Wales
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Latest property news
Reeds Rains closures: trading one day, gone the next
Just days after announcing that it would close 43 offices across the UK as part of a wider network reduction, branches have already begun closing and staff laid off.
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Latest property news
Welsh tenant fees ban begins its passage into law, hot on the heels of England
The Welsh government has revealed its planned letting fees ban legislation after it was introduced to the country’s Assembly on Tuesday and, like its English counterpart, is likely to become law next year. The Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Bill is similar to the English system, banning almost all fees including those for accompanied viewings, inventories, contract signing and renewing a tenancy. Welsh agents will be allowed to charge tenants rent, security deposits, holding deposits and fees when a tenant breaches a contract. The bill also opens the way for deposits to be limited to an as-yet specified limit, will cap holding deposits at a week’s rent and establish a mechanism for prompt repayment of deposits. But enforcement of the new laws will be different, says Housing and Regeneration minister Rebecca Evans (pictured). Agents found charging prohibited fees will be issued £500 fixed penalty notices and, if these are not paid, prosecuted in a Magistrates Court and face unlimited fines. Enforcement will also be integrated into the recently-introduced agent licensing system, Rent Smart Wales. “This Bill builds on the work we have already done here in Wales through the Housing and Renting Homes Acts to ensure that those wishing to…
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Latest property news
Wales launches ground-breaking green scheme for Help to Buy
The Help to Buy scheme in Wales is being modified to offer those buying greener homes through the scheme a better chance of being accepted.
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Latest property news
Welsh buyers rush to complete before April 1st Stamp Duty hikes
A predicted rush to sell Welsh properties at the top end of its property market has been taking place in recent weeks as buyers have attempted to beat the April 1st deadline for the principality’s new devolved Stamp Duty regime. The way that the slabs of tax banding are now arranged in Wales mean the duty rises more harshly than in England for those who buy properties over £402,000, although the new system is more generous to those buying under this price threshold than the English system. Although a £402,000 buyer pays only £200 more than their English counterpart, the differences are more stark further up the value chain. For example, a home worth £500,000 in England attracts a Stamp Duty bill of £15,000 while the same purchaser in Wales will pay an LTT charge of £17,500. But a house worth £1.5 million will attract an LTT bill that’s £17,450 higher than a similar English property. Rush to complete Welsh law firm Geldards recently predicted that the changes would lead to a “stampede” in upmarket buyers completing before this Sunday. But removals website CompareMyMove.com, which is based in Wales, says overall the new LTT will benefit most ‘average’ Welsh buyers.…
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Regional Reports
Yorkshire, Cornwall and Wales
Each month we visit three agents across the country to discover what is happening in their local market. This month we meet members of The Guild of Property Professionals in Yorkshire, Cornwall and Wales.
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Latest property news
Wales debates what to do with own Stamp Duty in April 2018
The Welsh government is consulting on what to do when it takes control of Stamp Duty with a local version called Welsh Land Transaction Tax, in April next year. Landlord groups including the Welsh arm of the Residential Landlords Association director Douglas Haig (pictured, left) are calling for the 3% levy on buy-to-let and second homes to be scrapped because it will ‘limit supply and push up rents’, it is claimed. The RLA says landlords in Wales have seen the average Stamp Duty bill rise from several hundred pounds to £4,850 since the new rate was introduced across the UK. But the RLA is unlikely to get its way in Wales. A Welsh government spokesman told the BBC that the additional revenue of £58m created by the 3% additional tax will be “essential to the delivery of public services across Wales”. Agents have been represented at the enquiry into the devolved LTT by the NAEA whose MD Mark Hayward (pictured, right) spoke to officials in October last year. He recommended a gradual changeover to allow for a “full discussion and full awareness as to not skew the market”. Welsh Cabinet finance and communities Secretary Mark Drakeford said he wanted to…
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Latest property news
Welsh 12-branch agency quits OTM for Zoopla
Leading Welsh multi-branch agency Roberts and Co has says it is to leave OnTheMarket and re-join Zoopla. The company is based in Newport in South Wales and has a further eleven offices around the region and operates in both the sales and lettings markets covering Monmouthshire, Caerphilly, Torfaen and Blaenau. Roberts & Co, which was established in 2002, says that following an internal portal review it concluded that returning to Zoopla Property Group offers its vendors and landlords the best possible marketing for their properties. Director Mark Roberts (pictured), said: “It was the right time to review our portals [after a] Roberts & Co re-branding – the opportunities that Zoopla Property Group can now offer us as a result of the Property Software Group acquisition [by ZPG] are very exciting and now is the right time to be part of this.” OnTheMarket.com has already taken Roberts and Co’s properties and listing off its website. The Negotiator contacted OnTheMarket but its spokesperson said they did not want to comment. Roberts and Co are well known in the industry, and locally, for another reason. One of its other directors, Alan Darlow, is a friend of singer David Essex and in 2008 backed the…
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