The government has announced plans to build thousands of starter homes on brownfield sites across the country. They will be built exclusively for first-time buyers between 23 and 40 years old and sold at a discount of at least 20% below market value. The scheme will be run by the Homes and Communities agency in
The government has announced a series of wide-ranging measures to reform the housing market and provide more homes for people to buy or rent. The measures are designed to help local authorities, developers and small builders to increase the housing stock by reducing obstacles that delay or even prevent developments going ahead. It’s hoped they
The government has announced plans to provide £7 billion to expand its affordable housing programme. Housing providers can now apply for a share of the fund, which was allocated an additional £1.4 billion in the Autumn Statement, to deliver 40,000 new affordable houses across the country. Alongside this extra funding, the government is expanding the
House prices in the UK rose by 6.9% in the year to October, according to the latest official figures from the Land Registry. However, the number of sales dropped by 8% over the same period. The price of the average property is now £216,674. In England, the October data showed an annual price increase of
The latest government figures show that more than 220,000 people have now used the various Help to Buy schemes to purchase a new home. More than 180,000 of them are first time buyers. The average house price across the schemes is £191,000, showing that it is those buying smaller properties who are benefiting most. There
The Autumn Statement by Chancellor Philip Hammond set out a series of measures to boost house building and provide more homes. The government plans to invest more than £7 billion, which will effectively double the capital spending on housing over the course of this parliament. The latest official figures show that housebuilding is at its
New proposals have been put forward to streamline and speed up the process of buying and selling a home. The new ideas are contained in a discussion document called Modernising the Home Moving Process, which has been drawn up by the Conveyancing Association. The White Paper focuses particularly on the benefits to be gained from
Improving the home buying process in England and Wales was identified as a priority by the Conveyancing Association, which represents some 50 conveyancing firms. The idea is to push towards electronic conveyancing. E-conveyancing has already been successfully implemented in Australia. The Conveyancing Association also propose the use of ‘skinny electronic home reports’. This will be
When family members buy a property together it is advisable to draw up documents outlining the extent of each person’s share, together with their rights and responsibilities. Failure to do so can lead to disputes as occurred in a recent case before the Court of Appeal. It involved a father and son who decided to
Housing association tenants have started buying their homes at discounted prices under the Right to Buy scheme now being piloted in selected areas. The scheme was previously only available to council house tenants but has now been extended to include the 1.3 million housing association tenants across England. Discounts under the Right to Buy scheme