Archive

The recent stamp duty holiday and the subsequent conveyancing logjam this triggered has acted as a wakeup call for the industry....

The lack of progress on the much-anticipated government reforms of the leasehold system is leaving thousands of homeowners stranded, according to...

NAEA Propertymark says the news that two major players in the leasehold sector have reformed their activities must be just the...

The Competition and Markets Authority has struck a deal with house builders over leasehold abuses. Aviva has committed to remove certain terms...

Independent agents come in all shapes, sizes and looks, many with their own USPs and little quirks. It is this variety...

The Grenfell Tower disaster in June 2017 exposed the dangers of inflammable cladding on residential tower blocks, and what has come...

The controversial demands of Trading Standards for more “material information” to be provided upfront in property details have been criticised by...

The government has set up a committee to push forward ideas on the collective form of homeownership known as commonhold. Housing Secretary...

A leading agency says the stamp duty holiday is not a big influence on the current housing market frenzy - and...

The Competition and Markets Authority has written to two top house builders ordering them to change their leasehold terms. In September the...

Leading leasehold experts have sharply criticised the much-hyped reforms announced by the government last week. The Leasehold Group of Companies - formerly led by...

Millions of leaseholders will be given the right to extend their lease by a maximum term of 990 years at zero...

A leasehold group has written to Housing Minister Chris Pincher pressing for an update on the government’s approach to reform for...

Another attempt is being made to introduce property logbooks to the selling and buying process, and agents are invited to play a...

Book review by Graham Norwood, editor of Estate Agent Today, Letting Agent Today and Landlord Today. If a letting agent wants to...

Many agents, certainly those in London, will have faced the difficult task of selling a flat with a shorter lease. A...

A right wing magazine once edited by Boris Johnson has called estate agents “spivs with tape measures” who conceal information from...

NAEA Propertymark has thrown its weight behind a Competitions and Markets Authority investigation into whether consumer protection law has been broken...

The Competition and Markets Authority is today opening enforcement cases focusing on the sale of leasehold homes by four leading housebuilders. They...

Wholesale reform of leasehold issues is still some years away, despite recent proposals by the Law Commission and pledges by the...

The long-awaited proposals for leasehold reform produced by the Law Commission suggests giving owners the right to extend their lease for...

The death has been announced of one of the country’s leading campaigners against the injustices of the leasehold system, Louie Burns. Burns...

There’s been a broad welcome from agents and other industry organisations for the latest report from the Competition and Markets Authority...

The government is being urged to make commonhold ownership compulsory on all new apartments - and the move could even begin a...

Unfortunately for consumers, buying and selling properties is rarely plain sailing. But fortunately for agents, this provides you with an opportunity to...

The Law Commission has set out three ways to cut the cost that leaseholders have to pay to buy the freehold...

A 10 point manifesto to drive forward leasehold reform has been published by prominent campaigner Louie Burns, of The Leasehold Solutions Group. The 10...

A London estate agency is attempting to help leaseholders with short leases who may be finding it hard to raise funds...

A London agency has told Estate Agent Today that it makes some of its buyers pay upwards of £5,000 in Reservation...

There’s no doubt that we live in politically charged times and every day appears to bring something new to the ‘party’. For...

The price premium paid by purchasers for a freehold property rather than a leasehold is at its highest for eight years. An...

One of the largest surveys of housing concerns amongst consumers suggests that agents fees - once a major issue - is...

The government has published proposals for far-reaching changes to the way estate and letting agents are regulated, trained and licensed. The proposals...

The police have opened an investigation after a number of complaints have been made about the financial affairs of a sales...

A leasehold reform campaigner says government proposals risk creating a two-tier market and do nothing to assist leaseholders already hit by...

The Competition and Markets Authority has formally launched an investigation into the sale of leasehold properties - including possible mis-selling. This follows...

It may well seem that the government is pre-occupied with one issue, and one issue alone. While preparations for Brexit take up a...

A firm supporting leaseholders across the UK says the ongoing Competition and Markets Authority probe should “punish” what it calls “rip off...

So far in our contribution to the campaign to replace leasehold with commonhold we have outlined the stories of some of...

The National Association of Estate Agents has welcomed the commitment by the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate the mis-selling of...

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) has launched its long-awaited ‘How to sell a home’ and ‘How to...

The leasehold scandal continues to generate plenty of column inches, with fresh stories emerging almost daily of people living in unsellable...

Another property raffle - this time with what appeared to be a castle as its main prize - has hit trouble...

The leasehold scandal has received plenty of press coverage, with horror stories of people living in homes that are impossible to...

Almost as soon as the government yesterday made its latest announcement to outlaw rogue leasehold deals, the measure was branded “pathetic. More...

A large-scale survey by a consumer group has revealed that over half of home owners regard stamp duty as a growing...

