Archive

The proportion of buy to let properties purchased in Southern England fell to a record low last year, continuing a trend...

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

It’s time to abolish what is colloquially called Landlord Licensing. If you’re a casual reader and perhaps not in our industry, a...

Happy New Year and welcome to what’s looking like a busy - perhaps even hectic - 2024! I thought it worth running...

Agents are hoping for further support for the housing market north of the border as the Scottish Government prepares to set...

The factor most likely to influence the housing market next year is entirely outside the industry’s control: the General Election. Knight Frank...

The private rental landscape has been undergoing a profound transformation, with technology playing a pivotal role in shaping the way tenancies...

It may be a measure of the government’s incompetence in the area of housing that two recent major announcements were sorely...

Introduced to Parliament in May, the Renters (Reform) Bill seeks to improve the private rental sector for both tenants and landlords....

Check out some of the latest charitable endeavours from agency and property brands this week. If you have a charitable event or...

The term mixed-tenure development usually refers to residential developments where different residential tenures are provided on the same site. Typically, tenure was...

There is much debate about energy efficiency right now and about expected changes to minimum EPCs for private rental properties and...

Landlords considering selling up are being urged to lease their homes to a trust catering for homeless people instead. With fears that...

Like most parts of the UK, the one I live in has a bit of a beef about parking. More precisely,...

It’s not a sentence that I thought I would be writing, but Housing Secretary Michael Gove has indeed finally done something...

The proposals to shake the Private Rental Sector (PRS) to its foundations will, depending upon your political persuasion and housing status,...

Despite most businesses across industry now adopting some form of digital alternative to traditional work methods, many in the private rental...

When Jeremy Hunt sat down in the Commons after delivering his first Spring Budget, I imagine there were many who felt...

So next week we get to know how high housing is on the Government’s list of priorities. As we wait to see...

Vaboo is a Customer Engagement and Reward Platform enabling Tenants and Landlords to give their insights into the relationships that matter...

The Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is the direct result of European Legislation. They were introduced because of the Energy Performance of...

If journalists believed everything they received in their inboxes, you’d be forgiven for thinking the private rental sector was a shiny,...

Over the later part of 2022, we have experienced unprecedented economic and political turmoil, which will remain as we head into...

Is it really just a year ago that we were nervously wondering whether yet another Christmas would be Covid-affected? Little did we...

In this guest feature, Dillon Darbar, counter fraud manager at Network Homes, sets out why estate agents need to be aware...

The property sector braced itself for the chill wind of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement this week. His pre-Budget comment that he...

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...

Now that the industry has had the weekend to digest Kwasi Kwarteng’s short and dramatic mini-Budget, more reaction has been filtering...

Tenants are becoming more discerning – not just about the properties they choose to rent but who they rent from too. With...

Anyone working in the property market should have at least one eye on supply. Of course, it’s a constant issue for...

It’s often fashionable to criticise trade bodies and official groups, but right now I think that’s absolutely inappropriate. In well over 20...

This question is not as flippant as it sounds because over recent years the status of the private landlord has taken...

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to unveil a flagship policy today to help more people onto the property ladder. It is...

Agents and property professionals are travelling far and wide to raise money for charity, plus there is a new way to...

After years of delays and upheaval, the Renters' Reform Bill finally appears to be back on the agenda, in an effort...

Although Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak’s Spring Statement did not include many announcements regarding housing, it did provide a good...

The industry has reacted to the Spring Statement by breathing a sigh of relief that nothing was likely to cause damage...

If you want to sex-up the Chancellor’s financial statement scheduled for lunchtime on Wednesday, you’d call it a Budget or a...

Lomond Group, which says it is the UK’s fastest-growing estate agency network, has appointed Ed Phillips as its new Group Chief...

Peta Milne, founder of Instagram growth and PR service Monimo, and a content writer at Choices Estate Agents, recently sat down...

The hot topic of rent controls has remerged in recent weeks, with passionate voices on both sides of the argument speaking...

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

The government’s new Levelling Up White Paper, revealed this morning includes a radical reshaping of the private rental sector. Section 21 eviction...

Our Agents Do Charity column each Friday does a fantastic job of highlighting the amazing charitable work of agents up and...

I’ve never written the three letters ‘EPC’ more often than I have in the past week. Law changes for the private rental...

In the UK, 3.5 million households — which is over one-third of UK households — are either privately or socially rented,...

Within weeks the focus of the industry will be on the White Paper to be issued on rental reform before Christmas. Let’s...

