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The average home in Britain increased in value by £15,191 over 2014, equivalent to £42 a day, according to property website Zoopla. Average property prices across the country have risen by an average of 6% over the past year to £268,895. However, the majority of house price growth was seen in the first half of the year, with prices having only risen by 1.4% since June. London has continued to lead with average property values growing by 15%, an increase of £81,619 over the last 12 months. The South East

The combined cost of buy to let (BTL) mortgage repayments in the last 12 months is £21.9bn, according to the UK’s the National Landlords Association (NLA). Approximately one million landlords in the UK have some form of BTL borrowing, with the average cost of their mortgage repayments in the last year £20,950. These figures, which exclude upfront deposits of typically 25 per cent of property value, emerge shortly after the Bank of England announced a high of £8bn of BTL lending in quarter three of 2014.

Sixty-nine per cent of MPs believe additional higher-rate council tax bands would be a better way to reform annual property taxes on high-value homes than introducing a mansion tax. That’s according to a poll commissioned by the British Property Federation (BPF), which revealed that 39% of Labour MPs surveyed favour additional higher-rate council tax bands over a mansion tax. Just over half (56%) thought a mansion tax would be preferable. The majority (89%) of Liberal Democrat MPs surveyed also prefer a

The Deposit Protection Service (DPS) is encouraging landlords and tenants to submit evidence on time during tenancy disputes after figures revealed that large numbers failed to do so during 2014. The DPS says that 17.63% of landlords required to submit evidence after agreeing to dispute resolution either missed their deadline or sent in nothing during 2014, meaning an automatic ruling or pay out for the tenant. Meanwhile the figure was higher for tenants, at 22.86%. Alexandra Coghlan-Forbes, Head of Adj

QUESTION  We are residents [leasehold owners] of a flat. We have had a leakage problem from the exterior walls for more than a year. The water seeps into the interior walls and ceiling causing the walls to be damp when it rains. This leads to lots of mould on the walls. The Managing Agent emailed us on 11 Dec 2013 to say the external work was completed. When we checked, we saw a tiny fraction of the wall was patched up, and only on one side. In January 2014, the Managing Agent called in a surveyor who

QUESTION Am I correct in saying that a management company, such as ourselves, does not have to consult flat owners in relation to discrete set of works even if the cost per flat owner is more than £250 if either: 1. The work to be carried out is governed by the lease such as a repairing lease (e.g. external repainting of the flat complex every five years, as is the case with our company), or 2. The cost of the work carried out is paid for from the management company's reserves which have been built up

QUESTION I live in a block where I had a leak from the flat roof due to the chutes. My blinds and Persian carpet were damaged and I need to know if I can hold the directors responsible as they have known about this problem for a long time now. ANSWER Although you have advised the directors of the problems this in itself does not necessarily mean you can successfully claim against them for failing to resolve the issue. As directors they are responsible to all members of the residents association, if the

Caxtons, Residential Management Group (RMG) and Braemar Estates are among the latest managing agents to achieve ARMA-Q accreditation. ARMA-Q is designed to raise standards and quality of service across the residential leasehold management sector. To gain accreditation, managing agents must demonstrate that they comply with more than 160 rigorous industry standards, and it is only awarded to companies that meet top standards and levels of customer care. Despite collecting over a billion pounds in service

Specialist blocks of flats insurance broker Deacon, part of the Arthur J. Gallagher group, has created DEACONlink, its first online quote and buy website for smaller blocks of up to 20 flats. DEACONlink aims to dispense with the often time-consuming need to make multiple phone calls or trawl several websites to get quotes. Quotes can often be obtained within as little as five minutes, and Deacon is also authorised to issue policy documents and process claims on behalf of some insurers. DEACONlink polici

Lending to borrowers with deposits worth 15% or less of their property’s value showed a 5% month-on-month increase in December. There were 8,370 loan approvals made for higher LTV borrowers (typically first-time buyers), representing a 0.9% year-on-year improvement compared to 8,294 in December 2013. As a proportion of total home purchase approvals, the number of borrowers in the higher LTV bracket has risen slightly month-on-month to 13.59% from November (13.5%). Despite this, they still have not return

There were nearly 34,000 fewer home purchase mortgage approvals in the second half of 2014 than the first half as the lending recovery stalled following regulatory change, according to the latest Mortgage Monitor from e.surv. In total, there were 370,184 house purchase approvals in H2, 2014 – a fall of 8.1% from the H1 2013 when there were 402,808 approvals, and an even larger decrease of 8.4% from 404,058 in H1 2014. Total house purchase lending for December stood at 60,217, a 16.6% year-on-year fall fr

The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015 took place in Las Vegas last month, offering a glimpse of some of the technology that could soon be making people’s lives easier around the home. Among the exhibits was the Eve Room from Elgato, which gathers data on air quality, temperature, humidity, air pressure, energy and water consumption in your home. There were smartphone-controlled lightbulbs which also act as security cameras, extend Wi-Fi signals and even play music, and sensors for detect