Average property price dips to £298,602 in February despite analysts expecting rush before stamp duty rises
UK house prices unexpectedly fell last month as concerns over the sluggish economy outweighed an anticipated rush of people trying to complete purchases before stamp duty increases in April.
The average property price dipped by 0.1% in February to £298,602, having hit a record high in January, according to Halifax.
Continue reading...Deputy PM Angela Rayner announces plans as she presents £350m funding increase for affordable housing
Rogue landlords in England will face curbs on how much housing benefit they can receive if their properties are substandard, Angela Rayner has said as she announced an extra £350m for affordable housing.
The deputy prime minister presented the funding increase, adding to £500m already announced at the budget, as part of the government’s drive to build 1.5m homes.
Continue reading...Owners claim singer ‘blighted’ sale of property she once rented but Partridge Green has no shortage of ghostly tales
At first it was the strange rumblings that would wake her. Then bright lights would fill the bedroom as a face appeared, looking down on her. Her husband, who worked nights, never believed her until one day, he saw it too.
Shaken by the sightings, the couple sold the cottage and moved far away from Partridge Green, a quaint, isolated village in West Sussex. Thirty years later, a short distance away from where these night-time hauntings took place, the village welcomed a surprising new arrival.
Continue reading...Schemes backed by previous government to improve energy efficiency have left homeowners unable to sell
Almost 40 building companies have been blocked by the government from installing insulation amid a growing outcry over the profusion of botched jobs across the UK.
Ministers also announced that any homes found to have received botched insulation would have the issues put right by the installer responsible at no extra cost to the homeowner.
Continue reading...FCA also aims to change law to try to prevent a repeat of mass compensation schemes for consumers such as PPI
Mortgage rules could be loosened by the City regulator as it comes under government pressure to increase economic growth and home ownership across the UK.
The move to “simplify responsible lending” for property purchases is part of a range of proposals put forward by the Financial Conduct Authority in an attempt to prove that the watchdog is not standing in the way of the Labour cabinet’s “growth mission”.
Continue reading...Surrey town saw 12.5% increase in asking prices last year with rest of UK rising just 1.4%, according to Rightmove
It’s very name conjures images of warmth, and now Sunbury-on-Thames has been named as a property hotspot. According to listings website Rightmove, the Surrey town recorded the biggest rise in asking prices in Great Britain last year, registering a 12.5% leap in the average, from £527,005 to £592,976.
The town has long been popular with commuters, as it takes less than an hour to travel into London Waterloo station, and is close to the recently expanded Shepperton Studios, which now claims to be the second biggest film studio in the world.
Continue reading...Almost a fifth of adults aged 24-34 are living with parents, particularly in areas of high-cost housing
The “hotel of mum and dad” is the busiest it has been for two decades as an increasing number of young adults in the UK choose – or are forced by low wages and rising rents – to live with their parents, research has found.
The prohibitive cost of renting, let alone buying, a home explains why more twenty- and thirtysomethings are “co-residing” with family at an age when their parents would have been living independently, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said.
Continue reading...Cost of average home in December reaches £269,426, with value increasing over year by almost £12,000
House prices rose for a fourth consecutive month in December, ending 2024 on a “strong footing”, Nationwide said, with the cost of an average home hitting £269,426.
The building society’s monthly tracker found prices in December rose 0.7% on the previous month and were up 4.7% on an annual basis.
Continue reading...Nationwide reports surprise growth despite near-record prices straining affordability
House prices in the UK grew at the fastest rate in nearly two years in November, in a surprise acceleration despite near-record highs straining affordability, according to figures from Nationwide.
The annual growth rate rebounded to 3.7% in November, up from 2.4% in October, according to the UK’s biggest building society. That was the fastest rate since November 2022.
Continue reading...Former Liverpool manager’s rented home fends off 27-bedroom manor house as website’s most-viewed property
A home fit for football royalty and a grade-I listed abbey are among this year’s most-viewed properties on the listing website Rightmove.
Jürgen Klopp left his job as manager of Liverpool in May, and in October the six-bedroom home he was renting from the Merseyside club was put on the market at an asking price of £4.25m.
Continue reading...American applications would be fast-tracked although scheme is open to other nationalities, says mayor of Ollolai
The mayor of a small town in Sardinia has said thousands of Americans keen to escape Donald Trump have expressed an interest in moving there after he offered homes to them for as little as €1.
