Archive

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

The Northern Research Group, which has the backing of over 50 Conservative MPs in the north of England, wants the Chancellor...

The latest Rightmove analysis shows it now takes 126 days from the time an offer is accepted until legal completion -...

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is considering an extension to the current stamp duty holiday according to media reports today - and the...

While the property industry has suffered far less than other sectors during the past year, it would be short of the...

One of the housing market’s senior analysts says the end of the stamp duty holiday on March 31 would not be...

The online petition calling for an extension to the stamp duty holiday is set to pass 100,000 signatures today. This means the...

The speed and success of the Coronavirus vaccine programme holds the key to the housing market rebounding in the second half...

Hello and welcome to the end of a busy, busy week for agency news.  It’s easy to assume the agency business is...

A housing index says the market continues to defy Coronavirus and Brexit worries with asking prices up 4.9 per cent in...

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

One of the most respected figures in the industry, trainer and consultant Richard Rawlings, is suggesting that stamp duty should be...

Even the prospect of a stamp duty holiday is not enough to persuade many buyers and sellers to enter the market...

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

Property expert Phil Spencer is warning that “chaos” and “mayhem” looms in the housing market if the stamp duty holiday is...

The average UK house price is now a record £253,374 according to the Halifax - but the rate of growth is...

Just a week ago, I thought it was all over. Christmas and New Year had gone, as had the passionate calls...

There’s no doubt that the property market underwent a tumultuous year in 2020, where efficiency was required more than ever. Since the...

Rightmove says it’s recorded the busiest ever start to a New Year in its two decade history with visits to the...

There’s growing optimism that an extension to the stamp duty holiday - thought to be off the agenda just days ago...

A mortgage lender says it will now accept ‘no-search indemnity insurance’ for residential purchases in a bid to speed up the...

New figures from the Bank of England show that mortgage approvals rose 7.0 per cent in November to reach 105,000 -...

The sudden end of the stamp duty holiday at the end of March could throw away the market gains achieved in...

London’s largest independent estate agency, Dexters, suggests that the stamp duty holiday ending in 12 weeks time will have relatively little...

A trade body has called on House Secretary Robert Jenrick to intervene over the growing problem of delays in councils providing...

A young estate agent - who by the age of 20 has already had a year working with Purplebricks - has...

Anthony Codling, the City analyst who made his name as a scourge of Purplebricks, says Brexit may be good news for the...

Following a turbulent 2020 in which the property market and the professionals working within it excelled in the face of unprecedented...

Here’s hoping you managed to have as good a Christmas and New Year as Covid rules allowed. Journalism in early January is...

House prices surged in December to post their fastest growth in six years, according to the Nationwide.  Prices rose 7.3 per cent...

A house price index that is routinely one of the most pessimistic about the market claims the New Year will see...

He’s gone from Downing Street but the legacy of Dominic Cummings lives on in Rightmove’s top searches of 2020. Barnard Castle -...

Zoopla saw a record 70.5 per cent increase in traffic on Boxing Day as signs suggest the pre-Christmas boom is set...

The shock and almost immediate increase in stamp duty on additional homes in Wales has prompted one question in the industry...

The proportion of sales that fell through at the worst point of this year was 52 per cent it’s been claimed. However...

Entrants for the 2021 ESTAS Customer Service Awards have only until December 31 to sign up. Founder Simon Brown says: “The bounce...

Pressure is building on the government to agree a tapered end to the stamp duty holiday, even if a full-blown extension now...

Figures from Zoopla suggest there’s a Christmas present being unwrapped by agents across the country - a far busier housing market tha this...

Well, what a year it has been for everyone, including the property market. I don’t think there’s anyone out there who...

The next Budget will be held on March 3 next year - in time for Chancellor Rishi Sunak to change his...

Agents and property experts have reacted angrily to the government's refusal to extend the stamp duty holiday. The government has told campaigners that...

Fall throughs which could be avoided by Reservation Agreements have cost agency branches an average £10,000 per month. That’s the claim from digital...

Another day, another index, another record - house prices rose 5.4 per cent annually in October according to official figures from the Office...

