Archive

When it comes to the future of the property market in the wake of Covid-19, there are two main schools of...

A specialist property lender says transactions are being delayed by key staff being furloughed. Gareth Lewis, commercial director of property lender MT...

There’s good news from the think-tank the Resolution Foundation, which says the threat of negative equity because of the Coronavirus crisis...

With access to finance being such a hot topic at the moment, more and more estate agents are turning to commercial...

The networking organisation Women in Residential Property has grown to over 300 members - its highest ever total.  Launched three years ago...

One of the country’s highest-profile mortgage lenders, HSBC, is restricting loans on apartments from today. Only buyers of flats who have a...

Mortgage approvals - a key indicator of short-term activity in the housing market - beat expectations in June according to Bank...

What do General Electric, IBM, Microsoft, and WhatsApp have in common? Yes, they are American companies that boasted revenues of $50...

The outlook for the housing market is still taking shape, but here I take a look at three market indicators to...

Over the last few years, there have been a number of high-profile court cases in which renters took action against letting...

All my recent Natters have been focused on one particular topic, the coronavirus crisis, for obvious reasons. But there has been...

At the moment, it somehow seems like tempting fate to think too far into the future, especially in terms of the...

The market could take five years to recover from the Coronavirus crisis after possible double-digit percentage price falls and fast-increasing repossessions.  That’s the...

The head of a firm that has been creating digital property log books for well over a decade says the house-moving...

Mortgage lenders approved the highest number of loans for house purchase in nearly four years in January, according to Bank of...

Predictions that landlords are not buying properties to let out because of tougher rental taxes and regulations appear to be short...

Rightmove and Zoopla have been working with key figures from government and the agency and conveyancing industries on how to reform...

Reapit has joined a consortium attempting to make the long-anticipated end-to-end digital home buying process a reality. It’s joined the IPN Consortium,...

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

A new analysis from a financial services trade body shows that gross mortgage lending is expected to rise significantly in the...

A former residential chairman of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has posed key questions for the government to answer over...

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

It’s been revealed that Countrywide is involved in a pilot exercise to help the creation of a so-called ‘affordability hub’ for...

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

It’s easier than you might think. For any agent the challenge of making a business successful is hard work with the focus...

A small online agency which in six months of trading has secured around 140 sales says it’s on course to be...

The number of new mortgages approved by banks fell to a six-month low in September - but the annual figure shows...

First details have emerged of the information vendors may have to provide up-front In future transactions if government house buying reforms...

One of the country’s leading estate agents is leading the calls on Chancellor Sajid Javid to sort out the government’s stamp...

A report by Santander says stamp duty cuts should be used as incentives for older home owners to downsize and allow...

The Bank of England’s monetary policy committee - which meets monthly to set the base rate on which the costs of...

Data from UK Finance, which represents most of the country’s lenders, shows that gross mortgage lending across the residential market in...

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

The latest report commissioned by the Labour party to resolve the UK’s housing problems would crash the housing market rather than...

Homes in central parts of London sold for a typical 11.5 per cent below asking price in the first three months...

In recent years, estate and letting agents have been faced with a series of tough challenges to absorb and react to. There...

The number of mortgages approved by High Street banks increased 5.4 per cent to 44,000 in April. Data from trade body UK...

While media attention has been on Theresa May, Brexit and the Tories, chatter in the agency industry has been about what...

Retired homeowners are increasingly using property wealth to clear unsecured debts and mortgages to strengthen their later life finances, a new...

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

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

Labour is proposing two methods of controlling house price rises should it win the next General Election - and the ideas...

New figures from the Equity Release Council suggest more growth in this sector, alarming those agents who see this as a...

Mortgage prisoners - borrowers unable to switch lenders despite being up-to-date with payments - may have an escape route in sight...

I don’t believe it’s unfair to state that our government, indeed, the entire political establishment is in some turmoil at the...

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...

There’s been more growth in the equity release sector, suggesting that fewer older owners are downsizing and are instead using their...

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...

The 100 per cent mortgage for first time buyers, which many people thought had disappeared for good, is now back in...

The new management at Emoov says that following its acquisition out of administration it will relaunch as an online estate agency later...

