Archive

As this is the first Natter back since the Christmas break, I should like to first wish all our readers a...

Media reports over the weekend suggest the government is preparing a triple whammy - three measures which may reduce the number...

An agent in part of the UK with the strongest seller’s market claims the stock shortage is the worst he’s seen...

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

A scathing document produced by MPs slams the government for its “deplorable” housing policies which are "invented, abandoned and reinvented" -...

A Labour council in London has come out against the government’s plan to offer 30 per cent discounts to first time...

Not for the first time, a government policy on housing ends up begging more questions than it provides answers - but...

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...

The National Audit Office, a spending watchdog, has exposed the government’s Starter Homes policy with a damning critique of its failure The...

Theresa May has appointed a controversial former Shelter executive as her new housing policy adviser working in Whitehall. Toby Lloyd was until...

Another week, yet more consultations - the agency industry can’t complain about not being asked for its views recently. The latest were on...

Since the seventies, housing starts and completions across England and Wales have been on a downward trajectory. The long run average...

We’re almost nine months on from the EU Referendum and yet the issue remains the big divide across the nation: an...

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

A series of leaks to national newspapers and a flurry of broadcast interviews by housing minister Gavin Barwell means we already know...

Over 168,000 new homes were completed in the year to March 2016, according to data released by the government, over 15,500...

The government’s blizzard of New Year announcements about new homes has received a distinctly frosty welcome from many within the property...

More criticism has come of the government’s multi-faceted Help To Buy initiative, this time from campaigning housing charity Shelter. The charity claims...

Older readers may recall a terrific movie called Network where a character, disillusioned by life, shouts from a window: “I’m as...

The Haart agency claims the number of first-time buyers looking to enter the market saw a 22.7 per cent increase on...

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron is claiming that the government’s flagship Starter Homes project could allow properties to be bought by...

An influential committee of the House of Lords has waded into the argument over whether the government’s new Starter Homes are...

Discounted starter homes could be out of reach for the majority of families in need of an affordable home in many...

Who are you? Chris Coates What does it say on your business card? Chris Coates As a small team we don’t have a hang up...

The number of sales made to first time buyers fell in November according to data just released by the National Association...

In an unexpected announcement, the government says it will "directly commission" companies to build up to 13,000 new affordable homes on...

Countrywide has taken the unusual step, for an estate agency group, of stepping into next year’s London mayoral election by setting...

The National Association of Estate Agents has given a cautious welcome to new government plans to expand shared ownership.  David Cameron has...

The Treasury has admitted that stamp duty ‘take’ is expected to soar from £11.2 billion this year to £17.8 billion in...

- From April 2016 buy to let landlords and people buying second or holiday homes will have to pay an additional...

George Osborne has announced a shock additional 3.0 per cent stamp duty on second homes and buy to let properties. Details are...

So this weekend some of us will see our first snow of the season. Harsh weather, Christmas adverts and winter generally...

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

Property journalists, and more than a few estate agents, are beginning their annual autumn ritual – forecasting what’s going to happen...

The government is telling councils to produce local plans for new homes in their area by 2017 – or Whitehall will...

There has been a mixed response from the agency world to David Cameron's pledge to reform planning, promise that 200,000 new...

So housing made itself top of the list of questions by the new Leader of the Opposition’s first PMQs on Wednesday...

Controversial housing charity Shelter has published a report which claims that the government's Starter Homes scheme will fail the people it...

The government has launched a £26m fund for house builders and developers to demonstrate the range of high quality homes appropriate...

The government says it will publish an action plan this week to explain how it is going to implement some of...

The majority of agents do not see the supply and demand of homes levelling out over the next five years, according...

The  new government has announced its legislative plans for housing in the coming year.  In the first all-Conservative Queen’s Speech since 1996,...