Archive

Hello and welcome to a new week, and a new edition of PJT. If you’re on the move or your firm has...

The scores are in….and it looks like house prices are going to rise gently in 2020 according to forecasts from almost...

It’s a substantial Tory government for the next five years: what does this mean for estate agents, property and the market? We have...

The latest figures from investment consultancy London Central Portfolio suggests new build sales have plummeted in prime areas of the capital...

There was an increase in the number of first time buyers getting on the property ladder in September compared to the...

Until now General Election pledges of stamp duty reforms were restricted to the Conservatives - but now a tax consultancy says...

A tax expert is urging owners of second homes, as well as property investors and existing landlords, to seek independent financial...

A former 10 Downing Street adviser says stamp duty on house sales should be scrapped or at least slashed in order...

There are fewer ‘accidental landlords’ - vendors who resort to letting out their homes because the sales market is difficult. That’s the...

Cash buyers have fallen in 90 per cent of major UK cities over the past three years according to a Zoopla...

Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, who earlier this month told a newspaper that he wanted to introduce a Right To Buy policy for...

An estate agent is linking a drop in transactions of as much as 20 per cent with the stamp duty increases...

First time buyers will constitute the largest single group of purchasers in 2019, despite the apparent difficulties of deposits and securing...

A leading London estate agent has written to The Times dismissing MPs who have been squabbling over Brexit and a possible...

A record £8.2 billion was paid in Capital Gains Tax in 2017/18 - over £1 billion more than the year before.  The...

Seemingly-endless uncertainty over Brexit and now speculation over whether there will be an easing of stamp duty on transactions is making...

Online estate agency Yopa is warning of price falls ahead in London and south east England - although price rises elsewhere...

Conservative Party leadership contender Boris Johnson has expressed an interest in switching the stamp duty burden from buyers to sellers. Until now Johnson’s comments on...

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

Some 10 per cent of Britons now own a second home, a buy to let or an overseas property according to...

A writer for the influential financial publication Money Week says investors should “steer clear” of Foxtons - at least for now. Sarah...

Agents have reacted gloomily to the release of figures showing that the number of new mortgages offered to both movers and...

A new and comprehensive analysis of the housing market shows a jaw-dropping collapse in stamp duty revenue going to the Treasury...

New figures from HM Revenue and Customs suggest that stamp duty receipts have fallen by no less than £1 billion. The drop...

An ex-housing minister and ex-Brexit secretary says he wants to radically change taxes on buy to let capital appreciation to help...

Figures released this morning show a surge in first time buyers securing mortgages in recent months, despite the market showing continued signs...

After several days of gloomy market news, here's something more optimistic - there were 370,000 new first time buyer mortgages completed in...

The average prices of flats and maisonettes bucked the trend by falling very slightly in the year to December, according to...

The Property Ombudsman’s annual conference is to hear from the chair of the government’s ‘Property Agents Working Group’ - just days...

If former Chancellor George Osborne thought his 2014 stamp duty reform would produce more income for the government, it appears he...

One of Britain’s foremost property consultancies has given a relatively upbeat prediction for the UK housing market over the next five...

As 2018 draws to a close, it is fair to say that stretched affordability and uncertainty over the Brexit negotiations has...

Six directors have been banned from office after misleading over 300 people who bought new build homes in the north of...

A first-time agent who has previously owned a retail franchise and some buy to let units, has bought the Century 21 franchise...

The head of a controversial property portal says agents can by-pass some GDPR marketing restrictions by using his service’s social network. Ben Davis,...

Savills has issued its forecast for the housing market for the next five years, and while it highlights some bright spots...

New figures from the Mortgage Advice Bureau give an insight into the changing demographics of home buyers and buy to let...

It’s Budget day and the government is once again on the receiving end of a blast from one of the country’s...

Few things anger the industry more than the effect of stamp duty and other costs on property transactions (well, maybe Purplebricks...

Figures from the mortgage lenders’ umbrella group, UK Finance, suggest the government desire to see more first time buyers and fewer...

We’re sorry to be starting the week with more evidence of the housing market in the doldrums, but Rightmove’s latest index...

Figures released by HMRC over the weekend show another huge rise in stamp duty going to the Treasury - and that’s...

Yieldit, an online agency that specialises in selling investment houses and apartments with tenants in situ, is claiming a strong quarter...

Data from the buying agency Black Brick reveals just how big an impact has been made by the additional homes stamp...