It’s the word on everyone’s lips: after two and a half years of debate, and months before that leading up to...

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

Asking prices of homes coming to the market have fallen for the second month in a row - and Rightmove says...

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

Mainstream bank lending for house purchases grew by 3.6 per cent in October compared to the same month last year. However the...

An open rental market, where neither landlord nor tenant is in a dominant position, enables rents to rise and fall, which...

Mortgage approvals fell again in September - this means that every month of 2018 so far has seen a drop against...

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

Hello and welcome to our weekly catch-up on the major moves within our industry. Remember, you can let the rest of the...

Landlords and letting agents might feel they’ve taken a bit of a battering from the government in recent years – and...

A new ‘robo-adviser’ mortgage service which is backed by LSL Property Services has won another £3.8m in funding from investors.  Robo-advisers provide...

A warning to people selling their homes to beware of internet-based scams offering cut-price surveys has been sounded by a leading...

There’s little doubt that downsizing is less of a factor in the housing market than it used to be - so...

Dare we mention it but this is the final Bank Holiday weekend of the year before Christmas - so what a...

Independent review website allAgents says its ultimate ambition is to be a serious rival to existing portals like OnTheMarket. Unveiling a new...

Rightmove says the housing market is now into a ‘summer sale’ as newly-marketed property shows an average asking price fall of...

When you are starting up a new business, it is unlikely that you will already have enough capital to invest. Taking...

Most estate agents have tried to dismiss the impact of the Bank of England’s base rate rise, which came following a...

Countrywide, the troubled estate agency group thought by some to be near collapse, has delayed issuing its interim figures which were...

Only 24 hours after the Land registry released data showing a 20 per cent slump in housing transactions, new figures from...

Locations in the capital dominate a league table of locations where the largest numbers of so-called ‘high risk’ mortgages are taken...

A survey of owner-occupiers, landlords, property investors and insolvency practitioners has revealed that Brexit is the single biggest concern when it...

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

Fewer mortgages were approved for home buyers last month than in the same month a year ago according to figures from...

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

The number of house sales falling through pre-completion during the first quarter of 2018 reached its highest level for this time...

Gross mortgage lending is set to reach its highest level since 2007 despite Brexit, says the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association. But its...

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

A critic of the conveyancing process has accused a law firm’s charge of £95 for “exchange and completion within five working...

Jefferies - the City consultancy which has in the past worked with Countrywide - has cuts its forecasts for the troubled...

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

When it comes to property, ‘Japanese knotweed’ are the two words most homeowners and prospective buyers do not want to hear.  With...

What a year it’s been! Back in 2016 we had Brexit, a new prime minister, Donald Trump’s election, and so when...

The Bank of England has raised the base rate from 0.25 per cent to 0.5 per cent. The Bank’s monetary policy committee was...

New figures from UK Finance, the umbrella body for finance houses, show gross mortgage lending in September rose to £21.4 billion...

The UK PropTech Association and specialist property lending platform LendInvest have joined forces in the search for the PropTech world’s most...

The UK is home to four million leasehold properties in private ownership, according to government figures. The majority of which require...

Mortgage lending reached £24.2 billion in August according to latest estimates by UK Finance. There were some 41,807 house purchase approvals, with...

It appears activity in the housing market in 2017 will be around 15% down on 2016. The number of housing transactions...

Government figures suggest house prices are still rising by 5.1 per cent a year, with the average property value in the...

New data from UK Finance - previously the Council of Mortgage Lenders - paints a relatively optimistic assessment of the UK-wide...

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

The equity release sector is claiming a record quarter between April and June with the number of new customers and total...

High end estate agency Savills says the credit crunch - roughly 10 years old next month - is still having an...

Gross mortgage lending reached £22.1 billion in June - that’s nine per cent higher than in May and three per cent...

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

A prominent agent admits to being “disappointed” at what appears to be slowing mortgage figures at a time of year when...

Cash is becoming an increasingly large proportion of the funding used to buy homes according to a new analysis of transactions...

The Bank of England is warning that approvals of mortgages for property purchases in March were at a lower-than-expected 66,837, the weakest...