NAEA Propertymark has written to the Scottish Government demanding it extend the current Land and Buildings Transaction Tax holiday - the...

Mystery still surrounds the number of homes actually sold by Purplebricks, despite upbeat statements regarding the number of instructions it wins. The...

Down valuations could leave some surveyors liable to professional negligence claims, a law firm says. Nelsons law firm says down valuations have...

A cyber-attack on a London council has caused some transactions to fall through and others to be significantly delayed. The attack occurred...

If you fear the market will slow after Christmas, think again - Rightmove is expecting several months of frenzied transactions to...

Solicitors’ leaders say members of their industry are suffering mental health problems as a result of the workload to meet the...

Revenues have slumped by 18 per cent at LSL Property Services, the corporate which boasts Your Move and Reeds Rains and...

In the six months to November there’s been a 79 per cent increase in sales of homes priced £5m to £10m says Knight...

The sales market is currently strong but the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has issued a warning about a slowdown next...

The UK has topped the rankings for the highest property taxes as a percentage of overall taxation in the developed world...

Another day, another house price record as the bull market continues. The latest Halifax index shows prices surging 7.6 per cent to...

MPs lobbied by agents to extend the stamp duty holiday are staying firmly on the fence with standard answers and no...

A petition has been launched demanding a stamp duty holiday extension. The online petition is the idea of Jonathan Steel - a layperson...

As we approach the most unusual of festive periods, many property professionals will already be thinking about the January market and...

Delays with the return of property searches is one key factor for sales taking longer to complete. As conveyancers start to warn...

‘Many are in complete denial about the time it takes and still think it’s eight to 10 weeks.’ I won’t tell you...

If this year has taught us anything, it's that estate agents need their software provider and specifically their CRM, to help...

Recent debate about urgent need for reform and better collaboration within the property industry, has once again come under the spotlight...

A leading conveyancing sector spokesmen says some mortgage lenders are making the current delays in the house buying process worse. Rob Hailstone,...

Over 100 Zoopla member branches have signed up to the Modern Method of Auction system offered via the portal. Over the summer Zoopla...

Annual house price inflation is now running at 6.5 per cent according to the latest Nationwide index after a 0.9 per...

Public sentiment over the housing market remains stable despite the Coronavirus crisis and the possibility of a No Deal Brexit. That’s the conclusion...

NAEA Propertymark has renewed its warning that a cliff-edge threatens housing market stability as the stamp duty holiday ends. The organisation’s outgoing chief...

Property tax rises and falling house prices look as if they are on the way according to the small print accompanying...

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

So, we’re back to where we were in the spring, more or less. England is in a national lockdown again to...

You probably don’t have to listen closely to hear estate agents across the country starting to cheer. It’s been a big...

The Guild of Property Professionals is urging the industry - all agents, not just its own members - to lobby MPs...

Zoopla’s research team is anticipating the first quarter of next year will see the current boom continue as 100,000 additional sales...

Two prominent suppliers have teamed up to offer customers instant visibility of chain lengths, details of agents connected to properties being...

A survey of completion times for house sales over the past four years suggests that the worst performing local authority area...

The mixture of the stamp duty holiday and generally fast-rising house prices has led to a resurgence of flipping. Data released this...

It may make little difference to agents but a leading analyst suggests thousands of buyers have effectively lost money on their purchase...

A mortgage technology platform has released figures suggesting the housing market remains strong, with high numbers of searches by buyers for...

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...

Tenants, landlords, agents, and house buyers all breathed a sigh of relief on Halloween when the government announced that home moves...

The director of a conveyancing technology company has hit out at what he calls “an over-reliance on outdated processes” and “age-old...

Transactions appear to be edging higher than in 2019 for the first time this year - despite lockdowns and concerns caused...

The founder of OneDome says a likely housing market slowdown is the perfect time for agents to optimise revenue by investing in PropTech. Babek Ismayil believes...

New research attempts for the first time to identify the most lucrative property markets in the country - with surprising results...

The customer service performance of conveyancers has improved in recent months according to the ESTAS review platform.  The long-standing and sometimes-heated debate...

Estate agents can stand out from the crowd and help consumers through lockdown by providing a more secure sales process, a...

