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
House prices in England and Wales rose by 8.7% in the year to June, according to the latest figures in the UK House Price Index provided by the Land Registry. The monthly increase from May was 1.0% taking the price of the average house in the UK to £213,927. In England, the June data showed
More than half a million people in the UK have opened Help to Buy ISAs within a period of only six months, according to the latest government figures. The saving-friendly ISAs became available in December 2015 and are very attractive to first time buyers because the government has agreed to add a 25% bonus to
House prices across the UK rose by 8.2% in the year to April, bringing the value of an average property to £209,054. On a monthly basis, prices rose by an average 0.6% between March and April. Looking at England alone, there was annual price increase of 9.1%, which takes the average property value to £224,731.
Changes to the shared ownership rules could help an extra 175,000 people on to the housing ladder, according to the government. Shared ownership allows people to ease their way into the property market by purchasing a share in their home rather than having to pay the full amount. They only have to a find a
The changes to stamp duty have saved homebuyers £657m in just over a year, according to the latest government figures. More than 780,000 people have benefited across England and Wales. The changes, which came into effect in December 2014, introduced more gradual increases in stamp duty rates. Under the previous system, the duty was a