“House-hunters shouldn’t be disheartened over end of stamp duty holiday”

‘Building Futures’ attempt to block proposed Tory planning policy

Private sector development drives commercial property rebound

Unauthorised sub tenants cases on the rise

The UK’s most expensive street has an average property price of £5.4m

Despite the Government’s decision to end the stamp duty holiday, first-time buyers should not be too disheartened, according to Seddon Homes’ Denis Maddock.

Maddock believes that there are currently enough incentives for buyers to ease the impact of Chancellor Alistair Darling’s decision to revert to the lower £125,000 Stamp Duty threshold on January.

Maddock said: "The fact is that a large sector of home-seekers were trapped in the tax net, despite the so called 'Stamp-duty' holiday. Most movement in the market which statisticians had credited to the raised tax threshold was in fact the result of incentives offered by builders and property developers, all designed to make it easier to buy in these difficult economic times."

As the UK is still in mid-recession, many property market representatives had lobbied the Chancellor to allow the lower rate to continue until at least the end of 2010. The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), the Building Societies' Association (BSA), and the Home Builders Federation (HBF) were among key organisations which had pressured him to extend the holiday.

However, their pleas were ignored as he continued with his original plan, bringing the threshold back down to £125,000. Subsequently anyone who purchases a house in 2010 will have to find an extra 1% on top of the asking price to give to the taxman.

Maddock also pointed out that many buyers would not have escaped the Stamp Duty net, even if the threshold had been maintained at the higher level of £175,000 as according to property website Rightmove, home owners increased average asking prices for properties to £221,463 in 2009.

He said: "If Stamp Duty were raised even higher than £175,000 then fewer people would be subject to the tax and that might have some real impact, making it less expensive for house-hunters to buy and therefore spurring on the market. But in the current situation the lower threshold is not the crunch factor facing buyers. That is the ability to obtain mortgages."

‘Building Futures’ attempt to block proposed Tory planning policy

A group including developer Land Securities and house-builder Countryside Properties has vowed to rally against proposed Conservative planning policies.

The ‘Building Futures’ group is intending to provide evidence that will support its fears that the proposed changes will enable Nimbys (Not in my back yard) to effectively take control of planning polices to the detriment of the construction industry.

National planning targets are to be scrapped by the Tory party with housing numbers handed over to local councils. Because of this, the developers are concerned that the councils are more influenced by grass-roots anti-development campaigns.

Emma Cariaga, head of strategic projects at Land Securities, told The Sunday Times: “We want applications to be treated fairly and judged on merit, not on the basis of instincts or political whims. Weakness in the planning system will threaten economic recovery.”

Private sector development drives commercial property rebound

A survey by Savills has revealed that there was a moderate expansion of overall commercial activity in December 2009, extending the current period of growth to five months.

There was a +23% rise in activity, according to some commercial developers, as expectations were linked to an increase in forthcoming work on new projects and anticipated improvements in economic conditions, however 19% stated a fall.

Private sector development underpinned the expansion reported in December as it increased by +12%, but public sector activity fell even further as it dropped -13.3%.

Mat Oakley, head of Savills' commercial research department said: "As vacancy rates begin to show signs of peaking in some markets, it is clear from this month's survey that developers' optimism is remaining resilient. There are still risks to be faced in 2010 but we are definitely past the worst."

According to the survey, developers are most optimistic about retail and leisure development in the Q1 2010 at 14.3%, a +1.3% increase on November 2009, whilst only 4.2% believe that the office sector outlook is positive, a decrease of -3.2%.

Unauthorised sub tenants cases on the rise

Over the course of 2009 there was an increase of +15% in cases of overcrowding, according to Landlord Action, with more cases in London than the rest of the UK, which it believes is a direct result of the recession.

Paul Shamplina, Landlord Action’s director, said: “The most common cases appear to be organised gangs looking for an easy money making scam. They take out a tenancy and then sublet to multiple occupants. The worst case we have dealt with was a three-bedroom, one bathroom, semi-detached house in North London which was found to have had 53 occupants, all illegal immigrants. There were mattresses literally littering the floors from wall to wall in every available space. The sanitation issues were stretched to say the least.

“Another case was of a lady who had a lovely two bedroom flat in Victoria. Her tenant paid six months up front but she later discovered that 18 sets of bunk beds had been put into her property and it was being used as a youth hostel. A website in China was offering students visiting London accommodation at £20 per night.”

Shamplina recommends that landlords ensure they have a good relationship with neighbours and caretakers so they can be apprised of any such behaviour. With most cases being reported by vigilant observers having complained about noise levels, or the property falling into disrepair due to excess occupants. The local police generally are not inclined to get involved, often classing it as a civil matter.

Shamplina said: “If a landlord suspects subletting is happening in the property, whilst I would advise that the sub tenants are spoken to directly to clarify the situation as they may well be unaware of the circumstances themselves, a landlord should never accept payment direct from this source as this would be seen to be giving them authority to be in residence. I would suggest that, if they are happy for them to remain, they cut out the middle man by going through the proper procedures to have the tenancy negated, then draw up a new tenancy for each resident. Under no circumstances should they accept payment of rent until the matter is sorted.”

The UK’s most expensive street has an average property price of £5.4m

According to a report from Halifax, Wycombe Square in London is the most expensive street in the UK.

Located in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea it has an average property price of £5.4m.

Of the top ten cities, all but one is situated in Greater London, and the other is situated north of the river. Outside the capital the most expensive area was Moles Hill in Leatherhead, Surrey with an average property price of £2.6m.

Nitesh Patel, housing economist at Halifax, said: "Kensington and Chelsea has long had a global appeal, but the fall in the value of sterling has helped to attract foreign buyers over the past year despite the worldwide economic recession.

"Across most regions, the survey shows that the most expensive streets are tightly clustered within the same area."

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