Archive

The stamp duty holiday has backfired and buyers almost everywhere are paying more for homes, rather than less. StripeHomes analysed house price...

First the good news - estate agents are trusted more than politicians and no less than bankers. Now the bad news:...

The Chancellor’s recent announcement that the stamp duty holiday would be extended for another three months was undoubtedly great news for...

The latest breakdown of the stamp duty holiday extension has given a first estimate of the total number of deals to...

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

Much of the agency industry has reacted with delight at the extension of the stamp duty holiday deadline until June. Rightmove estimates...

Chancellor Rishi Sunak will extend the stamp duty holiday deadline until the end of June - a three month extension. The lead...

Affordability across the housing market is at its worst for 10 years according to an analysis by a London agency. Benham and Reeves...

Estate agents have kept up the pressure on the Westminster government to consider some kind of tapered ending to the stamp...

Labour and Conservative MPs have expressed a unanimous view on their desire to see an extension of the stamp duty holiday...

Homeowners staying at home during another lockdown are doing more than sharing memes of groundhog day or doing family quizzes on...

An international property and residency consultancy claims the sold prices of homes in some prime London locations have collapsed by up to 40...

London buyers have been by far the biggest winners from the stamp duty holiday according to new research. The Keller Williams UK...

Two of the most outspoken agents in the industry have criticised those calling for an extension to the stamp duty holiday...

A national newspaper is today launching a campaign for the stamp duty holiday to be extended. The Daily Telegraph says its campaign...

The UK outlet of Warren Buffett's estate agency empire is launching its first TV advert in this country.  Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Kay &...

A prominent London agency says cash buyers are securing substantial discounts in prime areas of the capital. The biggest cash discount currently...

Stamp duty breaks have historically done little to help the housing market - and it’s the same now. So says David Hannah,...

As regular readers will know, the Natter kickstarted a series last time out zoning in on local independent agents – the...

Searches that are bound by the Search Code, protecting the seller, buyer and lender, are property and not client specific. As...

A law firm wants the government to agree that properties that have exchanged but not yet completed can definitely benefit from the...

The national lockdown beginning on Thursday makes the case for an extension to the stamp duty holiday, according to a tax...

A London agency says it's discovered the five key priorities that buyers want, following a survey of its own database. “Lockdown and...

A new property portal that operates a Tinder-style ‘swipe’ app is offering agents 12 months free listings. MoveStreets operates like the dating...

New figures released this morning give weight to calls for the complete scrapping of stamp duty.  The dats shows there have been...

Stamp duty specialist consultancy Cornerstone Tax claims some 120,000 buyers in the UK may be owed SDLT refunds. It says that in...

Mortgage approvals for house purchases have soared to a 13 year high according to Bank of England figures up to the...

A league table drawn up by a quick buy property firm claims that some estate agents' average commission has hit 2.32 per...

A quick buy firm which typically purchases homes from sellers at below market levels has accused estate agents and the private...

A quick buy firm boasting it has ‘sold’ a home within six days also says it now takes 140 days on...

The scale of the problems facing many prospective buyers has been set out in a survey showing as many as one-third...

One of the most prominent companies involved in identifying and treating Japanese Knotweed has recruited a new member of the team...

A PropTech firm that regularly claims London homes are mis-measured in property descriptions has taken a swipe at Purplebricks. Pupil, a spatial...

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s stamp duty holiday means prime property in the UK now enjoys lower tax rates than most European countries. Buyers...

We recently issued our Zoopla House Price Index, which analyses the latest real-time trends from the sales market. In our analysis, we...

Mortgage product choices for buyers have increased to the highest level in three months according to new data. PropTech platform Mortgage Brain...

Zoopla predicts that the price strength that has been seen since the reopening of the housing market is likely to continue...

A tax and legal specialist says there’s been a huge rise in stamp duty refund cases between March and June -...

It’s official – the property market is back open for business. Estate agents have started to unfurlough staff and many are...

Restrictions introduced a decade ago after the financial crisis are holding back many first time buyers from purchasing a home. That’s the...

Zoopla’s head of research says a stamp duty holiday could encourage more home owners to move which in turn could help...

The government is jeopardising the success of the housing market relaunch through the inflexibility of the furlough scheme, claims a group...

