Archive

When is a landlord a business, and when is (s)he not a business? I’m not referring to landlords who have gone down...

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

To help or not to help: that is the question the government is facing with regard to under-pressure private rented sector...

A new survey suggests the overwhelming majority of the public are critical of the government’s apparent housing failures. A study of 1,323...

The Northern Ireland Executive should seek devolved powers over Stamp Duty, Propertymark claims. The agency trade body has urged the Executive to...

There’s talk of 50-year mortgages being introduced, loans that, along with the property they finance, could be passed to the next...

Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) has long been the bugbear of many property transactions. Even the very wealthy will lose interest...

Winkworth agents posted record sales income last year, attributed to the stamp duty holiday. The London-listed agent franchise group revealed in its...

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

Yesterday we reported on how the Chartered Institute of Taxation was warning of problems with new HMRC stamp duty rules to...

HM Revenue & Customs has been warned by financial experts that its latest crackdown on stamp duty abuse could make the...

The majority of homeowners and homebuyers believe Stamp Duty Land Tax is outdated and needs reform. The mortgage lender Butterfield commissioned an...

A pilot scheme has been announced to test ways of limiting second home ownership and reducing the impact additional properties have...

At first glance, Rishi Sunak’s Budget speech earlier this week didn’t offer much from a property perspective. But digging down a little...

The Budget has proven more generous than many expected - and with most property taxation left unchanged. Chancellor Rishi Sunak has made...

By the time I next write this column, we’ll be just days before the next Budget and Autumn Statement. So I’ll...

Lost in the noise of yesterday’s social care announcements, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has named October 27 as his next Budget Day...

Agents and developers are creating full-size show home-style properties overseas in a bid to woo wealthy foreigners who cannot travel to...

There’s already plenty of talk about autumn - depressing huh? - with agents pondering how the housing market will respond to...

Propertymark has worked with one of the UK governments to create an information sheet which, in virtual or hard copy firm,...

The Stamp Duty holiday has been very beneficial for hundreds of thousands of buyers looking to take advantage of savings, even...

Who are you and what does it say on your business card?  Bal Arora – Managing Director In your experience, what is the...

An agent has contacted Estate Agent Today to issue what he calls “an urgent alert” about the risk of Capital Gains...

The MP leading a new parliamentary committee on the housing market says a radical reform of tax would help more people move...

There’s a warning this morning that possible tax reforms to be unveiled next Monday could wreak huge damage on the property...

You can always tell when Budget day is approaching. There’s lots of comment from every imaginable quarter about what the Chancellor of...

An MP demanding a root and branch reform of property taxation, including scrapping stamp duty, says the chance of fundamental reform is...

A housing market analyst says stamp duty, for all its unpopularity within the property industry, may not be so bad after...

Pressure is building for widespread property tax reform beyond short term issues regarding stamp duty. Many MPs in this week’s 65-minute special...

Almost a year ago the government announced that estate and lettings agencies were to be included in the business rates relief...

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

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

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

The secure Conservative victory in the 2019 General Election meant the property market in the sunlit uplands was set for a...

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has resisted changing any property taxes in the short term, but has used his Spending Review statement to...

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

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

A taxation institute is urging the government to delay Capital Gains Tax changes relating to housing transactions until the virus crisis...

Rightmove has taken the unusual step this weekend of issuing its usual monthly asking price index on a Saturday instead of...

Boris Johnson is considering introducing a mansion tax for high value homes according to a Sunday newspaper. The Telegraph - citing two...

The new government has announced that its first Budget is to be held on Wednesday March 11 - and it’s giving...

With Brexit still unresolved, the domestic agenda has been pushed from the headlines by the seemingly overwhelming public and political discord...

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

One of the country’s most respected agents has advised the agency industry to treat Boris Johnson’s pledges with real caution. Black Brick buying...

Our own industry’s upheaval over recent years has been no less dramatic than the turmoil at Westminster. The political earthquake has seen...

