Happy Friday!
Weekly Summary 17th July 2020
No different this week…. Lots of news… lots of noise and lots of varying opinions… phew
First Time Buyers (FTB) Lose their Advantage
With the recent ‘temporary’ cut in SDLT, the head start FTB had of up to £300,000 no SDLT has been obliterated… as it is now available to all Home Buyers. In addition, for the rest of the country London and the south east will be the major beneficiaries with home buyers in the North East feeling little or no benefit due to the average house price… Ho Hum… no change there then!
A boom in the number of searches for Mortgage finance
An interesting ‘up-tick’ in the number of folk looking for Mortgage Finance… with Buy-to-Let enquiries being one of the players… there has been an increase in the number of BTL products available and lenders seem to be pro this business for a change!
Not Available to DSS tenants! This can NO LONGER be stated or imposed
The rules are catching up. Up to now, Landlords could state on their rental adverts exactly what they ‘did not want’ such as DSS tenants, they can obviously continue to choose… but from now they cannot state this indirect discrimination in their advertising … driven by Shelter all the way through the courts and quoting the equality act 2010
Asking Prices for property increased in June
The biggest monthly rise in 6 years has been muted by an index provider… indicating in my view, that sellers are trying their arm during the SDLT holiday.. however the number of new properties instructed is still lower than June 2019.. this is not going to be a smooth 12 month in any direction!
REMARKABLE (?) figures announced by Knight Frank
A description of ‘bounced back with vengeance’ does not convince me I am afraid. These are national figures; are still heavily swayed by London and any traction this demonstrates could still be short-lived. I do not want to be a doom-monger as I know we will come through this and property life will go on, but all of the research and data at the moment can be one persons’ celebration and anothers’ disaster… now is the time to stay focused on what is the right data for you