The soon-to-launch portal Boomin - set up by the people who founded Purplebricks- has signed another 10 independent agents. They are all...

Just when you thought the housing market was beginning to calm down... along comes a likely vaccine for Coronavirus. One of the country’s...

Asking prices are down for the first time in many months. It’s a small drop - an average of 0.5 per cent...

Watching the government’s surprise press conference a couple of weekends ago the message was clear; we were heading into a gruelling...

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

One of the industry’s leading commentators says an unintended consequence of a possible Capital Gains Tax increase could be a bonus...

As we embark on another nationwide lockdown, the team at SDL Auctions are keen to help agents ride the storm, beat...

The first monthly market monitor to show activity in the housing market tailing off has appeared - and it says momentum...

As you may have seen over the weekend, the long-running Property Natter column – penned by Angels Media chief executive, Nat...

A survey of people currently buying property suggests as many as a quarter may pull out if they know they’ll miss...

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says its new Home Survey Standard will be implemented from March and will represent a...

A leading firm of conveyancers will this week tell new clients that their property purchases are likely to miss the stamp...

House prices by the end of October were running 7.5 per cent above their level a year ago - but the...

The 2021 ESTAS Customer Service Awards are to be held on Friday June 11. For the first time the awards will host...

Buyers in around 30 per cent of English cities are almost certainly already too late to complete a purchase by March 31...

A London property investment consultancy says 22 per cent of properties it’s advised overseas purchasers on this year have been bought sight-unseen. London...

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

Purplebricks has issued a statement to its shareholders saying it’s ‘never been more relevant’. However, the expected radical change to its fees structure appears...

We can all agree that the recovery of the property market since May has been outstanding. The latest data from Zoopla...

Figures just released from HM Revenue & Customs show just how much stamp duty buyers pay, at least before the current holiday...

A leading market analyst says the widespread belief that we are ‘safe’ in our homes may indirectly lead to the recent...

Recent figures emanating from the mortgage and housing market suggest that – since lockdown was ended in mid-May – transaction levels...

The housing market boom looks set to continue for some months yet as mortgage approvals for home purchases hit their highest...

The housing market’s recovery will be threatened with drastic consequences for buyers and sellers if the stamp duty holiday isn’t extended beyond...

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been told to avoid a stamp duty holiday cliff-edge next March at any price - because it...

A conveyancing firm is blaming councils for delays in transactions. Conveyancers have themselves been sharply criticised in recent weeks as the sharp...

There are 140,000 more buyers waiting to complete on their properties right now than there were this time last year. The claim, by...

One of Britain’s most respected agents is suggesting Chancellor Rishi Sunak could ‘taper’ the stamp duty holiday to avoid a cliff-edge...

It’s been an unexpected year for the property market, shaped by the effects of the pandemic. We didn’t quite anticipate the...

It’s no surprise to hear that the property market has seen a lot of change across 2020, with ups and downs...

The outgoing chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents is warning that the sales system continues to struggle with...

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is taking credit for saving thousands of agency jobs through increased transactions prompted by the stamp duty holiday. A...

Savills says the shape and size of the housing market in the coming months will be determined by the capacity of conveyancers...

Delays across the house buying sector mean those wanting to benefit from the stamp duty holiday need to begin the buying...

Some 713 estate agency branches have failed to reopen following the spring lockdown according to a business consultancy. TwentyCi says that is the...

The National Association of Estate Agents wants the government to initiate a mortgage guarantee scheme to encourage more 95 per cent...

Conveyancers are sending a blunt message to estate agents: transactions will take longer than usual and don’t chase us with queries and...

A Bank of England survey suggests it may be more difficult for prospective buyers to get a mortgage later this year. In...

With many transactions now delayed by up to three weeks by slow searches, a body representing local search providers is urging...

The only certainty at the moment is ongoing uncertainty. It’s something we’ve got used to in 2020, but it’s still not...

The total Sales Agreed in 2020 so far has overtaken Sales Agreed up to this point in 2019, despite the Coronavirus...

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

House prices in September were 7.3 per cent higher than a year earlier – the highest house price inflation since June 2016. The Halifax...