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has given a ringing endorsement to home ownership as a central part of the government’s levelling up...

Few political policies have such a ring of the past as rent controls - they were last seen in this country...

Media reports suggest the government is considering offering grants to local authorities to purchase private family houses which are larger than...

I’m sorry to break this to you but in 10 days’ time it will be autumn - and we will have...

The stamp duty holiday came and went with much fanfare. For many buyers it represented a rare opportunity to make some...

Our long-awaited ‘Freedom Day’ approaches. From Monday all of the restrictions, introduced since the Covid-19 pandemic made an impact across the...

Initiatives by property portal Residential People and mortgage lenders Paragon Bank and Foundation Home Loans help people to find, buy or...

The MP who chairs one of the most important committees in the House of Commons has urged the government to increase...

OnTheMarket has signed a new deal with a PropTech partner - the second in successive weeks. This latest one is a 12...

It’s been quite a week for the rental sector. Lettings agents and landlords have had such a torrid time in recent years...

The new Mayor of London, to be decided in an election tomorrow, has just received a six point set of demands...

For many, the funeral of HRH Prince Philip will be a solemn affair, while for some it will also be a...

Estate agency offices in Wales, closed for many weeks as part of that country’s lockdown, will reopen from next Monday, April 12. The...

With March marking one year since the beginning of the first national lockdown across all four nations of Britain in response...

Unsurprisingly it’s been a busy few months in the property market so far this year, and a busy few months in...

Housing minister Kelly Tolhurst has resigned from the government for personal reasons. Tolhurst had formal responsibility for the government’s policies to combat...

There’s been a shock one per cent increase in the Welsh equivalent of stamp duty on second homes, coming into effect...

Back in September, Westminster Council launched a new strategy to help 'protect tenants' and 'ensure they live in good-quality and well-managed...

I remember so clearly in my Foxtons days, working as a lettings manager in Putney, that lettings, though less sexy than...

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

Let’s be honest: things are getting just a little tougher aren’t they?  We’re delighted to say that the spirit of the industry...

We all know what the problem is, but what’s the solution? The problem is that landlords, thinking they offer a valuable service...

The pandemic and the way the government has reacted to the private rental sector (PRS) has got me thinking about the...

Back in the day, party politics and the private rental sector used to be straightforward. Conservatives were pro-landlord, Labour were pro-tenant, while...

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

By now, most letting agents and landlords will have heard about the draft legislation laid in Parliament concerning a mandatory minimum...

There’s something of a conspiracy of silence over the problem of short lets. That is a stark claim but many siren voices...

The proportion of 25 to 34 year olds who own their own home in England has risen for the first time...

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

Data scientists have released a study into the characteristics of homes and how they give away the likely voting intentions of...

A new portal claims it will do what OnTheMarket failed to do, and offer an agent-led operation charging every agency branch...

It’s been clear for a while that the additional regulation landlords and agents are facing has helped professionalise the private rental...

No one would argue that unfair fees and practices by rogue landlords is a problem that should be ignored, but the...

In just over two weeks, the UK population will head to the polls for the fourth general election since 2010. Of course,...

Pressure is building on the Conservative party to honour its previous commitment to reform stamp duty for British buyers and sellers...

You don’t need to go far to find news about the UK lettings market. From the banning of tenant fees to...

It’s on - although judging by the early lack of enthusiasm amongst the British public, you might be forgiven for thinking...

Hello, welcome to another Monday and the latest PJT. As ever, a brief reminder to please let us know your appointments new...

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

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

If you thought - perhaps hoped - that five weeks of prorogued Parliament meant a break from politics, think again: the...

A well-respected agent who was president of the NAEA just five years ago has written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson asking...

Rising house prices and the gender pay gap means that there is no English region where a single woman on median...

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

You may be right in thinking that Brexit has dominated the thinking of the government in the last three years. However,...

With summer in full swing (will someone tell the weather?) we’re having bumper editions of Agents Do Charity, and this weekend’s is...

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

It has been a long time coming, but the tenant fees ban, which forbids landlords and letting agents in England from...

No, this isn’t about Brexit. But as the saga of leaving the EU is likely to bring about the downfall of...

The recent ARLA Propertymark conference featured a hugely interesting line-up of speaks and session during a watershed time for the lettings...

The topic of introducing rent controls in London crops up time and time again in our industry. But it’s been hitting...

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...

It’s time, surely, for government to crackdown not just on rogue agents and landlords but on rogue councils that confuse the...