Martin is a Senior Content Writer for Today’s Conveyancer, Today’s Wills and Probate, Today’s Legal Cyber Risk and Today’s Family Lawyer
Having qualified as a teacher, Martin previously worked as a Secondary English Teacher that responsible for Head of Communications.
After recently returning to the North West from Guernsey in the Channel Islands, Martin has left teaching to start a career in writing and pursue his lifelong passion with the written word.
The Guild of Property Professionals has written a letter to the government urging them to include estate agents in the first wave of essential services to be released from lockdown. The letter stresses that lifting
The property market remained resilient in March despite the lockdown induced property freeze at the end of the month. There were 99,440 residential property transactions in March, a marginal 0.3 per cent rise from March
Despite economic uncertainty caused by Brexit and a winter election, £3.92 billion of property wealth was withdrawn using equity release products in 2019. According to the Equity Release Council’s ‘Spring 2020 Equity Release Market Report’,
How can the property market most easily recover once lockdown measures have been eased? There is no denying that the world is forever changed by the global pandemic we are all living through. Pressing pause
Over half a million businesses are now in significant financial distress with the real estate and property sector amongst the worst hit. 2,289 businesses are now in critical distress, a precursor for insolvency. This figure
The market freeze caused by social distancing measures is prompting many to claim that Help to Buy deadlines should be pushed back in order to facilitate many delayed transactions. Help to Buy is scheduled to
Although social distancing restrictions have led to difficult but inevitable declines in activity over recent weeks, the last week ended with a number of surprising increases in daily activity. According to Twenty7Tec’s activity monitor, purchase
Property searches are currently unavailable in 24 council areas and some have introduced new charges for providing information remotely to search providers. The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) has praised the majority of local
Convey Law explain how their robust disaster recovery plan and proactive use of governmental support is helping their employees and business thrive in a post-coronavirus property sector. Following the stalling of UK transactions, many people
The Sun newspaper and Daily Star have claimed that estate agents could be amongst the first wave of high street businesses permitted to reopen as the government look at a workable exit strategy for the
In a stock market announcement this morning Barratt, the new homes developer, announced that they have completed on 1349 new build homes between 23rd March and 12 April 2020 but they “expect any further home
Recent indications suggest remortgaging volumes are improving after significant falls following the introduction of social distancing restrictions. Although new case volumes decreased by 14 per cent in the week commencing April 6 from the week
A survey looking at consumer sentiment suggests that buyers and sellers are still looking to renew their interest as soon as restrictions are lifted. According to Reallymoving, 75 per cent of property stakeholders in the
Purchase mortgage searches have fallen by 82 per cent over the past four weeks. According to weekly mortgage data provided by Twenty7Tec, up to the week ending April 11 purchase mortgage searches had also reduced
One in nine UK mortgages are now taking advantage of a mortgage payment holiday. According to UK Finance data, over 1.2 million mortgage holders impacted by Covid-19 have applied to their lenders for a mortgage
The property sector is facing unprecedented challenges at the moment. Covid-19 has decimated the home buying and selling process with searches and new mortgages almost halving in four weeks. Similarly, lenders are now reluctant to
The Law Society of England and Wales has published fresh guidance helping firms looking into utilising the government’s Job Retention Scheme by furloughing their staff. In recent weeks, many conveyancing departments have seen new instructions
Sales agreed and new listings have plummeted by 70 per cent since government lockdown restrictions according to Zoopla and GetAgent data. Having researched keyword data used since social distancing measures were imposed in the final
RICS has urged the government to enforce a stamp duty holiday once the social distancing restrictions are lifted in a bid to improve consumer confidence and encourage the UK to start moving as soon as
The Conveyancing Academy, which is endorsed by both the Conveyancing Association (CA) and the Society of Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) for the provision of continual professional development and training, has made the decision to defer all
A High Court ruling has discharged three properties which were frozen by the National Crime Agency (NCA) in May last year using an Unexplained Wealth Order(UWO). Towards the end of May last year, three properties
In light of the financial difficulties impacting conveyancing departments at the current time, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) is allowing any firms it regulates to defer their regulatory fee payments. Practice fees and payments
Recent figures suggest that new listings were 82 per cent down last week when compared with the week before lockdown. The data, released by Housevault, found 1,695 properties listed for sale over the past seven
New research suggests the property market will decline by 38 per cent in 2020 because of the measures imposed to prevent the spread of Covid-19. According to research by Knight Frank, transactions across the UK
Buyers and sellers foresee the property market remaining frozen for around five months. According to a nationally representative survey carried out by Trussle, almost half (49 per cent) of buyers had suspended actively looking for
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
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
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
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
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
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
The government are putting measures in place to create a standardised and agreed approach in valuing properties in high rise buildings impacted by dangerous cladding. For buildings over 18 metres tall, the government are urging