Zoopla property news
Latest property news
Mortgage approvals reach highest rate since 2007
Mortgage approvals rose above 80,000 in January 2014 to reach their highest level in six-and-a-half years. Total mortgage lending of £10.8 billion was up 38 per cent year-on-year and 49,972 loans were secured for new house purchases alone in the first month of the year, new figures from the British Bankers' Association (BBA) show. The buoyant lending market ...
1 hour ago
What's going on in the private rented sector?
The private rented sector has played an increasingly important role in the UK in the past few years. With mortgage lending restrained during the economic downturn, many people have been forced to rent for longer than they initially planned to. The sector now accounts for almost 16.5 per cent of all households, or nearly 3.8 million homes, in England alone. Recent research ...
18 hours ago
Property news archive
London buyer make-up differs greatly from rest of UK
The two speed market between London and the rest of the UK when it comes to foreign home ownership is increasing. Almost 44 per cent of buyers in London in 2013 were from abroad, but this figure drops to just five per cent for the country as a whole, the latest quarterly report from Strutt & Parker shows. In terms of prices, buyers and growth, London continues to ...
23 hours ago
3,000 self-builders to benefit from levy exemption
Up to 3,000 previously mothballed self-build properties will get back underway after a levy exemption was introduced. Self-builders used to have to pay a community infrastructure levy, which could have been as high as £15,000 if a four-bedroom house was being constructed. However, in an effort to boost housing stock and encourage more people to undertake their own ...
25th Feb 2014
London landlords 'enjoy bumper rental returns'
Landlords in London have seen annual total returns increase to 14.6 per cent in the year to January 2014. It represents an average return of £38,104 per property in the capital, which is more than five times the returns recorded in both the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber, LSL Property Services reveals. Across England and Wales, average returns were ...
24th Feb 2014
Build more houses in villages to meet demand, Royal urges
Additional homes should be built in existing villages rather than developing new towns, the Princess Royal has stated. The UK needs to build 240,000 affordable homes and Princess Anne has questioned the wisdom of creating garden cities. Instead, she thinks between six and 12 new homes could be added to villages throughout the country to deal with the lack of supply. ...
24th Feb 2014
Homeowners 'buoyant' about future house prices
Householders are feeling increasingly confident about the current and future value of their properties. Sentiment reached a record high in February and people from all regions expect the value of their homes to increase in the coming 12 months, according to the latest House Price Sentiment Index from Knight Frank and Markit. More than one in four homeowners ...
24th Feb 2014
Cash buyers 'fueling mortgage market'
Around four in ten property purchases in 2013 were completed by cash buyers as mortgage lending plays a less prominent role in the housing market. The proportion of home purchases funded by mortgages dropped to 62 per cent last year, according to analysis by the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (Imla). At its peak in 2006, this figure stood at 76 per cent and this ...
21st Feb 2014
Damp tops list of homebuyers turn-offs
Almost three-quarters of house hunters would be put off a property if it has damp patches on the walls and ceilings. For 63 per cent, signs of disrepair, such as rotten windows, are also a big no-no, according to research by Gocompare.com. Homebuyers were asked about their major turn-offs and no garden (57 per cent), lingering bad smells (56 per cent) and no ...
21st Feb 2014
Brownfield sites sale to bring 68,000 new homes to market
Enough brownfield land has been released by the government to build 68,000 new homes in an effort to inject supply into the market. It means the coalition is on course to reach its own target of developing enough land for 100,000 houses by 2015. So far 430 sites have been sold across the country and more than 135,000 jobs will be supported by the project as the government ...
21st Feb 2014