Archive

There’s been broad support from within the agency and wider property sectors for Labour’s proposal to build on selected parts of...

Today, I am reflecting on the Chancellor’s surprise Spring budget decision to abolish multiple dwellings relief for Stamp Duty Land Tax...

Landowners seeking to sell their land for development will have to adjust their expectations as the market, the planning system and...

Agents are securing sales closer to asking price but properties are taking longer to sell, new data suggests. Analysis by Hamptons, using...

Price reductions have reached their highest level in at least nine years according to estate agency Hamptons.   Some 50 per cent of...

A recent poll of 11,000 private renters by SpareRooom reveals that 81% spend more than 30% of their take-home pay on...

Two all-party groups of MPs and Peers have called on the government to act to turn empty buildings into good quality,...

High borrowing costs and an uncertain economic outlook remaining the main challenges for homebuyers, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)...

An award-winning charity will cut the cost of homeownership in Wigan by up to £10,000, by offering buyers the chance to...

The Labour Party has outlined three ways it will help first-time buyers onto the housing ladder as it ramps up its...

A high-profile charity is calling for a Stamp Duty overhaul, local buyer restrictions and extra charges on property purchases by landlords...

Should commercial properties be converted into homes? I think so. I don’t mean the upscale barns becoming large houses, or the fashionable...

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will have a go at balancing the nation’s books today and the main thing agents seem to want...

And…breathe. For a while back there, the only certainty for the housing market was uncertainty. That isn’t to say the election of Rishi...

Time is up for Boris Johnson's tenure as Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party, serving 3 years and 44...

Some people will say: What problem? But they are getting fewer as the detrimental effect of increasing numbers of short lets on...

Zoopla has teamed up with homelessness charity Crisis to help campaign for reform of housing benefits and to tackle the affordable...

Too many leaseholders will fall through the cracks of the government’s “piecemeal measures” to combat the cladding crisis.  That’s the view of...

A developer has converted a 1979s office block into flats which are now being sold as £180,000 to £215,000 work from...

A campaigning MP is to meet with a government minister to discuss controls and disincentives for second homes. Former Liberal Democrat MP...

A poll of Conservative voters shows strong majorities for higher taxes on second homes and empty properties, and tougher demands on...

A pilot scheme has been announced to test ways of limiting second home ownership and reducing the impact additional properties have...

In the Autumn Budget on Wednesday 27 October, very few impending tax hikes were revealed by the Chancellor Rishi Sunak –...

We’ve probably all learned to be a little less cynical about politicians in recent weeks, given the tragic events. We perhaps...

At first glance, Rishi Sunak’s Budget speech earlier this week didn’t offer much from a property perspective. But digging down a little...

Agents trade body Propertymark has given its verdict on yesterday’s Budget with this statement - “Some good news but it leaves...

There’s been some cynicism amongst the industry in response to new homes promises made by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in yesterday’s Budget. Sunak...

The Budget has proven more generous than many expected - and with most property taxation left unchanged. Chancellor Rishi Sunak has made...

A property quango wants industry experts to join its board - and will pay £25,000 a year for what it calls...

Local elections rarely set the pulse racing and this year’s poll on Thursday faces a similar problem. But this time, it’s a...

Rarely do Budgets produce positive sentiments from the agency industry but Chancellor Rishi Sunak appears to have won widespread support for...

The high-end housing market on Jersey has been rocked by a plan from the island’s government which may ban foreign investors from...

A scathing document produced by MPs slams the government for its “deplorable” housing policies which are "invented, abandoned and reinvented" -...

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has resisted changing any property taxes in the short term, but has used his Spending Review statement to...

Labour’s shadow housing minister has revealed that it will be two years at least before the party sets out its long-term...

Labour’s long-standing housing spokesman, John Healey, has been moved to become shadow defence secretary on the front bench of new leader...

There will be a two per cent stamp duty surcharge on the purchase of UK investment properties by non-resident overseas buyers...

The HomeOwners Alliance, a leading property consumer group, has now suggested it has some concerns about the government’s First Homes scheme. This...

Not for the first time, a government policy on housing ends up begging more questions than it provides answers - but...

The government has given details of a scheme allowing 30 per cent reductions for what it calls ‘local first time buyers’...

With Brexit still unresolved, the domestic agenda has been pushed from the headlines by the seemingly overwhelming public and political discord...

Labour is pledging a “housing revolution” with the biggest council house building programme for decades Its manifesto being launched today will include new...

One of London’s leading estate and lettings agents has criticised the government over what he calls its “pitiful” record on affordable...

Estate agent turned Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake has provoked a furious response on social media by coming out in favour of...

There has been a sceptical response by agents and others in the property industry to the government’s latest headline-grabbing tweaks to...

Britain lives in fundamentalist black-and-white times - all the more surprising when the country's most divisive point of contention sits on...

There’s been a mixed response to the government’s surprise announcement that it would make permanent the right of home owners to...

The issue of ‘intergenerational fairness’ has been raised in recent weeks, some might say somewhat ironically by a House of Lords’...

It’s no secret that the UK’s housing sector is in crisis. Headlines scream about the shortage of new-build homes. TV pundits...