A survey says many people under-estimate the costs of moving with conveyancing and mortgage fees often higher than expected. Some 54 per cent of...

Agents have universally welcomed new Nationwide data showing annual price growth picked up to 5.0 per cent last month - the highest rate...

Savills has boosted its forecast for housing transactions this year because the stamp duty holiday has been such a success at...

Almost half of the country’s first time buyers say their plans have been delayed - or worse - thanks to Coronavirus,...

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

Consumer group Which? says the stamp duty holiday has cut more than £4,000 from the average cost of moving home -...

Data from NAEA Propertymark shows that in August, some 13 per cent of properties sold for more than the original asking...

The government claims its stamp duty holiday has supported nearly 750,000 jobs thanks to the ripple effect in the economy. A statement from HM...

Two agencies have entered the debate on whether the current frenzied housing market is seeing delays in completions. Yesterday EAT reported that...

Logjams in the mortgage, conveyancing and removal stages of house moving mean sales are taking much longer than usual, according to...

Despite the recent effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is still much opportunity in the market for letting agents to grow...

With the high street open again, and the Chancellor’s temporary stamp duty holiday helping to stimulate the market, estate and letting...

I’m sure I speak for most in the property industry when I say that back in March and April I had...

Almost two fifths of property buyers don't know what conveyancers and solicitors do, according to new research. My Home Move Conveyancing's survey...

A tax expert says that there is 'zero likelihood' of the government changing its mind on stamp duty changes for overseas...

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

A sentiment survey conducted amongst 585 estate agents by the OnTheMarket portal suggests fewer than half have witnessed price rises since...

Rightmove is warning of a conveyancing log-jam that may delay sales, despite the ongoing frenzy of activity and faster transactions for...

Record house prices recorded this week by the Nationwide index are set to go higher still according to a leading agent. Nationwide...

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

Hefty increases in taxes on the purchase and sale of holiday homes and buy to let properties are expected in the...

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

If yet more proof were needed of the housing boom this summer, NAEA Propertymark says its sales agreed data suggests a...

OneDome, which operates two free-to-list property listing sites, says it’s had a record month as it strives to build an alternative...

Data from Rightmove shows that demand is up 61 per cent compared to the same period last year - and the...

The scale of the market bounce back after lockdown is made clear in new figures from HM Revenue & Customs. It registers...

It was officially announced last week that the UK is in recession for the first time since 2009, and although this...

A prominent industry figure says the current stamp duty holiday could effectively be a trap to lure in buyers who will...

The stamp duty holiday running until March next year has triggered a surge in interest in UK property from Hong Kong...

The share of owners putting their homes on the market within five years of buying is rising again according to an...

Knight Frank says the stamp duty holiday for properties at £500,000 and below should be made permanent. The holiday is due to...

Agents have been understandably delighted at the latest Halifax index which shows house prices posting their biggest gain of the year...

The Zoopla Rental Market Report, published this week, mentioned a two-speed rental market, but what does that mean? We are seeing two...

Zoopla has revealed details of its biggest ever marketing campaign in a bid to cash in on agents’ growing dissatisfaction with...

Following the easing of lockdown restrictions on England’s property market in May, NAEA Propertymark reported a sharp increase in business for...

Strutt & Parker is warning that in a worst-case scenario house prices in some locations could drop 10 per cent this...

The Guild of Property Professionals is relaunching its online auction brand - Guild Auctions - even though it has already successfully...

A BBC presenter has used her local newspaper column to mock an estate agency for suggesting fridge magnets be removed to improve...

The Nationwide says annual house price growth has recovered to 1.5 per cent. Its July house price index says the fall in...

One of the main points I’ve had reinforced to me from agent after agent over the last year of hosting a...

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

Zoopla says while there may be speculation about people fleeing London and big urban areas for the countryside, the evidence suggests...

Zoopla says its sale and vendor leads have reached a 2020 high, beating volumes delivered even during the strong start to the...

As expected within the property industry, the Chancellor announced a stamp duty holiday in his Summer Statement. This now means that...