There’s been another drop in mortgage arrears and possessions for owner occupiers - although an increase for some elements of the...

Auction House says the number of lots it sold in the first half of 2018 was some 3.8 per cent up...

A poll of housing market experts suggests London house prices are likely to fall this year as a result of Brexit...

One of the country’s leading experts on the housing market says first time buyers are still hampered from purchasing homes despite...

A new online platform claims agents can now offer people a chance to buy a property with, literally, just one click...

A service that tracks different types of mortgage demand reveals that remortgaging is on the rise while borrowing for new purchases...

The housing market may have seen some depressing figures of late but there’s good news about mortgage arrears - they’re at...

New online auction house BidX1 says it has raised £2,087,000 from its second UK auction, posting a 70 per cent success...

If you want to know whether buy to let, landlords and letting agents will be in the firing line for more...

Property purchases for buyers requiring mortgages reached 50,000 in February, the highest level for the month since 2007.  The data, from mortgage...

The switchback of house price indices and other data on the state of the market has taken a turn for the...

New analysis by Hometrack shows that large regional cities like Edinburgh, Birmingham and Manchester look set for a 20 per cent...

A 1.0 per cent interest rate rise would add £930 a year to the cost of servicing the average mortgage, according...

A forecast suggests HM Revenue & Customs will rake in no less than £8.8 billion in Capital Gains Tax in 2018...

Foxtons has this morning given details of a sharp fall in both profits and revenue, wirth sales significantly falling away and...

It’s traditional before Christmas to either review the year past or anticipate the one ahead - but I’m intrigued about what...

British politics is extraordinarily volatile right now and the ongoing battle between austerity and anti-austerity, Leave and Remain, and Conservative and...

Belvoir has revealed that it has won the backing of a minority shareholder in The Property Franchise Group to resume merger...

Savills has given a pessimistic outlook for the mainstream housing market for the next five years.  It says average house prices across...

Central London’s housing market is showing a recovery from price falls which followed stamp duty changes in 2014 and 2016 according...

A breakdown of data from over 4,100 agents has revealed that it takes on average 201 days to move home, from...

Pressure is continuing to build on the government to reform stamp duty in next month’s Budget. Firstly a group of senior financial...

Like many of Labour’s recent policy proposals, its call for rent controls leaves more questions than answers.  There has been widespread criticism...

It’s not just the evenings drawing in that marks the approach of autumn - it’s also the return to work of...

Almost half of all property purchase valuations last month were conducted on behalf of first-time buyers according to Connells - well...

A think tank says the penalties now levied against second home owners - such as the stamp duty surcharge and phasing...

The price of houses in the UK will remain high because a “structural decline” means fewer homes are being sold and...

Black Brick says its turnover in 2016 tripled to £3m with new business so far this year focussing increasingly on owner-occupier...

A Hampshire property investor who failed to declare Capital Gains Tax from the sale of properties evading £157,725, has been jailed...

As the mainstream mortgage market braces itself for yet another clampdown on buy-to-let lending, a growing number of property investors are...

That the private rental sector has become the government’s whipping boy for housing problems - landlords in particular, letting agents almost...

First time buyers have finances stretched beyond their means, buy to let is attracting fewer investors because of taxes, and affordability...

Former RICS residential chief Jeremy Leaf says he is not downcast by the latest Halifax house price index which shows prices...

One of the industry’s leading analysts says Countrywide’s figures for the first half of 2017 are likely to be tough -...

The Council of Mortgage Lenders’s buy to let forecast for 2017 and 2018 has been revised down from previous expectations at...

Barclays Bank has given an optimistic view of the housing market over the next five years, with a prediction that across...

The banning of letting fees levied on tenants has dominated the industry headlines in recent months but this election campaign suggests...

The proportion of mortgage products available for investor buyers operating through limited companies has risen by over 50 per cent in...

Asking prices of homes coming to the market have now been rising for five consecutive months says Rightmove.  Asking prices rose 2.0...

The Liberal Democrats have set a building target of 300,000 new homes a year, have pledged to scrap housing association Right...

HMRC says there has been a five per cent drop on the number of transactions attracting stamp duty in the first...

Property transactions rose marginally in March this year, up 0.5 per cent on February’s total according to figures from HM Revenue...

The Financial Conduct Authority says it is to review lenders offering solely interest-only mortgages to home owners. In its business plan for...

More than three quarters of developers want to see the government go into reverse on its stamp duty and mortgage interest...

