December 31, 2011 Leave a comment
Property Market Update would like to wish all of our readers a very Happy New Year.
2012 is set to be an exciting year, with the Olympics coming to London as well as many contrasting predictions regarding the property market.
We hope that 2012 will be another interesting year for property just as 2011 was.
Enjoy 2012!
The whole team at Property Market Update
Image by flickr/jeff_golden
December 29, 2011 Leave a comment
Sometimes you walk into a house and get the immediate feeling of it being a cosy home. But what is cosy exactly? How do you define it? Warm, comfortable, ‘snug’? It can be some or all of these things combined, and many of us wish to achieve the same for our own homes.
To attain such a status is simple and need not cost the earth. Here we have a few tips we have compiled to help you with your quest for a cosy home.
Furniture
First and foremost, your furniture must be comfortable. A cosy atmosphere cannot be achieved with hard and unwelcoming furniture which no-one will want to sit in! Sofas will look cosier with blankets and pillows, while empty tables look cold and uninviting.
December 24, 2011 Leave a comment
Property Market Update would like to wish all of our readers a very Merry Christmas.
We hope that you have a wonderful time and we have compiled some Christmas facts that amused us, and we hope that they amuse you too!
Christmas trees are edible, with the pins being a good source of Vitamin C. However, it is not recommended that you eat them.
In the past, the traditional Christmas English Christmas dinner was a pig head made with mustard sauce.
In Norway, it is custom to hide brooms in case witches try to steal them. Read more of this post
December 22, 2011 Leave a comment
Taylor Wimpey homes were bulldozed in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire after a group of residents fought against the housing developers.
24 brand new homes were torn down on the site, where in fact a further 100 homes in addition were intended to be built. It was discovered that while Taylor Wimpey had bought the land for £11.5million in 2006, a 1.8 acre part of the site has been a protected and historical piece of land since the 1930s.
Now the land in question is estimated to only be worth £20,000. Read more of this post
December 21, 2011 Leave a comment
A study recently conducted is claiming that homeless people have a life expectancy of 47 years compared to 77 years for the rest of the population.
The study was conducted by Sheffield University and also claimed that the average of death for homeless men and women was 47, the mean age for women was found to be even lower, at 43.
The reasons that have been given are mostly down to drug and alcohol abuse – accounting for a third of all deaths. The report came out just as the government announced that £20m will be spent on providing aid to people facing homelessness. The £20m funding is to work alongside the existing £400m Preventing Homelessness grant and will be made available in the new year for the next four years. Read more of this post
December 20, 2011 Leave a comment
Property market investment seems to be the way forward, as it has been revealed that banks poured in £2.2 billion in the lead up to April of this year.
Property market investment was seen as a profitable deal by banks and insurers due to rising rental prices, according to HMRC. In total, spending on property investments by investors has totaled to a whopping £193.8bn whilst property companies have spent £2.7bn on residential properties (a 27% increase). This amounts to a staggering 189% increase in spending property expenditure. Read more of this post
December 19, 2011 Leave a comment
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) have issued new mortgage news rules to stop the rebirth of risky mortgage lending, to be started from 2013.
The idea is to stop people from buying what they cannot afford, so lenders are being told to focus carefully on their assessments for loans. But some flexibility is being allowed for existing customers who might have been prevented from remortgaging.
The FSA is saying they want to stop lenders giving mortgages based on minimal checking such as the infamous “Together” mortgages offered by the Northern Rock bank, which granted loans worth 125% of the value of homes and then went bust. There have also been recorded cases where mortgages worth seven times a borrower’s income have been offered. Read more of this post
December 16, 2011 Leave a comment
Renting vs buying has been the topic as of late as it has been discovered that it is in fact cheaper to buy than rent in 47 out of 50 British towns and cities.
This contrasts to last year when it was only in 40 out of 50 towns where this occurred.
The financial crisis has lead to banks being less willing to approve mortgages with their stricter guidelines, and thus making it harder to buy a house.
Therefore this leads to rental prices going up, as landlords take advantage of those unable to get onto the property ladder, meaning that potential house buyers are forced to rent. Read more of this post
December 15, 2011 Leave a comment
It appears that housing market activity has slowed. This could have been guessed by anybody.
We now need to figure out why. Surveyors are now saying that it is the economic uncertainty that is plaguing Europe which is the biggest factor holding back the housing market. This reason is beating the availability of mortgages and fears over the prices of houses falling dramatically.
This is the findings of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics).
However, the latest Rics survey shows a slight rise in buyer demand and sales in November. It is positive to hear that new buyer enquiries have been increasing modestly for three months. There was a rise in the average number of sales per surveyor branch to 15.4 in the three months to the end of November, compared to 15 a month earlier. This was the highest level since last September. Read more of this post
December 13, 2011 Leave a comment
Noel Edmonds’ property dispute with old friend and business partner Ulrik Lawson has lead to a big fine from the High Court.
TV presenter Noel Edmonds must pay Ulrik Lawson £150,000 in damages, as well as half of Lawson’s £350,000 legal bill and his own costs of half a million pounds.
The decision for this fine was made by Judge David Wilcox who disregarded Edmonds’ assertion of £370,000 over a property deal gone wrong.
In 2006 the two friends had bought a large property in South Tawton, Devon worth £2.1million and had intended to build 26 properties on the site. The property was in Edmonds’ name and while both invested £300,000 each, there was also £1.6m put in by private bankers. Read more of this post
I am Lisa, a freelance journalist with a passion for everything about property, from selling houses to interior decoration and furniture.
Read more about me...
Contact me: lisa [at] propertymarketupdate.co.uk
