Top Tips

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors' (RICS) latest UK Residential Market Survey, dated 9 July 2020, has confirmed that the volume of individuals looking to buy has increased in June. Here's the key headlines: 61% of the survey respondents have indicated that they've experienced an increase in buyer enquiries over the last 4 weeks. 42% of respondents have confirmed an increase in property listings 43% of respondents have indicated that they are processing an increase in

Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer has immediately scrapped stamp duty on English and Northern Irish homes selling for £500,000 or less until March 2021, saving £4,500 on the average home purchase, with a maximum saving of up to £15,000 for a property priced at £500,000. The Chancellor claims that 9 out of 10 main homes sold will be stamp duty exempt. The Chancellor says: “Uncertainty abounds in the market – a market we need to be thriving. We need people to feel con

Since the government revealed plans to relax blanket restrictions on non-essential overseas travel, Rightmove have reported that they've seen more on-line users flocking to their Overseas portal. Their data analysts saw searches hit an all-time high on Sunday 28th June as the government confirmed that travel to and from certain overseas destinations will be allowed without the need to quarantine. Data shows that searches were 73% up compared with 28 June 2019. Searches were

Here we share some interesting data on what your buyer or renter is looking for having spent the last few months in lockdown. Latest Rightmove Survey Buyer and renter priorities have changed over the lockdown period as evidenced in Righmove's most recent survey. Of the 4,000 households they surveyed: There was commonality across buyers and renters alike, the number one priority remains access to a bigger garden, followed by wanting a bigger home. The differences between buye

If you're thinking of selling or your struggling to sell, have you given much thought to staging your bedrooms? Probably not, at least when you look at the thousands of images on the on-line property portals. When your buyers visit, they want to envisage themselves living their future dreams in your bedrooms - when in reality they may be faced with a "make-do" office, laundry strewn everywhere, your wedding photos, the children's' toys, glaring coloured walls and so on. So l

New government measures to boost the construction industry were introduced last week. In short: planning permission deadlines will be extended (they usually expire after 3 years if no work has started). This will affect those sites which had an expiry date between 23 March 2020 to 31 December 2020. Planning consent is now extended until 1 April 2021. planning appeals will be speeded up permanently. This will grant the Planning Inspectorate the right to use more than one

Zoopla's latest House Price Index (May 2020) has confirmed that house prices are up 2.4% (up from 1.6% at the beginning of the year) and agreed sales are up 4%, compared to pre-lockdown levels. This latest Index also confirms that this pace is likely to continue until at least this autumn, with 2-3% on average likely to be added over the coming three months. Zoopla anticipate that if there are price falls, they will not be visible by the end of the year. Lender caution and m

Since the housing market re-opened on 13 May, all the signs continue to show that confidence is returning as pent up demand continues. Industry Insight from Dataloft Dataloft are property market experts, specialising in market intelligence. Based on their recent research, 95% of all sellers who were planning to move before lockdown, still plan to do so. This echoes what other industry professionals have shared. On 8 June 2020, Dataloft launched Dataloft Demand Index for the

Rightmove has indicated that the average asking price in England has increased by an average of 1.9% (+£6,266) in June, compared to March data. The average house price in England is now valued at £337,884. Rightmove’s statistics cover 95% of the market and these latest results indicate far more resilience and bounce back than had been expected. Their monthly June House Price Index also highlights the following: There were over 175,000 sellers that could not put their home f