It’s been revealed that the home moving advice service set up by Phil Spencer is entering a collaboration with awards and...

The government has been called upon by one of the industry’s most respected bodies to announce a stamp duty holiday to...

A trade group wants councils and search companies to co-operate more closely during the virus to minimise delays to the remaining...

The ESTAS today reveals its shortlist for the 2020 Awards which includes the Zoopla Xcellence Award - a special category that celebrates...

The government has - once again - announced the introduction of a New Homes Ombudsman.  The news came yesterday when Housing Secretary...

Yes, believe it or not, we’ve nearly reached the end of a whole decade. And what an eventful decade it’s been. We’ve...

As part of its commitment to promoting and enforcing high standards, RICS has launched its Home Survey Standard, which will become...

Recent Zoopla reports stating that first-time buyers are deciding against purchasing one-bedroom flats came as no surprise to me, or I’m...

Housing Minister Esther McVey has launched an expert advisory council that the government says is “dedicated to the digital transformation of...

Young homebuyers want tech-savvy, astute and attentive estate agents who are able to handle their complex requirements via a range of...

Housing minister Esther McVey says Compulsory Purchase Orders and brownfield land registers are to be made digitally transparent.  This will allow CPO...

Zoopla has unveiled new functionality that it claims will make searching for new homes easier for consumers - and resumes the...

A trade body has sharply criticised HM Land Registry for its slow progress on digitising local searches after a promising start...

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

New research shows that three bedroom homes are the quickest selling property type this autumn. After a series of sluggish house price...

The typical estate agency fee paid by a seller has actually fallen one per cent in the past year according to...

A new analysis of privately owned homes with mortgages outstanding shows repossessions have risen in London - but they’re down in...

I feel I am in a fortunate position. I have been central to the PropTech movement for a number of years,...

A leading agent has suggested that some parts of the UK would face “a property exodus” if Boris Johnson’s proposals for...

With this summer marking forty years since Margaret Thatcher came to power, her legacy continues to invoke both celebration and consternation...

A PropTech firm has repeated claims it first made in March about allegedly inaccurate floorpan measurement and says a new initiative...

An analysis of transactions agreed this spring suggests there will be a surge in prices which will ultimately be reflected later...

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

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

Foxtons has revealed that its six branch closures announced towards the end of last year will save the company £3m in...

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

Zoopla says the number of its leads delivered to member agents in the period March 2018 to February 2019 was 36...

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

Winkworth has set up a dedicated land and new homes division. The franchise agency, which has most of its offices in and...

At the end of January the Asian PropTech company PropertyGuru announced the imminent launch of beta-phase testing of its cutting-edge new product, PropertyGuru Lens. This...

A new website is offering to contact owners of homes that are not for sale, on behalf of people who would...

The global chief executive of Purplebricks, Michael Bruce, has warned mortgage lenders against offering so-called ‘super-sized’ home loans to borrowers.  Bruce is...

Given that online property portals, dominated by a handful of websites, are by far the most popular home search method, it...

Estate agents are missing around half of the conveyancing referral opportunities they could take, according to a new report.  PropTech firm OneDome...

Hard-pressed buyers who try to minimise house moving costs by doing their own conveyancing have been warned of the disastrous consequences...

Strutt & Parker is bucking the trend on High Street offices by opening a new one - and in this case,...

The government has unveiled a new body which, it claims, will raise agency standards. There is a long-standing commitment from the government...

Strutt & Parker is offering free Virtual Viewings to 1,000 new clients, and says it's the first national agency to offer such...

The government, which only recently said there would be one Ombudsman covering the entire housing sector, has announced that there is...

In a surprise weekend announcement the government has almost doubled funding for the National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team - the...

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

A property portal that describes itself as free-to-list has launched today, taking the industry by surprise - however, at least one...

A magazine claims its investigations into the sales tactics of Countrywide and Connells suggest the two agency are “harming consumers, stopping them from...

HM Land Registry has taken another step towards its aim to “make conveyancing simpler, faster and cheaper” for the general public. The...

A new ‘quick buy’ property company claims it will make an offer on any home within 24 hours of the vendor...

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,...

Property has always been an industry built on a foundation of personal relationships. Deals made, promotions gained, clients won, portfolios grown;...

