Search Activity Almost Halved In 4 Weeks
The volume of searches and total value of loans have fallen by two fifths over the past month. According to Twenty7Tec’s ‘Weekly Mortgages Stats’ for the week ending April 4, the volume of searches were down by 20.87 per cent on the week previous and 39.69 per cent lower than two weeks ago. Worryingly, as […]
UK Construction Suffers Fastest Decline Since 2009
The construction sector has suffered from the fastest decline in UK construction since the financial crisis. The headline seasonally adjusted IHS Markit/CIPS UK Construction Total Activity Index tumbled from 52.6 in February to 39.3 in March. This represented the steepest fall since April 2009. Civil engineering projects and commercial property work suffered from the most […]
Legal Advice Requirements Modified By Equity Release Council
Equity release providers are no longer expected to ensure customers receive face to face legal advice before taking out an equity release product. The Equity Release Council published the temporary modification to enable those in need of accessing equity release finance to do so without creating additional barriers and delays. The Council has stated that, […]
Diary Of A Highstreet Conveyancer – Friday April 3
Friday I had my last completion today – for the time being until restrictions on movement are lifted, or unless someone else selling an empty property has a buyer who is able to proceed. I have a few clients who would like to move and were hoping to move before the Easter break but I […]
SDLT Could Dip To 2004 Levels
Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) receipts could dip to the levels last seen in 2004/05 because of the impact of Covid-19. In a time prior to the emergence of coronavirus, Savills had predicted the UK property market would generate £8.6 billion in SDLT receipts as the market recovered from a flattened year restricted by Brexit […]
New Listings Still Entering Market Despite Lockdown
Recent data suggests new listings could fall to around 1,000 per week within the next month, but people are still placing their homes for sale post-lockdown. According to House Vault, specialists in data marketing and analytics, new listings will fall below 1,000 unless the property market considers innovative marketing strategies or alternatives to mainstream agents […]
Introducing New Business Executive Cosmo Valseca
Lead generation service and comparison site Compare My Move work with conveyancers, surveyors and home removal firms across the UK to generate high-quality leads. Since launching our conveyancing service in 2018, we have gone from strength to strength. In addition to our growth in services, we have also expanded our team. New Business Executive Cosmo […]
Diary Of A Highstreet Conveyancer – Thursday April 2
Thursday As I walked up the stairs to my office this morning, it suddenly hit me about this new world. There is less work, there is no social contact at work – I am the only one coming to the office on a daily basis – and it is hard not having something special to […]
Estate Agents Face £1 Billion Commission Losses
Estate agents face losing £1 billion in lost commission if the current flow of sales agreed are delayed or fall through completely. According to data collated by twentyci, there were 163,000 in the system which have agreed a sale and ordered searches with 155,000 properties at the sales agreed stage in the 45 days to […]
Conveyancing Association And Lease Administrators Helping Home Movers
Conveyancing Association and Lease Administrators work together to help home movers during Coronavirus crisis Members of the Conveyancing Association (CA), the leading trade body for the conveyancing industry, have set out a number of measures for member firms to adopt during the Coronavirus crisis, in order to keep Lease Administrators up to date on lease […]
GlobalX Win’s Housebuilders Product Award
Search specialists GlobalX are celebrating after winning a Housebuilder Product award for their BuildX search solution. The awards, which are supported by the National House Building Council and Home Builders Federation, were judged by a panel of experts from the construction sector including representatives from the CPA, BBA and leading housebuilders. GlobalX’s BuildX solution has […]
ESTAS launches New Free Tools To Help Conveyancer Clients
ESTAS the customer review and awards platform for conveyancers has introduced new free tools to help their clients through the challenge of the coming months. Founder of The ESTAS Group, Simon Brown, said: “As the property sector’s own review and awards platform we understand the effect this crisis will have on conveyancing firms. The next […]
Not So Sleepy Hallow – Tales From A Swelling Village
For many years, Hallow was a sleepy backwater to the north west of the bustling city of Worcester. Now, with tough new house building targets, its district council has found itself wrestling with competing demands to house its local residents. At the same time, they object to what they see as excessive urbanisation of the […]
SearchFlow Launches Fully-Integrated Post Completion Services For Property Lawyers And Conveyancers
SearchFlow – the UK’s leading provider of conveyancing search solutions – has launched Post Completion Services that enables legal professionals to centrally manage and submit validated Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) returns and all HM Land Registry electronic Document Registration Service (eDRS) applications and requisitions – including the AP1 change of register form – as […]
Diary Of A Highstreet Conveyancer – Wednesday April 1
Wednesday Today was the quietest day I have known for years. It took me back to the time of the crash in 2007 . The telephone hardly rang and I had to call myself just to be sure that the line was actually working. I had one completion – the sale of an empty property […]
Industry Regulators Encourage Wider Use Of Electronic ID
Industry regulators have reminded legal practitioners of the importance of using electronic ID and verification processes in order to safely comply with governmental social distancing advice whilst in lockdown. The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) released a guidance note yesterday reminding legal practitioners of their legal obligations to verify client identification under the Money Laundering […]
Lenders Suspend High Loan To Value Mortgage Products
Over the past three weeks, a third of mortgage deals have been pulled from the market as Covid-19 causes property market chaos. At the end of last week, governmental guidance urged buyers, sellers and stakeholders in the home buying and selling process to delays home moves wherever possible. Even before this, lenders were reducing the […]
Cutting Costs And Coming Out Fighting
Cutting costs without cutting opportunity Businesses up and down the country are looking at the current situation and considering where they can most effectively cut costs. Given the reduction in demand for many products and services, there is clearly an opportunity to reduce overheads amongst the “doers.” Mid-tier management and admin functions are often hacked […]
Onboarding Clients When Working Remotely
The legal sector is embracing a brave new world of providing legal services. We are no longer able to meet with clients face to face and are encountering difficulties in remaining regulatory compliant at a time when legal services are still in high demand. Working remotely throws up a number of hurdles which will need […]
Diary Of A Highstreet Conveyancer – Tuesday March 31
Tuesday I had a completion today – I never used to be nervous about completions as I was just so used to doing them, final searches, exchange contracts, set the completion date, update the client, receive the completion monies, do a Lawyer Checker search and then transfer the monies to the sellers’ solicitor. As I […]