Property

Sellers’ Market Following the recent news that property sales in London are up almost 40%, it would appear that now is as good a time as many to cash out of the big city while you can. With further Interest rate cuts by the Bank of England on the horizon (meaning more buyers buoyed by cheap mortgages to sell to) there is, if not already, a captive market desperate for London properties. So sought after is London as a place...

By Bea Patel, TLE Property Editor and Director of Shop for an Agent The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has approved plans for the first major housing development at the Old Oak regeneration site in West London. The Oaklands development will see 605 new homes built, together with a nursery, health centre and commercial space. A target of 50 per cent affordable housing has been agreed for the development, following an intervention by the Mayor to boost the number of...

By Bea Patel, TLE Property Editor and Director of Shop for an Agent The Bank of England has cut interest rates from 0.5 per cent to 0.25 per cent after a record seven years. The cut comes as an attempt to offset the threat of a post Brexit vote recession. Many homeowners will immediately benefit from reduced monthly mortgage repayments of the back of this cut, but this applies to borrowers with tracker mortgages, whose rate is linked to the...

By Bea Patel, TLE Property Editor and Director of Shop for an Agent 18 million people could currently be living with leaks at home. A study by HomeServe Labs revealed that 19.1 per cent of UK adults currently have a dripping tap at home, and 8.5 per cent are stuck with leaky toilets. The research also revealed 76.9 per cent have experienced a leak at home before. 37 per cent currently report having a leak at home, which rises to...

The gap between property prices in England and Wales and London has closed significantly according to a new data set released by Land Registry in conjunction with the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The average price of property in England and Wales reached £221,832 in May, now standing at almost half the price of Greater London (£472,163). This compares to previously released Land Registry data from March when property in London was three times more expensive than the rest of...

By Bea Patel, TLE Property Editor and Director of Shop for an Agent Confidence among sellers has been dampened by the outcome of the Brexit vote. Figures published by home.co.uk show London prices, which were already looking the most overvalued, have been hit the hardest, falling 1.1 per cent in one month (around £6K less for the average home in the region). The average house price in the South East also slipped 0.2 per cent during the last month, but...

A garage in Clapton, East London was being rented out as a flat at over £1,000 a month, reports the Hackney Citizen. Council officials discovered two people living in the property, which had been advertised as a studio flat, but was not a habitable dwelling. It has now been closed as a residential property after Hackney Council found the inhabitants living in inadequate conditions. Until the deceit was spotted the rental income was over a grand a month, a huge...

By Bea Patel, TLE Property Editor and Director of Shop for an Agent In 2007 the UK Government introduced EPCs (Energy Performance Certificates). The Housing Act 2004 made it a mandatory requirement that an energy assessment is made on all properties listed for sale in Britain and late also applied to rental properties. This was derived from an EU diktat, European Union Directive 2002/91/EC. Britain was told it must adopt a regime of sending inspectors to all homes marketed for...

By Bea Patel, TLE Property Editor and Director of Shop for an Agent The average Londoner is 23 years old when they move out of home for the first time. Perhaps advanced in numerous ways, but new research reveals young Londoners lack basic skills when they fly the nest. From the 1,000 adults surveyed by Weroom, 28 per cent admitted to not knowing how to roast a chicken. A further 31 per cent didn’t know how to operate a boiler,...