Zoopla's Research and Insight Director Richard Donnell writes: Just over a fortnight on since the Chancellor announced the Stamp Duty holiday and...

Agents have almost unanimously been reporting a big surge in business since the reopening of the housing market, but new figures...

Speculation is mounting that Capital Gains Tax could for the first time be applied to gains made when owners sell first...

Rightmove is reporting a mini-boom that was existing even before the stamp duty holiday - enough to propel average asking prices...

Emma Vigus, managing director of sales progression platform mio, in discussion with key suppliers in the residential property industry on operating...

Tuesday of this week was the busiest day of the year so far for searches for mortgages - widely seen as...

The latest monthly index suggests that the average asking price in England and Wales has jumped 1.5 per cent in the...

A think tank says the stamp duty holiday introduced a week ago is understandable and may be helpful to the housing...

A London estate agent has broken ranks with much of the industry and instead of welcoming the stamp duty holiday has...

The new thresholds for the Scottish equivalent of stamp duty come into effect today - a week after the SDLT holiday...

A major agency is warning that the current stamp duty holiday could leave the housing market in a state of lethargy...

Britain’s second largest lender is to offer 90 per cent loan to value mortgages once again from next Monday - a...

A property law firm is calling on the government to backdate the stamp duty holiday to include those buyers who completed...

The threshold at which Scotland’s Land and Buildings Transaction Tax is paid by purchasers is to be raised from £145,000 to...

You have to feel for Rishi Sunak - well, at least a little. Leave to one side that he carries more presentational...

Evidence is pouring in that the stamp duty holiday introduced 48 hours ago has already produced huge levels of interest from...

Savills has revised its market forecast for the enclaves of prime central London and now says prices will fall by 2.0...

There are high hopes that the new stamp duty holiday will make an already busy market even busier - but not...

An estate agency is warning that the likely rush of transactions when the new stamp duty holiday ends next spring will...

Chancellor Rishi Sunak - and the agency industry - will no doubt be delighted to know that visits to Rightmove soared...

It looks like the stamp duty holiday for England and Northern Ireland, already in effect following yesterday’s announcement, is unlikely to...

Agents have spoken out angrily against any uncertainty in the market caused by government leaks about future stamp duty changes. In recent...

One of the possible stamp duty options floated by Chancellor Rishi Sunak could mean 89 per cent of sales would be...

Unnamed government sources quoted in many newspapers today suggest stamp duty reforms may be announced later this year. Chancellor Rishi Sunak is to...

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

A large majority of property professionals polled by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors say a stamp duty holiday would be...

There has been much speculation about when agents will be allowed back to work, and what the new office working environment...

Housing minister Chris Pincher is drawing up guidelines which could allow agents to return to something like normal working in the near...

The coming week’s stories in the mainstream media - inevitably focused on Coronavirus - will be dominated by two things. Firstly there...

NAEA Propertymark has today launched a campaign for the government to introduce what it calls a Property Sector Support Package. This would...

A major consumer survey of existing home owners and potential movers has resulted in a plea to government to allow house...

A property law firm is the latest to back a call for a stamp duty holiday to help kick-start the housing...

The government is being urged to allow estate and lettings agents to return to work as soon as possible when the...

Rightmove and Knight Frank are today both calling for a series of government incentives to kick-start the market after the Coronavirus...

Another body is calling for a stamp duty holiday to help resuscitate the housing market following the Coronavirus standstill. The Royal Institute...

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

There are reasons to be optimistic that a majority government will improve the housing market, simply by ending political and economic...

In the run up to his appointment as Prime Minister, Boris Johnson suggested that he might cut Stamp Duty Land Tax...

The agency industry has reacted in a broadly downbeat way at the relatively few housing-related proposals that were announced in yesterday’s...

Research by Estate Agent Today reveals that there have been 12 different stamp duty regimes in the UK since the Millennium. What’s...

As we hurtle towards the end of 2017, it’s time to reflect on the year that’s just been.   Even better, this property-based...

Whenever any research is released, part of me can’t help thinking of that old adage, ‘lies, damn lies and statistics’ especially...

The boss of the UK's largest independent agency has called on the government to be 'radical' and consider a range of...

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