Property

By Bea Patel, TLE Property Editor and Director of Shop for an Agent The new three per cent stamp duty land tax (SDLT) levy on top of the current standard rate hit homebuyers on 1 April 2016. Announced in Chancellor George Osborne’s 2015 Autumn statement, it affects domestic and foreign buyers of second residential homes in the UK over £40,000. Caravans, mobile homes and houseboats are exempt and there is no charge on inherited properties. With limited supply, high rents...

By Bea Patel, TLE Property Editor and Director of Shop for an Agent A new living experience in Wembley Park has apartments with iconic views and rent inclusive of heating, electricity and superfast broadband, aiming to be 'The best way to live in London'. The hotel-inspired service is at the core of this development, which is located in upcoming Wembley Park, a new, vibrant destination and residential neighbourhood for London. London-focussed property developer Quintain has recently launched Tipi - a...

A horizontal skyscraper that submerges Central Park to make room for a multi-functional mega structure has won eVolo's 2016 Skyscraper Competition. The design was picked from 489 entries, which included skyscrapers that purify air, buildings conceived to create rain for the driest regions and skyscrapers that prevent cities sinking. Yitan Sun and Jianshi Wu's project New York Horizon proposes a continuous horizontal skyscraper around the full perimeter of a sunken Central Park. The project would create seven square miles (80...

As the Indian Property Show returns to Olympia London, we tell you why it's the ideal time to invest in India. By Bea Patel, TLE Property Editor and Director of Shop for an Agent The steady growth of the Indian economy is having a huge influence on the real estate sector of India. Major cities like Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune and Kolkata are being influenced by this growth and have given rise to the development of smart...

By Bea Patel, TLE Property Editor and Director of Shop for an Agent If it’s time to make the move out of London and get on the property ladder, you may need to consider moving to one of the commuter towns that sit in, around and outside the greenbelt. With the average deposit needed to buy a place in London now at £91,000, many buyers are priced out of the market. It’s possible to live outside the city where property...

By Bea Patel, TLE Property Editor and Director of Shop for an Agent Clive Bull's award winning show attracts 332,000 listeners each week. Direct Line Landlord Insurance has now signed as the sponsor of LBC's 'The Property Hour' segment. Property expert and advocate of landlord rights Paul Shamplina, founder of Landlord Action will join regular evening host Clive Bull on the programme to discuss the latest housing issues and trends. The Property Hour starts on 10 March and will initially...

Gemma Lingham headed to Google Campus to understand investors’ thoughts when it comes to the newest tech buzzword, ‘PropTech’ Healthtech, cleantech, fintech… it’s about time property got a ‘tech’, right? Well, the latter has existed alongside property for around eight years now, since the inaugural rise of Airbnb. However, with Zoopla becoming practically mainstream in the property search arena, eMoov raising £2.6 million in equity crowdfunding, and the likes of Trussle transforming the mortgage space, Proptech is certainly gaining momentum....

By Bea Patel, TLE Property Editor and Director of Shop for an Agent Local councils’ ‘computer says no’ attitude led to 18,500 unfair planning permission rejections last year. According to Just Planning, the UK’s householder appeals specialist, this is set to increase in 2016 if likely changes to planning law come to fruition. In 2015, Just Planning had a 71 per cent success rate in defending homeowners from the unjust decisions of council planning officers – who it associates to...

By Bea Patel, TLE Property Editor and Director of Shop for an Agent Student pads have come a long way and we’ve continued to see growth in the student accommodation market in the UK. Overseas students coming to the UK is growing year on year, and the UK university experience has huge appeal. While it’s easy to look at figures of those choosing a UK study set-up, once here, does the experience meet their expectations? A new study by the...