Despite warnings of a fall in transaction volumes and a slump in Stamp Duty receipts the latest numbers published by HMRC show a 16% rise in tax take to £9.5bn and an increase in the number of homes sold between £1m-£2m. Even for sales of homes over £2m there hasn’tContinue Reading

Bovis Homes provide a trading update following a challenging 2017 with quality issues and Boardroom changes. Are they really making the most of the massive tailwind that comes from Government demands for more houses, action to simplify planning and the assistance that their consumers are getting from controversial Help toContinue Reading

My comments to BBC London’s Vanessa Feltz on house prices in and around the Capital. [wpdevart_youtube width=”640″ height=”385″ autoplay=”0″ theme=”light” loop_video=”0″ enable_fullscreen=”1″ show_related=”1″ show_popup=”0″ thumb_popup_width=”213″ thumb_popup_height=”128″ show_title=”1″ show_youtube_icon=”1″ show_annotations=”1″ show_progress_bar_color=”red” autohide_parameters=”1″ set_initial_volume=”false” initial_volume=”100″ disable_keyboard=”0″]X2FF-PNE6LI[/wpdevart_youtube]Continue Reading

To Manchester to discuss the Governments rather strange decision to launch an 8 week consultation on a Sunday into the process of buying and selling a home with contributions from Dipti Tait, a first time buyer and Paula Higgins from The Home Owners Alliance. Two ‘hits’ mean that there wasContinue Reading

In interesting survey from mortgage lender First Direct has found that the typical home buyer spends just 30 minutes at a property before making a bid. Basic details are not checked like the service history of the boiler leading to additional costs once they have bought. The survey suggests thatContinue Reading

Frustrated Marco Nardi has had to reduce his asking price for his Kensington home by £1m. What does this mean for the wider market asks the lovely Shari Vahl on You & Yours and for those renting too? Marco’s home was on the market first with Chesterton at £4.75m butContinue Reading

After much hard work and pressure from the likes of Sebastian o’Kelly and others the scandal of leasehold houses and the abuse of the system has caught the public attention. Speeches by Peter Bottomley in the House of Commons and newspaper articles have all shown the worst excesses and thereContinue Reading

It was a slow New Year when the FT filled a valuable space on page 3 with my musings on the state of the market that led to my first interview in January 2007 on the Today program. Through the Credit Crunch, the coalition Government, three General Elections, Autumn Statements,Continue Reading

Writing in The Times yesterday Tom Knowles pondered the state of the housing market as we head into the Election next week. He was kind enough to include a comment from me as well as some reaction from the likes of Johnny Morris, head of research at Countrywide and Bricks &Continue Reading

Research published this weekend has shown that 4000 households using Help to Buy earned over £100,000 and that some 20,000 were not first time buyers. This follows some more detailed work undertaken by BBC News itself in February which showed that just 10 homes had been purchased in Hammersmith &Continue Reading