A group of property companies that colluded to set commissions at excessive rates throughout Berkshire has been stopped and collectively fined greater than £600,000. The property brokers, which dealt with most property gross sales in Wokingham and different components of Berkshire, conspired to maintain commissions at charges understood to be above 1.8% on every home sale, and even arrange a penalty...
Can I buy a home off plan? Yes, you are able to reserve a new home off plan at any time. However, you cannot exchange contracts before six months to legal completion of the sale. You also need to ensure that your mortgage offer is valid through to legal completion. Will I have to pay Stamp Duty? The Government’s standard rules and procedures for Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) apply to all Help to Buy...
If you are saving to buy your first home, save money into a Help to Buy: ISA and the Government will boost your savings by 25%. So, for every £200 you save, receive a government bonus of £50. The maximum government bonus you can receive is £3,000. Application The Help to Buy: ISA is available from a range of banks, building societies, and credit unions. The accounts are available to each...
Currently the Government’s Help to Buy initiative has two key elements – the Equity Loan and Help to Buy: ISA. Find out how these schemes can help you move. Help to Buy The Help to Buy - Equity Loan is a Government-backed scheme exclusive to new build homes. It was set up by the Government in 2013 and has already helped thousands to make their move onto or up the property ladder. The idea...
Spotting a chance to generate income, institutional investors such as pension funds have taken to developing blocks of professionally run rental homes across the UK to compete with the part-time landlords who have traditionally dominated the country’s £1tn rental sector. While politicians have broadly welcomed the prospect of greater institutional ownership in the private rental market, other people...
This is an issue, of which some may not be aware, which may affect your ability to sell or mortgage your property until you have been registered as its owner for at least six months. As a result of mortgage lenders suffering losses in the past, most lenders will not now permit new borrowing against a property until the owner has been registered at the Land Registry for 6 months. So if you are...
Price growth of the average detached house rose at the highest rate last year, overtaking terraced homes for the first time in 10 years. Analysis of Land Registry data by Savills found that in England and Wales, excluding London, the average sale price of a detached home increased by 4.8pc to £388,926. By comparison, terraces rose by just 1.5pc in 2017, but have risen in price by 29pc since 2007....
Everyone – from the government, to housing charities, to housebuilders – has bought into the conventional wisdom that the dysfunction that racks our housing market is a matter of demand and supply. We’re not building enough houses, so house prices have been sent rocketing, taking home-ownership out of reach for growing numbers of young people. But in reality, our housing problems are not a simple...
Theresa May will set out a timetable to break the secrecy surrounding the foreign ownership of British property worth billions after facing a House of Lords defeat at the hands of two Conservative peers. Lord Faulks, a former Tory justice minister, and Lord Hodgson have been calling on the government to establish a register exposing the beneficial owners of overseas companies and legal entities, and...
Builders are to be banned by the government from selling houses as leasehold in England and ground rents on flats could be cut to zero following widespread outrage over exploitative contracts. In a blow for major housebuilders such as Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon, the communities secretary, Sajid Javid, will set out plans on Tuesday to “ban new-build houses being sold as leasehold as well as...