House prices continue to rise 🚀

16th February: House prices on the up again according to latest research from Rightmove 📈

✅ Demand from buyers growing, despite being too late to take advantage of the SDLT holiday which ends 31st March 🕔
✅ Number of buyers contacting Agents is up 18% compared to this time last year 👨👩
✅ Website visits up a staggering 45%! 💹
✅ Buyer demand is outstripping supply 📊
✅ Asking prices up £1,500+ compared to last month, first increase for 4 months 🏆

As for the conveyancing log-jam... 🍬

ℹ UNBELIEVABLE 👀! 1 in 5 buyers who agreed their sale when the SDLT holiday was first announced six months ago are still stuck in 'paperwork traffic' 🚥
ℹ DOUBLE UNBELIEVABLE 👀👀!! 100,000 buyers who agreed a purchase before Xmas 🎄 may fail to complete by the SDLT deadline ☠

And a quick word on stock levels... 🏡🏡🏡

❌ There isn’t as much choice, new listings down 21% annually - home-schooling taking a priority over home-selling 🚸

💬 Timothy Bannister, data expert at Rightmove on why there are good reasons to come to market now: “There are more possible buyers looking and fewer suitable alternatives. An early start will help to get you sold, moved, and settled in before the new school year" 🥇

Download the full Rightmove House Price Index here.

£3.5bn investment towards Cladding Crisis 🏢

10th February: £3.5 billion "Largest-ever" investment announced to remove unsafe cladding from all buildings at no (or limited) cost to leaseholders ⛑

The cladding crisis is leaving many in buildings that are not fire safe and even more people in flats that are unsellable 🚫

Announcements made as follows:

✅ Leaseholders of buildings above 18 metres (around 6 storeys) will bear no costs in order to make them safe.
✅ 4-6 storeys will not pay more than £50 a month in order to remove unsafe cladding
✅ Funding and financial certainty
✅ Developers to pay through new tax raising an estimated £2bn over 10 years
✅ Training more people to assess fire safety

ℹ There are 100,000 buildings 11m+
ℹ 10,000 of these are 18m+ (approximately 6 storeys and above)
ℹ There is a 4 x greater risk of fire fatality in 18m+ blocks
ℹ Combined total investment from the Government is £5bn

11th February: Incredible admission by Robert Jenrick on BBC Radio 4 - "Shoddy practices amongst builders and developers, allegations of dishonesty and fraud from construction manufacturers and the regulatory regime has been weak" 📻

So, if the state recognising its done its job badly by inducing people to buy places that are not fit 👎:

❓ Why now distinguish between cladding and the other fire defects such as balconies, insulation, inadequate fire breaks etc 🤔
❓ Why ask thousands of leaseholders to pay anything at all
ℹ In buildings above 18 metres they may still face ruinous costs of fixing non-cladding defects 🧯
ℹ In tens of thousands of buildings less than 18 metres they have been told they will pay 100% of the costs of fixing others’ mistakes 😤
❓ Why not allocate funds to remove all fire defects irrespective of block height 🏢
💰 A loan scheme = more financial burden = de-valued property = extremely difficult to sell 👎

📢 In summary, taxpayers and leaseholders are left to foot the bill for billions while the largest developers – who have made over £10bn in profit since Grenfell – are let off lightly 👩‍⚖️

Full BBC Radio 4 interview: 32m 30s into this podcast 🎧

SDLT Holiday - Our Solution

17th February: According to The Daily Telegraph, an unnamed Government source claims Rishi Sunak may extend the 31st March deadline by six weeks... So, what would that mean for the Property Market? 🏡 And, is it the best course of action? 🤷‍♂️

According to HM Revenue & Customs and Rightmove... If this date was pushed back 6 weeks, we would expect to see 👀:

✅ Between 120,000 and 160,000 extra property transactions could benefit from the tax saving totalling an eye-watering £1bn 💰

✅ The extension would also mean the vast majority of sales that were agreed by the end of 2020 would complete in time to save on stamp duty 🏁

ℹ There are around 412,000 sales still currently in the legal process that were agreed last year 🗺

📢 Our view on this still stands... Extending is not the answer! 🙅‍♀️

The best way to bring the SDLT holiday to an end would be by gradually re-introducing the tax over a 3 month period:

Month 1 = pay 25% SDLT 💰
Month 2 = pay 50% SDLT 💰💰
Month 3 = pay 75% SDLT 💰💰💰
After Month 3 = pay 100% SDLT 💰💰💰💰

This would do away with the dreaded sheer-drop 😎, make things a little fairer 👨‍⚖️ and will go a long way in reducing the chance of aborted sales 🏠

Latest investment opportunity

🥇 Ideal investment 6.4% gross yield
🥇 Current rent £600 per month
🥇 Tenanted until September 2021
🥇 1 bedroom apartment with balcony
🥇 Exposed brick and high ceilings

📢 Guide price | £112,000 ✅
For more ℹ | Click here

If you would like to discuss any of these articles in more detail 🔍 or have any questions ❓❔...

Please get in touch, we would love to hear from you ☎📧🗨

Sincerest regards, Ali 😊