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

One of the biggest stories post-Brexit is how the housing market has proven to be more resilient than anyone could have...

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

Mortgage brokers say they are encountering fewer difficulties sourcing products now than at any time for three years.  Research from the Intermediary...

The triggering of Article 50 may have been regarded as a historic event but it appears to have left the housing...

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

The Conveyancing Association wants the creation of a ‘log book’ and ‘Home Reports’ for each home on sale - reminiscent in...

Recent stats from the Council of Mortgage Lenders show that last year 360,000 people moved homes, meaning the number has stayed...

An estate agent and a building society have both advocated radical moves to reform stamp duty - and want Chancellor Phillip...

Over the past two decades, investing in buy-to-let has been a relatively easy way to make money, which is why so...

So, Property Week has announced its Property Awards shortlist for 2017. Looking at the entries for PropTech Company of the Year, I'm surprised...

Rightmove secured over 131m visits last month, an all-time high for January. The 131m total was some three per cent above January...

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 Independent Press Standards Organisation has ruled that a Daily Express newspaper story - “EU Exit Boosts House Prices” - was...

Gross mortgage lending reached a remarkable £246 billion in 2016 - that’s 12 per cent higher than the previous year and...

The highest number of 'risky' mortgages issued during 2015 was in South West London, according to new analysis of the latest...

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...

Around six in 10 estate agents say their experience shows that mortgage lending restrictions targeting customers aged 55 or over are...

The head of a new ‘disruptive’ online mortgage service says 2017 will see more major estate agency and other property businesses...

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...

Brexit and wider economic uncertainties worsened by changes to property taxation have forced the Council of Mortgage Lenders to cut its...

Forecasts are so last year: who anticipated Bowie, Brexit or Balls for example? Quotes, on the other hand, really ARE last year...

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...

Next year is likely to be a challenging time for letting agents, following a raft of changes introduced by the government...

What a mad, bonkers year it’s been. We’ve had, in no particular order: Trump, Brexit, Leicester winning the Premier League, a...

Rightmove’s commercial director Miles Shipside, who makes relatively few appearances at industry events, is to be a speaker at the NAEA...

It may still be too early to start compiling a Christmas wish list, but it is the right time to provide...

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

Estate agents and market analysts have spent 24 hours expressing their nervousness over the repercussions of Donald Trump's victory in the...

It’s all been kicking off in recent weeks, hasn’t it? Marmite wars, the endless Trump v Clinton debate, Samsung phones blowing...

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

Buy-to-let landlords may have failed in their recent legal battle against planned government tax relief changes for buy-to-let homes set to...

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

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

Those working within the UK housing market would have felt considerable worry about the immediate impact of the vote to leave...

As the PropTech industry continues to expand, with dedicated events and more innovative startups entering the world of UK property, online...

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

The British Banking Association’s latest mortgage lending figures suggest early signs of fall-out from the surprise vote for the UK to...

The number of mortgage products available is now over 23,000 - a figure last seen during the heady days just before...

The latest figures on mortgage lending suggest that higher house prices led to greater lending in June this year than 12...

As promised, this week’s Natter is dedicated to a question and answer session with Peter Brodnicki, the man who has been...

What a month it has been. By the time you read this, we'll have a new Prime Minister, a new Cabinet,...

One of the first major pieces of research to come from an estate agency following the EU referendum suggests the short-term...

As I sit and write this piece, even with the FTSE 100 back up and sterling having recovered some of its...

The Bank of England’s governor is warning future mortgage borrowers who buy homes that “conditions will be difficult” as a result...

The Council of Mortgage Lenders says the Brexit vote will hit transactions as buyers and sellers wait for the dust to...

A few of our Industry Views pieces this week focus on the upcoming EU referendum. I don’t think I can add...

So we now have a new 'official' index of house prices, and much good may it do us. For the chattering classes...

Home-owners borrowed £8.1 billion for house purchases in April, which was four per cent down on the same month a year ago. There...

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

While buy-to-let lenders brace themselves for further interventions as part of proposals currently being drawn up by the Prudential Regulation Authority...

The Council of Mortgage Lenders estimates that gross mortgage lending reached £18.5 billion last month - the highest April figure since...