Over the last few years, there have a number of changes to the stamp duty land tax (SDLT) regime, which have...

The leasehold system has created many unsellable and unmortgageable homes and should change, MPs say. The all-party Housing, Communities and Local Government...

The proliferation of big data is paving the way to improving our economy on almost every front as entrepreneurial digital companies...

There’s been a dramatic improvement in the speed of searches being completed and returned by local authorities, the government claims. Housing minister...

Developers have continued to sell thousands of new-build houses with leaseholds, despite a government pledge to ban the “unscrupulous” practice a...

Two weeks to Christmas but no sign of our industry slowing down with more job moves announced in recent days.  Please let...

A house in Mayfair that was sold for £19.175m in 2014 and put on the market this year at £25m has...

The cost of new-build leasehold properties has surged 16 times faster than freeholds according to research from property investment platform. The revelation...

The National Association of Estate Agents has welcomed the government’s move to ensure most future new-build houses are sold as freehold...

The vast majority of new-build houses are to be sold as freehold with ground rents for new leases capped at £10...

The independent Essex estate agency Beresfords is celebrating its 50th anniversary next week - and is doing so in style with...

The National Association of Estate Agents has given broad support for radical proposals from the Law Commission to end leasehold abuse...

The Property Ombudsman has urged the government to bring the new homes build sector under consumer redress. New builds are not currently...

Almost all buyers of new build houses who purchased a leasehold regret doing so, and the vast majority say they definitely wouldn't...

A specialist property law firm is calling on the government to speed up changes in the law to avoid abusive leasehold...

In our previous blog, we looked at the definitions outlined by the CPRs. In our next blog we’ll look at the...

A new website has been set up specifically to help leasehold flat owners who have been served a Section 5 Notice...

The government says its funding schemes such as Help To Buy will no longer be applied to what it calls “unjustified...

The Money editor of The Mirror newspaper has finally sold a home he first put on the market in late 2016...

As housing market stakeholders we’ve all had a month or so to try and digest the government’s own response to its...

Estate Agent Today understands several major national agencies and some smaller operators are involved in a project to understand why transaction...

One of the three official redress bodies serving the estate and lettings agency industry has conducted a survey of complaints across...

People living in leasehold properties should extend the remaining terms of their leases before they drop beneath 80 years, according to a...

Stubbornly high house prices and concerns over leasehold-related charges top the list of worries amongst the public about the housing market. That’s...

The government has announced further measures which will, in its words, “professionalise” house buying and the estate agency business. In yet another Sunday...

At any given moment it’s difficult to say which issue dominates our marketplace, but I think it’s fair to acknowledge during...

Home owners seeking lease extensions may now have to pay more as a result of a controversial judgement handed down by...

The Court of Appeal is today expected to rule on a legal battle which may be critical in determining the value...

While there is a distinct market for flats held on particularly short leases, there is a middle ground where flat owners...

A specialist leasehold enfranchisement firm has branded government leasehold reforms as "incredibly weak". In an announcement lost in the noise following Damian Green’s sacking,...

Earlier this month Fine & Country announced it was to offer an auction option to vendors - now the Surrey agency...

Labour MP Justin Madders is working on a Private Members' Bill creating leasehold reform in a bid to help leaseholders who, he...

Even so close to the event, I don’t think anyone will be deeming 2017 as the ‘summer of love’.  The summer of...

Without wishing to blow our own trumpet at this time, we did say at the start of the year that 2017...

There has been general support from the industry for the government’s apparent intention to ban new homes in England being sold...

The government says it wants to ban “unfair” leasehold charges imposed on buyers of new-build homes in England.  Under the measure, subject to...

With several agent partner programmes available across the country, estate agents can often increase business by offering sales by auction, with...

A leasehold enfranchisement expert wants government action over what he calls the "forgotten casualties" of the recent ground rent scandal.    Louie Burns,...

A cluster of conveyancing and legal experts, known as the Legal Sector Group, has published a raft of proposals on leasehold...

The Conservative and Labour party manifestos do not go far enough to tackle problems with the leasehold system. That’s the view of...

Auctions are a great way to sell property competitively, with a wide range of homes often selling under the hammer, and...

A sales progression tool claims to have reduced the average transaction time for a property from around 94 days to around...

No longer just a domain for investors, developers and property traders, the auction room is now the preferred option of buying...

I recently came across a consumer comment expressing frustration at the length and complexity of UK conveyancing and raising the question...

Auction rooms across the UK are filled with people looking to buy property, from bargain hunters to seasoned investors, ensuring that...

The service charges for new-build flats coming on to the market this year are on average 96 per cent higher than...

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

The French government has taken billionaire Foxtons founder Jon Hunt to the High Court over his attempt to dig a so-called...

An estate agency that has been operating in a historic pub in St. John’s Wood has been ordered to vacate by...