Planning and Infrastructure Bill enters second week of oral evidence
Oral evidence related to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will continue to heard by the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee on Tuesday, with General Committee debates scheduled tomorrow and Thursday. Last week, the bill went through its first and second sittings with the Public Bill Committee, following an announcement by deputy prime minister […]
Good Business Management is Good Risk Management
In this article covering the launch event in the Today’s Training Risk Management series, we summarise the panellists’ views on the risk and regulatory landscape currently facing the legal services profession. The audience for the well-attended webinar heard from specialists in law firm regulation, insurance and management. Some questions prompted disagreement amongst the panel, most […]
LMS remortgage report finds low swap rates and increased lender confidence
The March remortgage snapshot from national conveyancers LMS reveals ‘the lowest swap rates in recent years’, giving lenders ‘the confidence to price competitively’. The report from the national conveyancing company found that new instructions increased by 23% in March compared to the previous month, with a 10% pipeline increase. Remortgages were down 20% on February […]
Estate agents ‘concerned’ about housing targets
The professional body for estate agents says its members are ‘concerned’ about the UK government and devolved administrations meeting housebuilding targets, with most believing planning restrictions will present the biggest obstacle. A lack of a skilled workforce, population growth and not having the necessary infrastructure to support housebuilding were also cited as potential factors that […]
Twenty7tec sees surge in buy-to-let demand, with March mortgage searches at record high
Financial tech platform Twenty7tec has reported record numbers of remortgage searches, with a 22.9% month-on-month rise in buy-to-let mortgage searches leading to the highest seven-day totals ever recorded by the company. The searches for mortgages in the £150,000–£250,000 bracket were significantly higher than the 6.4% growth in residential enquiries, with 18th March being the company’s […]
Consumer confidence in housing market declines, affordability still key factor
Fewer than one in five people in the UK believe it’s a good time to buy a home, according to the latest Property Tracker survey from the Building Societies Association (BSA). The data from the BSA, which represents all building societies and mutual-owned banks in the UK, reveals that just 17% of respondents agree that […]
SRA issues £59,000 in AML fines as deterrent for ‘high-risk’ conveyancers
Breaches of anti-money laundering (AML) regulations by conveyancers have incurred fines of over £59,000 since the start of April, with the Solicitors Regulation Authority insisting the penalties are in the public interest and must act as a deterrent. Notices published by the SRA within the last two weeks list a string of offences that have […]
Drop in inflation offers ‘a welcome relief’ for buyers, but industry remains cautious
The Office for National Statistics’ announcement that UK inflation has fallen to 2.6% has been welcomed by industry figures, although some predict the positivity will be short-lived. Experts claim the 0.2% drop will offer some relief to potential home buyers, with broad agreement that the downward trend supports the expectation of a Bank of England […]
Property listings at seven-year high; sales agreed up 9.3%
The first quarter of 2025 saw 451,000 new properties listed for sale, according to the latest insight from property data analysts TwentyCi – the highest number of Q1 listings in the last seven years. As well as a 4% rise in new instructions, TwentyCi’s figures reveal the number of sales agreed is up year-on-year, with […]
L&G data reveals promising signs, with interest from older first time buyers up by 80%
L&G says there has been a ‘significant increase’ in first-time buyer searches for mortgages, including a sharp rise in older buyers who want to get on the property ladder. Quarter one data from L&G’s Ignite mortgage platform showed an increase of 45% for first-time buyers compared to figures from Q4 of 2024, with searches by […]
Keep up pressure on completion to help vulnerable buyers, says iamproperty co-founder
Ben Ridgway, co-founder of estate agent software company iamproperty, has urged the property industry to achieve faster completions and a more efficient homebuying process in the wake of the Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) deadline. Failing to do so, he warns, will place strain on vulnerable buyers already faced with an extra £34 million in […]
Market ‘resilient’ market after SDLT surge
The first property trends report of the year from Landmark Information Group reflects ongoing industry positivity following SDLT threshold changes, with continued optimism pointing to a resilient market. The data from Landmark reveals an overall 30% rise in completions in England and Wales for the first quarter of 2025, with an ‘abnormally high’ 71% year-on-year […]
Waltham Forest and Manchester top list of fastest-moving homes markets
New data from property website Zoopla reveals that homes in Manchester and Waltham Forest sell faster than anywhere else in the UK, with an average of just 19 days in each region. Buyers in all regions can expect completion to take between four and six months depending on the complexity of the transaction. Across England […]
53,000 new homes enter the market following stamp duty deadline
Around 54,000 home sellers have entered the market across England since the 31st March stamp duty deadline. However, just 7% of the 53,468 new homes hitting the market across England have been listed with an asking price below the stamp duty threshold of £125,000. Research conducted by estate agency Yopa shows that of the 431,836 […]
Build-to-Rent sector attracted record investment of £5.2 billion in 2024
Insight from Excellion Capital reveals that the number of Build-to-Rent (BTR) homes in the UK has increased by an estimated 173% over the past five years, with a record £5.2 billion invested into the sector in 2024. The debt advisory and investments firm says BTR is rapidly eclipsing Build-to-Sell (BTS) as the most promising area […]
20% increase in year-on-year sales agreed could see market through post-SDLT blip
A 20% increase on agreed sales year on year could see the property market through any potential blip after the end of SLDT reliefs at the end of March. Although Propertymark’s latest Housing Insight Report paints a mixed picture of the sales market, with a decrease in the number of prospective buyers, there is a […]
Record numbers of transactions as conveyancers meet SDLT challenge
Conveyancers up and down the country broke records last week as the latest SDLT deadline passed on 31st March 2025. A sizeable spike in transaction numbers was inevitable following Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ decision not to extend the stamp duty reliefs in the Labour Budget in October 2024. From 1st April the threshold at which SDLT […]
One month of completions in five days
Tales of the heroics conveyancers delivered in the final days of March in the run up to the stamp duty deadline have started to unfold as firms recover from the latest SDLT cliff edge. The culmination of months of effort and diligence by property lawyers up and down the country came down to just a […]
‘Vital’ consumers remain confident in the property market as mortgage approval numbers released
It is ‘vital’ consumers remain optimistic about property market momentum as an expected fall in net borrowing in February compared to January has been reported in the latest Bank of England (BoE) Money and Credit report. Net borrowing decreased £900m in February having risen £800m in January 2025. The result is the annual growth rate […]
Planning decisions taking over a year in some places
The average time it takes for planning for decisions is over a year in some of the worst performing planning authorities, no doubt denting efforts by the government to build the promised 1.5m new homes this Parliament. Richmondshire Local Planning Authority, Brecon Beacons National Park, South Somerset, and Stockton-on-Tees are taking in excess of 12 […]