Savills is warning that while low interest rates will probably keep house prices relatively static, transaction volumes are likely to remain...

In recent years the mortgage industry has gone through some testing times. Recession and regulation have led to more stringent lending...

The average asking price rise for homes coming to the market in the last month has been a chunky 1.3 per...

Manchester-based sister firms Sequre Property Investment and Sequre International have extended their office space thanks rising demand for UK buy to...

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

Estate agents are angry that Chancellor Phillip Hammond made no attempt in his first Spring Budget to reform stamp duty -...

The rapid growth in popularity of buy-to-let in recent years, fuelled in part by the failings of the pensions industry, has...

Connells Group’s mortgage services wing has recorded a 10 per cent increase in the number of mortgages in 2016 and has generated...

The number of properties taken into possession last year declined by almost 25 per cent and has hit the lowest level in 35...

An analysis by Savills shows that so-called ‘additional homes’ - that is, those carrying a three per cent stamp duty surcharge...

Hybrid agency EweMove is rapidly expanding its network footprint this year and will be a “challenger brand” deliberately designed to be...

A new report from the NatWest Bank nips in the bud any speculation that rising inflation may end the current cheap...

Rightmove’s web traffic between Boxing Day and the end of last week is up five per cent on the same period...

The rental market has had to face a raft of changes over the past year, including the introduction of the 3% stamp...

There is no doubt that 2016 managed to catch the world by surprise on more than one occassion.  But will 2017 be...

This is the final Estate Agent Today until Tuesday January 3 2017, so everyone at Angels Media sends all good wishes for...

Data from HM Revenue & Customs shows that the sale of residential properties rose a marginal 0.8 per cent last month...

New figures from the Council for Mortgage Lenders add weight to the argument that the housing market is gently slowing.  Home-owners borrowed £10.5...

A housebuilder that has in the past profited from its concentration on high-end London schemes says demand for its units is...

Let me set out my stall from the beginning. Firstly with two buy to lets managed by an agency, I understand and...

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...

We are now only days away from one of the most-anticipated events in UK politics; one which has a considerable impact...

A business publication says figures from a PropTech peer-to-peer lending firm which markets its products through Zoopla show a 95 per cent...

Estate agents are already setting out their stalls ahead of Chancellor Phillip Hammond’s November 23 Autumn Statement with one simple message...

Agents don’t need reminding that Estate Agent Today and Letting Agent Today are invaluable sources of daily industry news - but...

The Conveyancing Association says new Chancellor Phillip Hammond should use next month’s Autumn Statement as the opportunity to reverse controversial buy...

The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority has confirmed that tighter regulations will apply to lenders providing mortgages for buy to...

Housing minister Gavin Barwell has met campaigners to scrap anti-buy to let measures introduced by the Cameron government in the past...

Fergus and Judith Wilson, at one time considered to be Britain’s biggest private landlords, have sold off an estimated 400 of...

The huge rush to acquire buy-to-let property in the first quarter of the year ahead of the stamp duty change deadline...

The Daily Telegraph appears to have exposed the government’s much-vaunted Buy To Let ISA scheme - billed as helping first time...

The typical price of property coming to the market in the last four weeks is 1.2 per cent lower than in...

An investment report from credit ratings agency Moody’s suggests it is concerned about the effects of Brexit on the housing market,...

If you want an indicator that the United Kingdom isn’t so united any more, have a look at Right To Buy. The...

The number of mortgages in arrears is now at its lowest level since records began more than 20 years ago.  Data from...

Foxtons is reviewing its programme of branch openings in London because of the slowdown in the capital's housing market. In figures released...

London house prices rose by 251 and 209 per cent respectively during Thatcher’s and Blair’s time at Number 10 - but...

The high-profit property crowdfunding site Property Partner has laid off 13 of its employees - equivalent to around 29 per cent...

House prices in Scotland rose 0.9 per cent in May, taking the average value to £172,119 - still down on a...

The pace of property valuations conducted last month grew on both an annual basis and since the previous month, despite jitters...

CRM software provider Reapit, has teamed up with Agency Mentors to provide training programmes for agents.  Reapit says its agent customers who...

Hometrack is the latest property organisation to forecast that the referendum result will impact turnover far more than house prices in...

An estate agency has amended its website after being contacted by the Advertising Standards Authority following a complaint from a member...

The latest figures from the HMRC show the scale of sales market drop-off following the surge in purchases by buy to...