Conveyancing firm My Home Move has come up with an interesting view of how the housing market could look if -...

The Financial Conduct Authority is to encourage lenders to give would-be buyers more choice in the mortgages available. In the Responsible Lending...

Last time out I spoke about the beginnings of a PropTech revolution, with two major London-based events in the offing over...

We’re all talking about second home stamp duty, changes to tax relief and the Prudential Regulation Authority’s suggestion that banks should...

Home lending in 2016 saw its best opening quarter for nine years according to the figures from chartered surveying firm e.surv.  An...

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

Despite being round the block quite a few times in the property world, it was only in 2008 that the importance...

More storm clouds appeared over central London’s housing market at the weekend. The Bank of Ireland has announced that it is capping...

With less than a month to go before the new rate of stamp duty kicks in for second property purchasers, we’re...

Data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders shows that gross mortgage lending reached £17.6 billion last month - that's the highest...

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

Alex Bailes, until recently spearheading the Countrywide’s activities in the digital world, has now reappeared as Connells Group Head of Digital. Alongside...

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

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

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

Mortgage lending has risen 12.5 per cent in the past year, despite a small dip at the end of 2015. Chartered surveying...

Mortgage lending for home buyers dipped by nine per cent in November according to new data - but it is up...

More than one in four sales across the UK fell through last year, claims a quick-sale company. Quick Move Now claims a...

The scores are in: Estate Agent Today has collated forecasts from 10 of the leading estate agency corporates and major business...

House prices will soar by 50 per cent in the next 10 years according to research commissioned by the NAEA and conducted...

Prime Central London’s residential values have risen 4.3 per cent over the past 12 months and now average £2.3m per property...

The scores are in: here are the top 10 high-end agencies and property analysts' predictions for what 2016 has in store...

In many respects 2015 has been a good year. Despite global challenges, we have seen a marked improvement in the UK...

You might recall a collective sigh of relief emitted by stakeholders in the housing market and private rental sector back in...

Gross mortgage borrowing in October was £12.9 billion - a startling 26 per cent higher than a year ago and the...

An interesting story caught my eye a few weeks ago. A man from Lytham St Annes in Lancashire attempted to sell...

We have reached an interesting point in what has been a most unusual year for the property sector.  The latest figures from...

The number of house purchase mortgage approvals has risen by 19.8 per cent over the last 12 months.  Data from eSurv suggests...

In a new sign that the housing market is strengthening, mortgage lending increased in August by the largest amount since 2008. Data...

Campaigning charity Shelter claims the government's flagship housing incentive, Help To Buy, has added £8,250 to the price of a home...

August saw 69,220 house purchase approvals, up 9.3 per cent on the same month last year and an 18 month high. On...

The Financial Conduct Authority is remaining tight-lipped as to whether its newly-announced assessment of MMR will lead to easier access to...

The Financial Conduct Authority says it is to hold a review of the mortgage market after last year’s controversial MMR to...

UK house prices increased by 4.3% in the three months to July 2015, the highest quarterly growth for eleven years, according...

Figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders show that lending to first time buyers bounced back in the second quarter of...

When Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, recently announced that interest rates would have to start to rise sooner...

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

Lending for house buying is still down compared to this time last year but there are signs that the market is...

In case we didn’t learn the lesson last time around, we appear to be on the brink of a refresher course...

More than one in three house sales in the second quarter of this year failed to reach completion, according to data...

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

There was a whopping 15.1 per cent fall in house purchase mortgage approvals in May, taking the total to the lowest...

The demand for homes in the capital remained robust during Q1 2015, according to Chestertons’ London Prime Residential Report for spring...

The total number of mortgage products available reached a post-recession high of 13,539 in April.  The latest National Mortgage Index from Mortgage...

The Aston Mead estate agency says “unnecessarily restrictive mortgage criteria" have caused the number of home loans to drop sharply in...

The number of mortgage loans approved by banks fell year-on-year for the ninth consecutive month in March. Data from the British Bankers’...

With pension reform, council licensing changes and a General Election on the horizon, many are anticipating a boom in the buy-to-let...