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

The number of cash buyers in London has recently plummeted by very nearly a fifth - and every other part of...

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

HM Revenue & Customs is set to pocket £60m less from one of its property taxes than it forecast. An analysis of...

Strutt & Parker says transaction levels in Prime Central London, already at a low ebb, plummeted a further nine per cent...

Figures released by the government over the weekend show that 14,867 Help To Buy equity loans were taken out in the...

The holiday home market may still be struggling in the wake of the three per cent additional homes stamp duty surcharge...

The market is now over-supplied with homes to sell while at the same time demand is dipping and there are widespread...

It’s Budget day and the government is once again on the receiving end of a blast from one of the country’s...

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

100 years ago, 90% of the UK population rented a home. Today, that figure has flipped, and over two thirds are...

Recent void statistics have had me wondering how agents can juggle client and consumer demands in the face of the impending...

If you want to know whether buy to let, landlords and letting agents will be in the firing line for more...

At the start of February, Nationwide suggested that the housing market was picking up. Last week, RICS reported on its continued...

Last week’s news that the lettings fee ban is unlikely to materialise before next spring was perhaps to be expected. Ever since...

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

British politics is extraordinarily volatile right now and the ongoing battle between austerity and anti-austerity, Leave and Remain, and Conservative and...

Central London’s housing market is showing a recovery from price falls which followed stamp duty changes in 2014 and 2016 according...

Ten out of 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News say Brexit and economic uncertainty are likely to stall London’s housing market...

When it comes to provoking anger in property professionals, taxation takes some beating. Press releases are still arriving berating the December...

Theresa May’s call for a snap general election on June 8 took many by surprise. But estate agents have been broadly...

A year ago, we were days away from the introduction of a 3% stamp duty surcharge on second homes – a...

Looking ahead to the Spring Budget this week, the Chancellor Philip Hammond will be obliged to face up to the implications...

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

The buy-to-let market has gone through significant change in the last year and with the Budget just around the corner, what...

There is no doubt that 2016 managed to catch the world by surprise on more than one occassion.  But will 2017 be...

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

An insolvency firm active in the property sector says that after a year of major taxation, legislative and economic volatility, many...

Following a strong start to 2016, particularly in the lower to middle range of the UK housing market, that lasted up...

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

Forecasts are a tricky business. And as I wrote in a recent Industry Views opinion piece, any prediction in the current...

The latest forecast for the housing market in 2017 and beyond includes a warning that Brexit uncertainty will create a slowdown...

I hate to be a party-pooper, but one of the agency industry’s coming-up-to-Christmas traditions is going to be particularly hard to undertake...

A group of leading tax experts claims the stamp duty surcharge coming into effect one week from today will hurt the...

Morgan Stanley says fears over a possible UK exit from the EU and other global economic uncertainty could lead to “a...

The Chartered Institute of Taxation has called on government to introduce an exemption from the stamp duty surcharge for parents buying...

What is the biggest change you’ve seen in the agency industry during your time at TPO?  For me, the biggest change has...

Rightmove says the seasonal 1.1 per cent dip in average asking prices coming to market in the past month is the...

Reports suggest foreign buyers may be losing interest in directly owning property in London and are in some cases increasingly attracted...

Stephen Moss, CEO of Pring.co.uk the UK’s leading property investment search engine, takes a look at the impact of ‘Corbynmania’ on...

The Centre for Economics and Business Research, a leading consultancy, says the drought in properties on the market is pushing up...

Wednesday’s budget proved a grim viewing for those who have worked in the rental sector for some time and watched the...

Watch the latest weekly video roundup of news from Estate Agent Today and Letting Agent Today, featuring stories on the Scottish...

Watch the latest weekly video roundup of news from Estate Agent Today and Letting Agent Today, featuring stories on the Scottish...

The unexpected outcome of the general election has given a shot in the arm to sellers and agents leading to a...