Berkeley Group, which has given a trading report to the City, says reservations for its new homes are down 20 per...

As we have just passed the 6 month half way point of 2016 we thought it would be a good idea...

Home loans activity has fallen to a 12 month low as market torpor sets in ahead of the EU referendum.  According to...

There has been a 58 per cent rise in the past year for mortgages for house purchase purposes, according to the...

A modest 0.4 per cent rise in average asking prices over the past month conceals a nasty surprise for first time...

The Council of Mortgage Lenders says the number of repossessions in the first quarter of 2016 was 2,100 - the lowest...

A City investment consultancy says one leading private agency chain has slashed its fees to 0.5 per cent in order to...

Buy to let investors and second home owners were behind three in five property purchases made in prime London during the...

The National Association of Estate Agents says there is light at the end of the tunnel for first time buyers seemingly...

A consumer group which champions home owners claims twice as many members of the public support the stamp duty surcharge as...

Buy to let mortgage sales - one of the key indicators of buy to let property sales - fell drastically in...

A former head of Savills’ buying arm says well-heeled overseas buyers are unphased by the recently-increased stamp duty on high value...

There has been a broad welcome for what would appear to be a government U-turn over the imposition of the stamp...

There was a significant drop in interest in purchasing buy to let properties in March as the April 1 stamp duty surcharge...

Connells Survey and Valuation says the total number of valuations conducted in March showed a 21 per cent increase over the...

House prices in the three months to March were 10.1 per cent higher than in the same quarter a year earlier...

The numbers of households purchasing their first home has grown by almost seven per cent annually, despite the surge in buy...

New proposals to curtail mortgage borrowing in the buy to let sector have been branded as “a classic case of slamming...

The National Association of Estate Agents has quantified what the industry has known for some weeks - there has been a...

The Property Franchise Group - including the brands Martin & Co, Whitegates, CJ Hole, Parkers and Ellis & Co - has...

A key Bank of England body has revealed its proposals for tougher borrowing standards to prevent buy to let lending overheating the wider...

Unlikely as it seems, the Treasury has tipped-off the 909 individuals and organisations that responded to formal consultation over the stamp...

When it comes to Budgets and Property, you have to hope that the old adage that ‘things happen in threes’ turns...

There has been a surge of new crowdfunding platforms aimed at people who either cannot afford to purchase their own buy...

The Nationwide is warning that the busy start to 2016 in the housing market is driven at least partly by the...

Morgan Stanley says fears over a possible UK exit from the EU and other global economic uncertainty could lead to “a...

JLL says the stamp duty surcharge on buy to let properties and second homes has obliged it to downgrade its forecast...

An estate agent has spoken out about the threat of ‘abandoned sales’ if a completion bottleneck prevents purchases of properties going...

Agents have reacted cautiously to a surprisingly-high 2.5 per cent increase in house prices - in just one month - announced...

The chief executive of Countrywide says there’s “no change of course” after a 37 per cent slump in operating profits were...

Banks have approved the highest number of mortgages for almost two years as the rush to purchase buy to let properties...

The Chartered Institute of Taxation has called on government to introduce an exemption from the stamp duty surcharge for parents buying...

Haart says a shortage of conveyancers and lawyers is leading to delays in transactions, made worse by the high volume of...

Another online petition has been launched against one of Chancellor George Osborne’s fiscal measures seen as an attack on the private...

There has been a warm welcome given to figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders showing that lending to first time...

There was a remarkable 52 per cent increase in valuations undertaken by Connells in January this year compared to the same...

Scotland’s Land & Building Transaction Tax - its more radical replacement for stamp duty which still applies throughout the rest of...

Increased competition amongst mortgage lenders and the rush to buy investment properties before the April 1 stamp duty surcharge deadline have...

A consumer group which supports the principle of a stamp duty surcharge on second homes and buy to let properties has...

There is less than a week to go before formal consultation ends on the introduction of the so-called stamp duty surcharge...

Prime Minister David Cameron has dismissed out of hand appeals and comments from Estate Agent Today readers to reconsider the recent...

In January readers of Estate Agent Today and Letting Agent Today were given the opportunity to give their views on proposed...

Landlords trying to beat Chancellor George Osborne’s stamp duty surcharge deadline are behind the latest upbeat assessment of the housing market...

The UK’s largest estate agency group has upgraded its profits forecast to the City - just over 10 weeks after issuing...

One of the UK's largest property franchises has reported strong figures in an interim trading statement to the City - with group...

