Direct Property News

The British Government has launched a £54 million fund to transform local communities and release land for thousands of new homes.   The Land Release Fund is in partnership with the Cabinet Office and Local Government Association’s One Public Estate programme to ensure local councils release some of their unused or surplus land for housing. This will help to meet the ambition to unlock enough council owned land for at least 160,000 homes by 2020.   Councils can now bid for funding for land remediation and small scale infrastructure, which will help bring sites forward for housing that would not have otherwise been developed.   Alongside this, One Public Estate is making £9 million funding available […]

The British Property Federation (BPF) has put together its quarterly overview of the build-to-rent sector, including its build-to-rent map giving an overview of all developments in the UK.   The BPF has put together a detailed overview of what’s been happening during Q2 of this year in the country’s build-to-rent market.   As a growing sector, build-to-rent has become instrumental in order to fix Britain’s housing crisis.   Build-to-rent is the part of the UK’s property market where homes are purposefully built in order to be rented out and owned by institutional investor. They are usually managed by specialist operators, often with on-site management teams.   Here are some of the key findings from the BPF […]

Rents within the private sector went up by 1.6% between May and June in England and Wales and have now reached an average of £827 per month, the latest data reveals.   The buy-to-let index put together by Your Move showed that rents either remained the same or increased in all areas across England and Wales from May to June. The North West and West Midlands saw the biggest rise with 0.3% (bumping prices up to £629 and £609 respectively).   In Yorkshire and the Humber, the East Midlands and the South East rental prices experienced an increase of 0.2%. However, on an annual basis Wales noticed the biggest growth in rents as costs increased by […]

The biggest development of homes built specifically for the private rented in the UK is set to receive a £65 million boost from the Government.   With the country needing over a million new homes in the coming years, the Government believes that Build to Rent can provide a large number of them, especially in locations like London.   Now a development of 7,600 high quality new homes at the Wembley Park development in Brent, one of the largest strategic regeneration projects in the UK, is to get the multi million pound boost.   According to Housing Minister Alok Sharma, the development, which will have at least 6,800 home to rent, will offer more choice for […]

New research from hybrid estate agent, eMoov.co.uk, has revealed that Prime Central London is starting to find its feet again after two years of declining buyer interest. Demand levels across PCL are currently at 13% on average, up +25% in the last six months and +39% annually. Current Demand As far as current buyer demand goes, Chiswick is the hottest area at 32% and is likely benefitting from its close proximity to Acton and the over spilling benefit and impending opening of the Crossrail service. There is no surprise that both Islington (25%) and Camden’s Belsize Park (18%) are some of the hottest as far as demand goes, recent data from Zoopla shows that both boroughs […]

Buyers in the UK are increasingly looking wider afield or their first home and despite the costs and financial pressures of getting on the housing ladder they see it as an exciting time of their life, new research suggests. Many first time buyers who have bought in the last two years say that they had to make compromises, with locations being a major one as they sought properties within their budget. Some 70% ended up buying a home an average of 26 minutes away from their original and preferred location, according to the study from Post Office Money. While 16% didn’t have to adjust their expectations at all, 5% compromised in terms of having a suitable […]