Building Safety Act – Clarity on Lease Extensions?

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has released an update to its guidance on the current confusion around the implementation of the Building Safety Act (BSA) and the extent to which the leaseholder protections apply in cases there is a lease extension. The “Qualifying date, qualifying lease and extent,” first published in July 2022 […]
House Price Index: 500k expected sales completions in first half of 2023

New data from Zoopla’s latest House Price Index expects 500,000 sales completions in the first half of 2023, meaning that the property market is on track for 1 million sales. The data revealed that, in recent weeks, the demand for homes reached its highest level since last October when the fallout of the mini-budget hit […]
“Uptick” in remortgage activity with over 3,000 remortgage customers in a single day

Stockport based ONP Solicitors has said there are positive indications in the remortgage market as it processed more than 3,000 remortgage transactions on Monday 3rd April. With more than 1.5m five-year fixed rate mortgages reaching the end of their fixed period this year, ONP suggest this is just the “beginning of what is to come […]
A conveyancer’s guide to the Property Data Trust Framework: April 2023

The Property Data Trust Framework promises to be the enabler that finally enables a fully digital conveyancing process. Many other initiatives and products have promised that, and failed. Ed Molyneux, co-founder of Moverly, Participant of the Home Buying and Selling Technology Group, and key contributor to the framework, explains why this time it’s different. In […]
Survey reveals ‘modest increase’ in number looking to enter housing market

New research shows a “modest increase” in the proportion of people who think now is a good time to buy a property. However, there are still considerably more who think now still isn’t a good time to buy. According to the latest Property Tracker survey from the Building Societies Association (BSA), almost one in five […]
Conveyancers warned of heightened fraud risk

Conveyancers and home movers have been warned about the increased risk of “Friday afternoon fraud” after data from UK Finance showed £22.5 million of bank transfer losses via the inter-bank Chaps system. The warning, which comes from the National Association of Property Buyers (NAPB), highlights the availability of an estimated 12.5m personal email account details […]
Diary of a high street conveyancer: 10th April 2023

It has been a very pleasant Easter/long weekend and it prompted me to think back on the last few Easter breaks. Go back to 2020 and we were in lockdown. 2021, we were in the midst of the SDLT exemption where the deadline had just been extended from the end of March to the end […]