Francesco Columbu, the mayor of Ollolai, has staged similarly enticing initiatives in the past as a way to combat depopulation. He released more homes for sale after sensing he was on to a winner when Trump clinched a second term as US president in elections earlier this month.
Continue reading...Analysts say market is still relatively busy despite decline of 1.4%, which is unusually high for this time of year
The average asking price for a UK home has dropped by more than £5,000 this month as the autumn budget caused housing market jitters before the usual Christmas slowdown.
Average asking prices from new sellers fell by £5,366, or 1.4%, in November to £366,592, compared with the 0.8% decline usually recorded at this time of year, according to the website Rightmove.
Continue reading...Nationwide says New Forest is most expensive national park with an average property price of £576,000
Buying a home in a national park comes at a 25% price premium, with the New Forest the most expensive of the 13 parks in England and Wales, according to Britain’s biggest building society.
Nationwide said properties in a national park enjoy a valuation almost £67,000 more than a similar property elsewhere, based on the average UK house price of £266,640.
New Forest – £576,000
South Downs – £400,000
Peak District – £375,000
Yorkshire Dales – £353,000
Lake District – £333,000
Dartmoor – £310,000
Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) – £274,000
Eryri (Snowdonia) – £173,000
Continue reading...Hamptons says ‘modest’ rises can be expected amid ‘dampening effect’ of higher interest rates overall
Expectations that UK interest rates may stay higher for longer, as well as revenue-raising measures in the budget, have prompted a leading estate agent to cut its forecast for house price growth over the longer term.
The revised forecast from Hamptons came days after Halifax and Nationwide banks said the annual rate of property price growth had slowed, with the former saying it was likely to be “modest … for the rest of this year and into next”.
Continue reading...Rachel Reeves made funding the NHS a priority but people working in other areas said they were disappointed
Rachel Reeves’s first budget emphasised raising taxes to help the NHS, as the health service tries to cope with huge waiting lists and an ageing population. Funding the NHS was a top priority but people in other sectors – from universities to social care – feel the budget was a missed opportunity to tackle impending crises or introduce desperately needed reforms in their areas.
Continue reading...Autumn price bump failed to emerge as buyers spoiled for choice, with properties on market at a 10-year high
The number of homes being sold is up almost a third, year on year, so far this month, although the traditional autumn price bump has failed to emerge due to buyers being spoilt for choice, with the number of properties for sale at a 10-year high, according to Rightmove.
The number of sales agreed is up 29%, with the number of house hunters contacting estate agents up 17%, despite some market uncertainty caused by the looming budget at the end of October.
Continue reading...Nationwide says yearly rise in house prices increased by 3.2% in September putting the average home at £266,094
UK house prices are growing at their fastest annual rate for nearly two years as borrowing costs continue to fall on expectations that the Bank of England will keep cutting interest rates, Nationwide has said.
The building society said prices grew by 3.2% in September compared with the same month last year, well above the 2.4% annual growth recorded in August, and the fastest pace since the 4.4% recorded in November 2022.
Continue reading...Annington Property fears recent legislation will force it to offload some of the 38,000 freeholds it owns on UK military homes
A property company founded by the billionaire Guy Hands has taken a legal fight with the UK government to the European court of human rights over fears it could lose significant sums as a result of planned housing reforms.
Annington Property, which owns the freehold of about 38,000 military homes, has filed the claim against the housing minister, Angela Rayner, over concerns that the new Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act could force it to off-load the homes well below market value. Last month it launched a challenge in the high court on the same grounds.
Continue reading...Speculation Rachel Reeves to raise tax in budget thought one reason for some homeowners cashing out
Growing speculation about a capital gains tax (CGT) raid in October’s budget appears to have prompted a surge in the number of larger homes being put up for sale, the UK’s biggest property website says.
Rightmove said in the week ending 9 September there had been “a flurry of activity at the top end” of the market. The number of larger homes – defined as four-bedroom detached houses and all five-bedroom and larger properties – being listed for sale in Great Britain was 15% more than in the same period last year. And in the east and south-west of England, which include some of the UK’s most popular coastal and countryside hotspots, the percentage was over 20%.
Continue reading...Board rejects non-binding indicative proposal of 705p a share for UK’s biggest online real-estate portal
REA, the Australian property company majority-owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, has made a £5.6bn offer for Rightmove, the UK’s biggest online real-estate portal.
The Rightmove board rejected the 705p a share offer, worth 18.6% of the enlarged company post-deal, which comes a week after REA confirmed it was considering a cash and share offer for Rightmove.
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