Weekly Property Newsletter - Week Ending 21/02/16
- Victoria Wilson (Marketing & Comms)
- Feb 22, 2016
- 4 min read
Our weekly newsletter on the property market will keep you up to date with all the latest news and legislations!
Our newsletter is published every week reporting on the most important news over the past week.
Buyers in ‘race against time’ to complete purchases by midnight March 31
Thursday 18th February
With the Stamp Duty changes just six weeks away, landlords and second-home buyers are in a rush to complete their purchases, with agents and lenders reporting a surge of panic buying.
Despite the surge, many buyers will miss the April 1st deadline, with buy-to-let lender Keystone saying that it is already too late.
It said that last Friday, February 12, was the latest it would take an application and expect it to be finished by the end of March.
Michael Holliday, Investment Manager at Residential Estates said that "with the deadline being just over a month away, there is great time pressure for everyone involved in the process, especially with Easter weekend to consider as it falls just before the deadline!"
New bid to make Client Money Protection compulsory for all letting agents
Thursday 18th February
Two Labour peers have tabled an amendment to the Housing and Planning Bill, which would ban letting agents from taking money from tenants unless they have Client Money Protection insurance.
Agents would also have to issue a certificate certifying that they do have CMP.
Baroness Hayter and Lord Kennedy are behind the amendment, which has the full support of Labour.
An earlier attempt to introduce the amendment in the Commons was over-turned by the Government after opposition by housing minister Brandon Lewis.
Agents who feel strongly that there should be mandatory Client Money Protection can lobby members of the House of Lords – the link below tells you who they are and what party they belong to. Clicking on individual names reveals email addresses.
Shock as Countrywide sells almost half its stake in Zoopla
Tuesday 16th February
Countrywide has sold almost half its shares in Zoopla.
This morning Zoopla announced to the stock exchange its investments, altogether £1m, in four proptech start-ups.
The UK’s largest property chain has sold 8,659,302 shares in the portal business for a price of 220p per share.
The announcement was made after close of stock market trading yesterday.
Gross proceeds realised by Countrywide will be £19.1m.
According to the statement to the City, Countrywide has a long-term strategic partnership with Zoopla. Countrywide said it will continue to work closely with Zoopla in the future.
Yesterday, it was announced that Countrywide led a deal with Connells and Zoopla to invest in proptech firm Fixflo.
First-time buyers outnumbering buy-to-let purchasers by three to one
Wednesday 17th February
There were 311,700 mortgages issued to first-time buyers last year. While the figure was the same as 2014, the amount borrowed – £46.7bn – was the highest since 2007.
Home movers took out 365,800 loans for house purchase, which is a slight decrease of 0.2% on 2014. Again, though, the amount, at £72.1bn, was the highest since 2007.
Buy-to-let lending rose by both volume (up by 28%) and by value (up 39%), and that too was at its highest since 2007.
Despite the rise in buy-to-let lending, last year first-time buyers outnumbered buy-to-let purchasers with mortgages by three to one.
Only 41% of buy-to-let mortgages were for house purchase, a total of £15.6bn.
Steve Povall, Managing Director of Residential Estates said "We can see from the data that the majority of buy-to-let lending was from re-mortgaging, which is a common practice by buy-to-let borrowers."
Agents will not have to report rejected tenants found to be illegal immigrants
Tuesday 16th February
With Right to Rent having been rolled out across England on February 1st, a new Commons briefing paper has highlighted that any agent or landlord who vets a prospective tenant and finds that they are an illegal immigrant does not have to report them, as long as they do not allow that person to rent.
Right to Rent currently carries civil penalties, but the newer Immigration Bill plans to turn these into criminal penalties with stiff fines and possible jail for agents and landlords.
The new briefing paper to MPs says: “With regards to new tenants, landlords are under no obligation to report an applicant with no Right to Rent to the Home Office, provided they do not allow them to occupy the property.”
While that sentence refers to landlords, the paper also makes clear that landlords can transfer their Right to Rent checks to agents, as long as it is done in writing.
David Gascoyne, Sales and Lettings Manager of Residential Estates said that "it appears that illegal immigrants will be able to move between lettings agents and landlords, which runs the risk of the illegal immigrant being offered accommodation sooner or later."
Further falls forecast in home ownership as private rental sector grows over next decade
Tuesday 16th February
Within the first 25 years of this century, home ownership will have fallen 9.5% across the UK, and private renting will have gone up 14.5%.
The forecast, which could have major implications in terms of forward planning for the agency sector, comes from business group PwC (PricewaterhouseCooper).
It says that home ownership stood at 69% in 2000 and by 2014 it had dropped to an estimated 61.5%, and by 2025 it will have fallen further to 59.5%.
Of private renting levels, in 2000, 9.4% of households were renting; by 2014 the proportion had risen to 19.9%; and by 2025 the proportion will be 23.9%.
According to PwC, all regions and countries within the UK are expected to experience falling levels of home ownership and rising levels of private renting over the next ten years.
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