Housing demand slumps to near six-year low as first-time buyers pounce on ‘cautious market’ March 25, 2019 Demand for housing has slumped to its lowest level in almost six years, according to new figures that underline fears of waning activity across parts of Britain’s housing market. The number of house hunters registered per estate agent branch slumped by 15 per cent to 252 in February, marking the lowest since since July 2013. [...]
Battersea power station home buyers to claim refunds due to long delays March 23, 2019 People that purchased flats in the redevelopment of London’s Battersea Power Station will soon be eligible to claim a full refund with works running so far behind schedule. The scheme has been plagued with difficulties and the majority of the 255 apartments listed along the River Thames will not be ready before their “long-stop dates” [...]
Focus On Bow: Young professionals are changing the landscape of Bow, but upsizing proves costly March 22, 2019 Few areas in London have seen demographic change like east London, but even within the East End, Bow has changed a lot in recent years. “There is a definite shift taking place, highlighted by the arrival of a number of independent coffee shops, wine bars and restaurants over the past 18 months or so,” said [...]
New homes: Our pick of the new builds going on sale in London this weekend March 22, 2019 New developments on the market this week Royal Docks West, Newham From £685,000 View the last homes at a development in east London where the landscaped gardens are the size of nine tennis courts. A 12th floor show apartment in a 19 storey building has opened up to sell the last of 79 private homes [...]
UK house price growth hits six-year low as experts warn of ‘Brexit downward spiral’ March 20, 2019 London house prices fell 1.6 per cent in the year to January, official data revealed today, as experts warned a mix of Brexit uncertainty and the death of buy to let are hurting the value of homes. The sharp price drop in the capital's housing market meant overall UK house prices rose just 1.7 per [...]
House prices fall in London as buyers await Brexit resolution March 18, 2019 London house prices fell in March as Brexit uncertainty held back the usual spring bounce, and are down almost four per cent year on year, a new report has said. The number of sales agreed by estate agents in February was also nearly 10 per cent lower in the capital than a year before, property [...]
Holiday Homes: We visit the resort in Portugal that’s out to prove that resort golf doesn’t have to be amateur hour March 15, 2019 If you’re serious about golf, but would also like a place in the sun, it’s often hard to find a golf resort with a course that aims above pitch and putt. Monte Rei, a prestigious resort in Portugal in one of Europe’s most sought after golfing destinations, is trying to change all that and be [...]
Opinion: First time buyers purchasing new builds with the help of Mum and Dad are missing out on SDLT relief March 15, 2019 Stamp duty land tax relief for all first-time buyers for purchases up to £500,000: this was the pledge made by the Chancellor, Rt Hon Philip Hammond MP, in the 2017 Autumn Budget. Given the usual stamp duty threshold is far lower than the average house price in London, this was a big win for first-time [...]
How the arrival of the World Wide Web has changed the mortgage market March 12, 2019 In 1989, the Swiss physics laboratory, CERN, was buzzing with information but it had one big problem: ideas, data and knowledge held by the lab was stored across incompatible computers. A young scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, envisioned creating a unifying structure for sharing information across its computer systems. He wrote a proposal for a linked information [...]
Lending rises for remortgages but falls for UK house buyers at end of 2018 March 12, 2019 Mortgage lending was up for remortgaging and down for house purchasing in Britain in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to a year earlier, new statistics by the Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have shown. The proportion of high loan-to-income (LTI) loans, those greater than four times the value of annual income [...]