The housing market will slow in the next three years as affordability problems and buy to let taxes combine to offset...

Rightmove is reporting this morning that there has been a 6.6 per cent increase in the number ot homes with two...

My suspicion in my December Industry Views column that the Chancellor, George Osborne, holds certain types of property owners in contempt...

Today is the last chance for Estate Agent Today readers to have their concerns about proposed stamp duty increases and recent...

Estate Agent Today readers are being given the rare opportunity to have their concerns about proposed stamp duty increases and recent...

There is just four weeks left for the official consultation period set by the government over its controversial proposal to levy...

There’s been plenty of forecasting in recent weeks - banks, consultancies and high-end estate agents have predicted house prices in the...

The government chose Christmas Bank Holiday Monday to launch its formal consultation on the ‘additional properties’ stamp duty surcharge, first announced...

It’s time to take a pause, to reflect and put into context—and what a year it has been for our industry...

What is the biggest change you’ve seen in the agency industry during your time at TPO?  For me, the biggest change has...

The Scottish finance minister John Swinney is to introduce a three per cent surcharge on the full purchase price above £40,000...

Newspapers and other journalists’ outlets are reporting that rooms in care homes are being offered to purchase as buy to let...

The director of two major agencies says George Osborne’s stamp duty surcharge and stock at an “historically low level” will force...

Estate agency Keller Williams has set up a specialist team to help military personnel with mortgages and property investment.   "The needs of...

The Treasury has admitted that stamp duty ‘take’ is expected to soar from £11.2 billion this year to £17.8 billion in...

Once you go beyond the industry’s anger about the Chancellor’s three per cent stamp duty surcharge – and that’s an anger...

Estate agents and accountants are investigating whether there are legal ways of circumnavigating the three per cent stamp duty surcharge that...

There’s been shock and anger from agents - especially those in London - at the surprise news of an additional three...

- From April 2016 buy to let landlords and people buying second or holiday homes will have to pay an additional...

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

Negativity. There’s a lot of it about in the lettings industry right now. Where you might see barriers, hurdles and more...

I make no apologies for returning to Build To Rent, the institutional investment in building and managing blocks of flats to...

A reader of Industry Views is unlikely to need converting to the virtues of buy to let, but anyone involved in...

Rightmove says the average asking price of a home coming to the market has reached an all-time high of £296,549 despite...

A new website promises ultimately to identify 'mispriced' properties, including those which have the highest probably of being secured at a...

There is still no word on when a police investigation will report on alleged irregularities said to involve the buy to...

A web portal which radically changes the way investors search for their next investment property has signed up 5,000 agents, less...

The average price of an apartment has risen by 60 per cent over the past 10 years, far ahead of the...

If there’s one thing that looks like a good move right now, it’s becoming a letting agent.  Whereas some years ago we...

Remortgaging activity has soared in recent weeks, outperforming all other areas of the housing market. New research from Connells Survey & Valuation...

It’s become almost obligatory for start-ups in many industries – frequently online agents in the selling and letting business – to...

The number of valuations has dropped over the summer according to figures from Connells.  Although valuation volumes for July are significantly up...

Housing minister has Brandon Lewis has thrown his weight behind the right of foreign investors to purchase buy to let properties,...

A new campaign says it’s not just the buy to let sector that will be penalised by changes to landlord tax...

A crowdfunding website has been set up with the aim of raising money to assist first time buyers purchase their homes. It...

Credit rating service Moody’s is warning that restrictions on mortgage interest relief for buy-to-let landlords will slow house price growth in...

Consider the scene. It is July 8th and new Chancellor, Ed Balls, stands at the Dispatch Box giving his first Budget...

The huge publicity surrounding the high prices of parking bays that have been sold in some parts of prime central London...

Agents have expressed their disappointment at the decision by the government to restrict mortgage interest relief for Buy To let investors...

The Chancellor, George Osborne, has announced a series of measures impacting on the property industry, including:   Mortgage interest relief for buy-to-let homebuyers...

June has witnessed a surge in residential valuations according to Connells.  It says there were 23 per cent more property valuations conducted...

Although the housing market is showing few signs of igniting following the election slowdown, there is at least some good news...

This month has marked a real change in the way the private lettings sector is perceived - and it’s a perception...

The post-election period has triggered a flurry of interest in buy to let but a sharp decline in business from first...

London house prices rose year-on-year at a figure of more than 18% in 2014, with the Metropolitan area experiencing similarly huge...