Estate agents have responded cynically to the small-fry property sector announcements made by Chancellor Phillip Hammond in yesterday’s spring statement mini-Budget. Overshadowed...

Communities have missed out on more than 10,000 affordable homes in the past three years as a result of government rules...

Any day now we’ll hear the date for the Autumn Budget: it may be delayed to wait for a Brexit deal...

Labour says stamp duty receipts and other tax income from properties in the capital should go to the Mayor, Sadiq Kahn,...

A housing association has launched its own online agency which offers to sell vendors' homes for £275. Capsel Homes, based in Mamhilad,...

One day, I’ll sit down to write for Estate Agent Today and I won’t express my dismay at the lack of...

  Chancellor Phillip Hammond claims over 60,000 first time buyers have already benefitted from the stamp duty relief he announced at his...

An estate agent and former chairman of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says the government’s latest drive to build new...

This week, news broke of the ‘first bitcoin homes’ being sold in the UK by Go Move, an estate agency in...

New Zealand’s new Labour prime minister elect has banned non-resident foreigners from buying existing homes anywhere in the country in a...

It has been revealed that the beleaguered government of Theresa May is to hold a summit at 10 Downing Street tomorrow...

And so concludes another party conference season.  We’ve followed the great and the good (both terms are debatable) around Torbay, Bournemouth,...

The Conservative party, in a press statement released to clarify comments made by Theresa May, says the government’s proposed extra £2...

The two main political parties have squared up to each other over the issue of increasing council tax on second homes...

Facebook has finally released more details about its previously announced plans to build 1,500 homes, 30 miles south of San Francisco,...

Government schemes like Help To Buy, supposedly assisting more people get on the ladder, have little impact on improving social mobility...

Theresa May’s call for a snap general election on June 8 took many by surprise. But estate agents have been broadly...

This might just be one of the busiest Agents Do Charity columns we’ve ever had with many firms having a mixture...

Chancellor Philip Hammond delivered his first Budget this week pledging extra funding for the NHS, transport in the Midlands and the...

A chronic shortage of affordable housing is forcing councils to spend more than £2m a day on temporary accommodation for homeless...

The East Midlands, which consists of several areas including Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, and much of Lincolnshire, has an ancient...

Over 168,000 new homes were completed in the year to March 2016, according to data released by the government, over 15,500...

The East of England, which takes in areas from Hertfordshire to Norfolk, has recorded the biggest hike in property prices over...

One of Britain’s best known housing innovators says he may just have found one way of helping overcome the UK’s shortage...

In case you missed it yesterday, here’s a summary of everything relating to property that was in Chancellor Phillip Hammond’s Autumn...

Phillip Hammond has delivered his first Autumn Statement, tackling amongst other things, what he called “the housing challenge.” The speech made no...

Forecasts are a tricky business. And as I wrote in a recent Industry Views opinion piece, any prediction in the current...

As many northern cities struggled to recover from the 2008 global financial crisis, the north-south divide returned to plague the British...

London’s Labour mayor Sadiq Khan says some 270,000 homes in London have been granted planning permission but have not yet been...

Tomorrow, June 8, is the closing date for submissions to the Labour Party’s latest consultation on housing policy: it is seeking...

The new mayor of London Sadiq Khan has pledged to do all in his power to help make London “better” after...

The race to replace London Mayor Boris Johnson has entered its final few days, and like never before, housing is the...

Government figures claim almost 50,000 households in council and other forms of social housing have taken up their Right To Buy...

An agency which specialises in land is calling on local councils to play a greater part in the push to create...

A suggestion that up to 50 per cent of new homes built in London should be affordable has come in for...

In an unexpected announcement, the government says it will "directly commission" companies to build up to 13,000 new affordable homes on...

George Osborne has announced a shock additional 3.0 per cent stamp duty on second homes and buy to let properties. Details are...

The head of a central London property firm says an unintended consequence of the new stamp duty thresholds is that fewer...

Over the next five years at least 70,000 new households a year in England alone will be unable to afford to...

The Town and Country Planning Association has plunged itself into the debate over Britain’s housing, saying that younger people unable to...

Scotland’s home building industry says at least 100,000 homes of all tenures are needed by the end of the next Scottish...

Stephen Moss, CEO of Pring.co.uk the UK’s leading property investment search engine, takes a look at the impact of ‘Corbynmania’ on...

There has been a mixed response from the agency world to David Cameron's pledge to reform planning, promise that 200,000 new...

Controversial housing charity Shelter has published a report which claims that the government's Starter Homes scheme will fail the people it...

The House of Lords has set the cat amongst the pigeons on the government proposal to give housing association tenants the...

Estate and letting agents and other figures in the property industry have been making their last-minute calls on Chancellor George Osborne...

The government claims that over 36,000 new home owners have been created through Right to Buy since 2012. Figures released by the...

UK house prices have increased by an average of £11,500 over the last 12 months to May - but seven cities...

A north of England firm that claims to offer a more affordable route into home ownership than available with a conventional...

The Conservative Party’s manifesto pledge to extend the Right to Buy scheme was confirmed in yesterday’s Housing Bill.  The Bill was part...

The housing charity Shelter claims that there are only 43 truly affordable homes on sale across all of London. That number “would...