a mixed picture across the country with fewer vendor instructions and buyer registrations.”
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Movers & Shakers
SAVA graduate joins RICS
A student at the SAVA School of Surveying has become the first to achieve the Diploma in Residential Surveying and Valuation and be welcomed into RICS.
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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.
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Housing Market
UK property sales hit 16-month high
Residential property sales have improved across the UK, reaching a 16-month high in September, the latest index report from RICS has revealed. It was the fifth month in a row that agreed sales rose, with the greatest increases over the month witnessed in the North, East Anglia and Scotland. According to RICS, this was the sixth consecutive month that the number of new buyer enquiries has increased, supported in part by less stringent mortgage lending conditions, with 18 per cent more chartered surveyors reporting a rise in demand. Despite the increase in activity levels, the report also identified a lack of new instructions, which has fallen in 13 of the past 14 months, for continuing to hold back sales growth. “Activity is now picking up which is encouraging, but unless the stock being sold is replenished there is a limit to how sustainable this modest improvement in market turnover will prove to be. And, unfortunately, the indications are that we are locked in a cycle where the lack of available properties on agents’ books is itself deterring some potential vendors from thinking about putting their own property on the market,” said Simon Rubinsohn (left), RICS Chief Economist. RICS forecast that…
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Housing Market
UK house prices look set to soar
The UK is the fourth best place in the world to invest in residential property, owed largely to a general housing shortage and the country’s economic growth, according to research by Savills. The results from the study, based on economic performance and growth prospects alongside population growth, found that the UK housing market, which has seen prices soar on average by 20 per cent since 2010, was ranked behind only the US, United Arab Emirates and Singapore as the best place to make a return on rents and increasing property values. “When a growing population, growing affluence and limited housing or land supply converge, we would anticipate real house price growth,” said Yolande Barnes (left), Director of Savills World Research. A separate residential market report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) also says that the growing gulf between supply and demand is driving residential property prices higher and the organisation now predicts that house prices are set to rise by 6 per cent in 2015. The RICS price indicator reached a 15-month high in August, with a net balance of 53 per cent more respondents reporting price increases, with growth being recorded across all parts of the UK.…
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Housing Market
The growing supply-demand imbalance is pushing up residential property prices
Residential property prices look set to increase further this year, as demand from buyers continues to heavily outstrip the supply of homes coming on to the market, the latest residential market survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has revealed. The report shows that while 44 per cent more chartered surveyors saw prices rise in July, the supply of homes coming onto the market continued the drop with 22 per cent more surveyors reporting a decline in fresh instructions. Furthermore, the shortage of housing inventory worsened further during July, with the average volume of homes for sale per surveyor falling to an all-time low. As a result, all areas of the UK are now expected to witness property price growth over the next 12 months, with the greatest level of confidence currently being seen in East Anglia and Northern Ireland. RICS expect home prices to be pushed higher on the back of the growing supply-demand imbalance, with 41 per cent of members expecting prices to continue to appreciate over the next three months. Increasing prices does not appear to have deterred buyer interest, with new purchaser enquiries growing for the fourth consecutive month, with 25 per cent of…
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