The housing industry has set out a list of demands in advance of the government’s hotly anticipated Autumn Budget on Wednesday.  Despite...

The largest mutual life pension and insurance company in the UK has added its voice to growing calls for stamp duty...

The fact is that most house hunters simply do not have the time, let alone the inclination, to trawl around properties...

What does your role involve? As team manager for the property team, I make sure PAs and clients are happy and...

For the second successive week the Advertising Standards Authority has banned an online estate agency’s advertisement.  Last week it was HouseSimple and...

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

Being a leading world-class city comes at a price – they are the most expensive for occupiers and the most lucrative...

This week, the obvious thing to write about would be easyProperty's merger with GPEA. It's such a huge and potentially influential...

New research has identified homebuyers' top 20 'must-have' features that would encourage them to purchase a seller's property. According to the survey...

Mortgage rates continue to fall with the average new lending rate at a record low of 2.2 per cent: as a...

This week, it would be very easy for me to focus on the startling figures that easyProperty logged with Companies House...

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

The Advertising Standards Authority has stepped in following a complaint about a TV ad for a Quick Sale company, National Homebuyers.  The...

The government has set out 29 key points in its Housing White Paper.   Introducing it in the Commons this afternoon, Communities Secretery Sajid...

The Property Ombudsman’s office has defended a change to its code of practice which, according to a national newspaper, means agents...

Lots of people buy new-build due to the perceived lack of hassle with maintenance, as they are built to the latest...

A PropTech firm is to launch a 'printed augmented reality' service that allows buyers to point their smartphone and get additional information...

Fears raised over the UK housing market in the wake of the Brexit vote have so far proved to be ‘wide...

The National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team has followed up the recent announcement by The Property Ombudsman to counteract portal juggling by...

Who are you? Nick Dyoss, Group Business Development Director, SearchFlow, property intelligence specialists You have a high profile within the conveyancing search industry,...

With the number of new homes being built across the UK still significantly below the level needed to meet demand, housebuilders...

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

A property analytics company has devised a method of calculating the ‘best’ locations in which to work as an estate agent,...

A campaign has been launched to make Bristol the colour capital of the UK by ensuring that more homes are painted...

In the capital, people will pay a premium to live near great transport links, and as we’ve seen from Crossrail and...

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says the controversial findings of an insurance firm’s research shows that millions of homeowners may...

No fewer than 555,000 would-be first time purchasers have opened Help To Buy Individual Savings Accounts - HTB Isas - since...

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

  Who are you? Carole Marsden   What does it say on your business card? UK Sales Director What attracted you to join SearchFlow?  SearchFlow has...

Almost three in 10 buyers have seen their house purchase fall through after making an offer - typically leaving them almost...

Fraudsters attacking the conveyancing sector, successfully stealing large sums of money from homebuyers, are making national headlines at a depressing rate....

New figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors backs up the theory that the market is slowing down significantly ahead...

It's a high quality RICS approved report, carried out by one of our RICS accredited local surveyors. The RICS HomeBuyer Survey is...

SearchFlow, property intelligence specialists, has partnered with Decision First to offer an unrivalled service to protect conveyancers and homebuyers from the...

The summer term – rounders, cricket and hayfever. It's also the last dash before the housing market supposedly closes down for...

The influential Home Owners’ Alliance pressure group says Britain pulling out of the EU would probably depress house prices. The HOA - a...

With the scale of devastation from flooding witnessed recently, anxiety about purchasing a property in a flood risk area is heightened....

Over the past six months I’ve noticed a number of key themes emerge from the conversations I’ve had with agents –...

This week, Storm Desmond has left devastation in its wake. Once again, the nation’s attention is drawn to the threat flooding...

Who are you? Colin Breavington What does it say on your business card? Operations Director We hear SearchFlow is expanding next year, can you give...

A body called the UK Housing Market Observatory - consisting of economists at Lancaster University Management School - is giving a...

We’re all familiar with 'gazumping' – most us have been 'gazumped' or indeed been the perpetrators of this practice, for it...

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

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says it is working on a revised HomeBuyer Report which will not include the ‘historic’...

This week RICS reported a further drop in the number of people putting their homes up for sale; new instructions fell...

Would you like to create cool and professional 3D Floor Plans for use in your property listings?  Learn how you can...