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The average home seller made a profit of £110,000 during the pandemic as the as the stamp duty holiday and race for space drove house prices up to record highs. This was £15,587 more than if they had sold a year earlier, before the pandemic, according to analysis by Savills estate agents. Sellers in the South East made the largest […]

The number of properties for sale has fallen to its lowest level for more than 6 years and is forecast to remain low well into next year, according to the Zoopla latest House Price Index.   The housing market faces an acute shortage of homes for sale as the supply of properties fails to keep […]

Sellers are hiking their price tags despite the disappearance of stamp duty savings due to a drought of properties on the market The property market recorded its busiest ever first half of a year, pushing asking prices to a record high for the fourth consecutive month. A surge in demand combined with a shortage of supply has meant that […]

You can still save up to £2,500 in stamp duty if you buy a home before the end of September. Our guide has all the details. The full stamp duty holiday has now drawn to a close but there’s still a tax break available on the first £250,000 of a property purchase until the end […]

House prices have fallen for the first time in five months as the winding down of the stamp duty holiday eases a property-buying frenzy. The average cost of a home in the UK dipped to £260,358 in June, according to lender Halifax, although this was still £21,000 higher than the same month last year thanks to months […]

In January, estate agents warned of a cliff edge. Now, the market is so hot nobody seems to care the tax break is tapering.   The booming property market is about to take an imminent hit. Home buyers in higher price brackets who cannot complete purchases by June 30 will face sudden extra stamp duty […]

Fast-spreading and destructive plant can make homes unsellable or knock off 15pc prices The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said Japanese knotweed was not the “bogey plant” people feared Japanese knotweed is no longer a “death sentence” for property sales, according to experts who warned the plant had been demonised by “myths and misconceptions” in recent years. […]

Landlords have had a difficult year so it is more important than ever it know about these underused reliefs   Many landlords are missing out on valuable tax breaks that could prevent a large chunk of their income ending up in the hands of HM Revenue & Customs. Reliefs on landlords’ income, such as being […]

Borrowers could find themselves hundreds of pounds worse off if they do nothing when a fixed-rate deal ends Every month tens of thousands of borrowers reach the end of their fixed-rate mortgage deal. In most cases, that means their mortgage payments are set to rise – sometimes by a significant amount. But you can take action to avert these […]

Lack of properties for sale is driving prices to record highs. House sales are headed for heights not seen since before the global financial crash, with a lack of stock driving prices skywards. Property transactions are predicted to exceed 1.5 million this year, according to property website Zoopla, with sales expected to be up 45pc compared to […]

Homes are selling at the fastest pace ever recorded right now, which is pushing up average asking prices for properties. Wednesday 7th April saw a record of 9.3 million visits to Rightmove in a single day, while last month home-hunters spent more than two billion minutes on the site. More houses have sold within the […]

The stamp-duty stampede to buy second homes led to £17 billion of house sales across the UK over the last two weeks – £5.4 billion of which were in London. Around £3.4 billion of properties were exchanged yesterday alone, a 141 per cent increase on the same day last year, as solicitors cancelled holidays and […]

The low deposit lending market may finally be opening up after the pandemic hammered it a year ag When Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced plans for a mortgage guarantee scheme in last month’s Budget it was hailed as a lifeline for first-time buyers. Some of the biggest banks in the UK have already signed up to the scheme, which […]

With the country still in lockdown, the government has extended the ban on evicting tenants from their homes until the end of May.   A ban on landlords evicting their tenants has been extended until 31 May for people living in England. Under the ban, bailiff-enforced evictions will not be allowed except in the most […]

Is it true? Higher mortgage rates could see buyers paying hundreds more each month…   Aspiring home buyers face paying a premium under the Government’s new 95pc mortgage scheme, experts have warned. Under the plans, they will be able to secure properties worth up to £600,000 with just a 5pc deposit. It was hoped that the […]

The Chancellor has extended the stamp duty holiday until the end of June. It will then be tapered off for a further three months. Here’s what it could mean for you.   Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced the stamp duty holiday will be extended for a further three months until the end of June. The […]

The Government is expected to announce an extension to the stamp duty holiday as the industry rallies behind a staggered three-month drop-off. The Times newspaper said it has been told that Chancellor Rishi Sunak will use his Budget next week to move the deadline to the end of June. A spokesman for The Treasury said they could not […]

Home buyers face property deals ­collapsing and missing out on stamp duty savings due to long delays at the Land Registry. Complaints about the Government’s record office have more than doubled in the past five years, figures have shown. More than 4,500 people made a formal complaint about it in 2020, up from 2,150 in 2015, according […]

Stormy weather is not unusual in the winter and there has been an increase in severe storms in recent years. Over the past decade, property owners across the UK have seen some of the worst weather damage on record, with many suffering uninsured losses due to torrential rain, gale-force winds and flooding. The UK Environment Agency […]

The pandemic has fuelled a lot of home moves, buoyed by Rishi Sunak’s stamp duty holiday. The number of mortgages given the green light soared to a 13-year high in 2020 despite successive lockdowns. A total of 818,500 mortgages were approved for people buying a home last year, the highest level since 2007. The increase […]