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New proposals will free thousands of leaseholders from sky-high remediation bills The cladding crisis has been paralysing parts of the property market for years and causing untold stress for flat owners. Leaseholders of flats in buildings 11 metres or higher will now pay nothing towards the remediation of unsafe cladding, after Levelling Up Secretary Michael […]

Rents soared in 2021 and are forecast to climb further, but tax rises and new competition threaten the sector   Landlords had an explosive year in 2021 – at least in some parts of the country. In areas outside the capital, rents rose by 6pc, their fastest rate in 14 years, according to property website […]

Soaring values mean only 10pc of earners in the capital can afford to get on the property ladder Just 10pc of London earners can afford to get on the property ladder in the capital, as house price growth across Britain rose at the fastest rate since 2006. Values increased by 10.4pc in the year to […]

Bold colours and overly-ambitious asking prices can knock thousands from a property’s value Property prices have soared at a record pace as desperate buyers have jostled for the limited number of new homes on the market. Yet even though demand is high, sellers are not guaranteed to turn a profit from their bricks and mortar. From interior faux […]

A new wave of accidental landlords could find themselves in hot water with mortgage lenders   For every professional landlord with a thriving (and sizeable) property portfolio, there is another who fell into the sector by accident. Frequently those who are upsizing or moving in with a partner will choose not to sell their original […]

2021 is expected to be a record year for sales with 1.5m transactions taking place.But what can we expect for 2022? The end of the stamp duty holiday failed to dampen demand from potential buyers, which is up 30% on the five-year average. Thanks to the tapering-off period at the end of the holiday, the […]

The property market continues to be more competitive than ever right now. The shortage of homes available means there are multiple buyers looking to snap up the same property. So how can you avoid missing out when you finally find ‘the one’? If you’re going to be selling your home in order to move, the […]

The autumn property market remains hot. This month, we’ve seen record asking price rises in Potters Bar for every property type, from first-time buyer homes to family houses. This ‘full house’ is an extremely rare event, happening for the first time since March 2007. So what does this mean if you’re thinking of moving? With […]

Investing in eco-friendly measures could boost your property’s value as buyers are willing to pay a premium   Homeowners who improve the energy performance of their property could add tens of thousands of pounds to its value. New research by property website Rightmove found that buyers are willing to pay a premium for an energy efficient […]

April 2021 changes have seen some would-be users excluded from property scheme   Hundreds of thousands of people have used the Help to Buy scheme to get onto the housing ladder since it launched in 2013. However, new rules have limited the number of people who can use the Government scheme. As before, buyers need […]

How buy-to-let upturned Britain’s property market A new kind of mortgage in 1996 sparked a love affair with property investment and helped to create millions of landlords Twenty-five years ago this week, the first buy-to-let mortgage was taken out. This seemingly insignificant financial instrument helped to kick-start the decades-long rental boom, ushered in Britain’s love […]

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 […]