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UK Property Ombudsman calls for new Act to reflect developments in the sector
The UK’s Property Ombudsman has called for the introduction of a Property Agents Act as the current situation is not open or consistent enough. The call from Christopher Hammer, who is coming to the end of his nine year term as Ombudsman, believe the latest data shows that provisions do not go far enough in terms of disclosure for agents, tenants and landlords. The figures show that more than half of the 9,141 enquiries received related to lettings disputes, nearly double that of sales. Hammer says this reinforces the importance of legislation introduced a year ago, making it a legal requirements for all letting agents in England to register with an approved redress scheme. ‘A Property Agents Act would update the Estate Agents Act 1979 to reflect developments in the sales market and most relevantly now, bring lettings into a precise framework where all agent activity is covered by one piece of legislation,’ said Hammer. He has suggested licensing of agents, standardised tenancy agreements and compulsory client money protection could all be areas included in such an Act. The figures, published in The Property Ombudsman's 2015 Interim Report, reveal that membership levels have grown by 16% in the first half of the year. A total of 1,587 complaints, up 34% on the previous year, were resolved covering sales, lettings and other jurisdictions between 01 January and 30 June 2015. Some 3,641 additional sales and letting agents registered with TPO and a total of 34,944 agents registered with TPO across all jurisdictions, a 16% increase on the same period last year. Overall some 9,141 consumers contacted TPO regarding a property dispute, an 8% increase on the same period last year. More than half, 58%, of all the enquiries received were regarding lettings disputes with 5,303 enquiries logged, nearly double that of sales enquiries which represented 30%. Complaints grew by 34% overall with 1,587 cases reviewed, of which 934 were against letting agents, up 30%, and 596 were against sales agents, up 39%. Continue reading
Residential rents in Scotland up at less than a third in England and Wales
Scottish rents are rising at less than a third of the rate seen in the rest of Britain, amidst the controversy of the new Private Housing Bill, according to a new buy to let index report. Average Scottish rents have risen just 1.7% in the past year, less than a third of the rate currently being witnessed in England and Wales, according to the data from lettings agent network Your Move. Year on year the index show that while rents across England and Wales have increased by 6.3% in the past 12 months, annual rent growth in Scotland has plateaued after a summer uplift. The data also shows that rents in Scotland fell 0.3% from August to September 2015, the second consecutive monthly drop in Scottish rents, meaning that the typical rent in Scotland is now 0.8% lower than at its summer peak in July. The average monthly rent in Scotland was £545 in September 2015, compared to £549 in July 2015. However this is 33.3% cheaper than in England and Wales during September. ‘All eyes are on the proposed reforms to the private rented sector in Scotland, but there is a crucial element missing to the debate. Rents are not going up quickly enough to warrant the staggering rise in tenant arrears we’re seeing. Rather, tenant finances have much more to do with deeper rooted societal problems of salaries and employment levels,’ said Brian Moran, lettings director at Your Move Scotland. ‘Over the summer we witnessed a short term surge in rent prices, but this has been superseded more recently with a slower rate of rent growth, which doesn’t even come close to what we’re witnessing south of the border. Scottish rents have been falling for the past few months, and realigning to calmer levels for the autumn. This is even more extraordinary when you consider we’ve just weathered peak lettings season. It’s certainly not a sector spiralling out of control,’ he explained. ‘This auto-correction, and natural flow of the lettings market will be disrupted by artificial interventions from the Government. Private sector landlords could soon face a regulatory minefield, and this may dissuade future investment into buy-to-let at a time when we need to be the sector to grow, not contract. Ultimately, where the supply of rental properties uncouples from demand, rent growth will be massively thrown out of kilter, and tenants will find themselves even more exposed,’ he added. A breakdown of the data shows that all but one region of Scotland has seen rents increase over the past year. The strongest annual rent growth has been recorded in the Highlands and Islands, with rents up 6.4% since September 2014 to reach a new high of £572 per month. This represents the fifth consecutive month that annual rent growth has accelerated in this region, and the fastest year on year increase on record… Continue reading
New home building sector in Australia sees three years of growth
The new home building sector is the star performer of the Australian economy having seen three years in a row of growth, according to the Housing Industry Association (HIA), the voice of Australia’s residential building industry. The latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that despite a modest decline in new dwelling commencements in the June 2015 quarter, there was still a record number of 211,976 new homes started in 2014/2015, an increase of 16.9%. ‘That is a phenomenal result which caps three consecutive years of growth for new home building, only the fifth time in the last 60 years that this feat has been achieved,’ said HIA chief economist Harley Dale. ‘Through its broad reach the new home building sector has delivered a strong economic dividend to Australia during a period when many other sectors of the economy have struggled,’ he pointed out. He also explained that while new dwelling commencements will fall in 2015/2016 they should remain elevated at what would still be the second highest level on record. ‘The key to the short term prospects for new home building is how much work in the pipeline is converted into actual activity and it’s not coming through as quickly now. An orderly decline in commencements in 2015/16 remains the most likely outcome,’ Dale added. A breakdown of the figures shows that there were 53,314 dwellings commenced during the June 2015 quarter, a decline of 3.2% from an upwardly revised March quarter. Detached house commencements fell by 2.9% to 28,046, while ‘other dwelling’ commencements declined by 4.9% to 24,482. But there are regional differences. New dwelling commencements increased in South Australia by 12% in the quarter, by 54% in Tasmania and by 76.4% in the Australian Capital Territory. But they fell by 1.6% in New South Wales, by 0.5% in Victoria, by 9.6% in Queensland, by 10.5% in Western Australia and by 36.1% in the Northern Territory. Meanwhile, the latest data shows that prices growth for land for building new homes has eased off slightly. The latest HIA-CoreLogic RP Data Residential Land Report shows there was some relief from the tight conditions in Australia’s residential land market in the June 2015 quarter. National residential land sales increased by 17.6% while the weighted median residential lot price increased by 0.6% over the quarter to 5.2% higher than 12 months earlier. ‘A rise in land sales was accompanied by an easing off in the pace of price increase in Australia’s residential land market. This compares with previous quarters which saw strong price increases amid declining land sales,’ said HIA economist, Diwa Hopkins. ‘While the June quarter result is an encouraging development, what needs to occur is similar results being sustained over the longer run. That is, a larger and more consistent flow of shovel-ready land needs to be brought online,’ she explained. ‘For this to happen, policy reform needs to address the key land supply bottlenecks including unnecessarily long planning delays, slow… Continue reading
