Category Archives: Property Insurance

Social Housing to Be Sold?

Posted on 22nd August 2012

 
The government has announced plans to sell social housing in more expensive areas, and re-invest the money raised to build new social homes in cheaper areas. The plans come on the back of a report from think tank the Policy Exchange, that showed that one in five social housing tenants is living in a home worth more than the average privately owned property in the local authority in which they stand.
Proposal
The report recommends that as properties become vacant, they should be sold. At current vacancy […]

Property Prices Near Premier League Football Stadiums

Posted on 20th August 2012

 
As the football season started over the weekend we thought it would be the perfect time to report on the effects that football stadiums are having on the properties surrounding them.
It turns out, over the last ten years, property owners that have the same post code as premier league football stadiums have seen their property’s value more than double. This is according to research that was carried out by Halifax.
The average price of a house that surrounds a football stadium is now 137 per cent […]

Profits Expected in the Rental Market

Posted on 10th August 2012

 
According to two reports, buy to let investors will make a steady return on their investments over the next 13 years. This is a result of rising rental prices and that house prices are recovering which is boosting the property market.
Rental Market
Over the last year rental price have increased by 4.3 per cent and they don’t look to be slowing down. This is a result of mortgages not being widely available and that there is not much new stock on the market of a high […]

New Lower Rate Mortgages Start Lending War

Posted on 25th July 2012

 
Banks and building societies are lowering their mortgage rates which should help the current situation on the property market.
New Rates
The banks and building societies are about to enter into a lending war as many are slashing rates so they are more competitive. HSBC has the lowest rate of all the banks and also the lowest ever five year fixed rate at just 2.99 per cent. Santander have matched this rate, however, it is only available to their existing customers that hold current accounts. Royal Bank […]

Gas Safety is a Landlords Responsibility

Posted on 18th July 2012

 
As a Landlord you have many responsibilities towards the tenant and the property. This may mean that a few are forgotten by mistake but they could become very costly. This is what the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham has found out recently. One of the duties as a landlord is to make sure all gas appliances are regularly serviced to check that they are safe to use; however, this local authority forgot to do so.
Legal Obligation
By law, landlords are required to have a safety […]

Mortgage Changes Across the Country

Posted on 4th July 2012

 
Clydesdale Bank has released a new report that shows that a high percentage of homeowners around the UK have to re-evaluate their finances due to the current economic climate. As a result, according to the research, one in ten is considering remortgaging, paying off their mortgage or making over payments to their mortgage over the course of the next 12 months.
Specific Areas
The figures that have come from the report show that the people who are living in the Midlands are the most likely across the […]

Buying Versus Renting

Posted on 2nd July 2012

 
If we are lucky enough most of us will be able to buy a home, for others though this idea is a distant dream even though in the long run it could be a money saver.
Substantial Savings
In a recent report from Barclays it showed that, in a lifetime, getting onto the property ladder is much more beneficial that renting a property. By making a purchase this could save around £200,000 over the course of a lifetime.
This is based on a mortgage over 50 years and […]

The Friday Five – Home Renovation TV Programmes

Posted on 29th June 2012

The Friday Five – Home Renovation TV Programmes
For those of us who can’t get enough of daytime TV, most have probably seen every home renovation programme out there. So, this week we are looking at our five favourite property makeover shows. The Friday Five will list the shows from our lease favourite to the very best. We all know the simplest of jobs can often turn into a DIY nightmare that our families will never let us live down and it’s a wonder whether the […]

Overseas Investors Put off from Buying Prime Property

Posted on 27th June 2012

 
Compared to the rest of the market, prime property hasn’t really been affected by the current stagnation the rest of the market is experiencing. However, this may all be about to change, according to new research from Savills.
Prime Property
Savills specialise in high end property transactions and they have predicted that there will be a decline in the amount of sales and that it will become steady in the next 18 months. This is because within the last year from June 2011 property prices have only […]

Six Year Battle sees British Expats Reunited with their Money

Posted on 20th June 2012

 
47 expats, together known as the Finca Parc Action Group, have won their six year battle to get back their deposits they put down on a “luxury development” near Murcia, Spain. Each expat put down between €10,000 and €70,000 for a new home promised to them by a developer that suddenly disappeared and a bank that withheld their deposits after his happened.
What Happened?
Keith Rule had put down a deposit of €53,000 and led the other 46 people in action to fight for their money back. […]