Tag Archives: guides
London mayor opens up new homes planning guidance for consultation
The Mayor of London Boris Johnson has released updated planning guidance that aims to maximise the construction of quality homes in the city. Johnson regards this as a vital step in achieving the goal of building 49,000 houses a year in order to keep up with London's booming population but he wants quality to be as important as quantity. Interested parties are being invited to comment on the new guidance, which includes detail on building specifically for long term private rentals, the potential introduction of affordable housing targets in new areas, and more details on vacant building credits for developers. London's Deputy Mayor for Planning, Sir Edward Lister, said that the new Supplementary Planning Guidance will be vital in helping developers and boroughs understand how to achieve the Mayor's ambitious aims for housing in London. ‘Delivering the homes that London needs requires us to work together, so I would encourage anyone with an interest to let us know what they think,’ he added. The latest revision of the Mayor's Supplementary Planning Guidance for Housing builds on the Mayor's Plan to provide extra detail where needed, and is open for consultation until 07 August. It recognises that in the drive to increase housing capacity in London, quality is just as important as quantity and seeks to make sure that people have decent homes and enough space to live. The plan includes detail on the Mayor's policy to encourage an increase in developments designed specifically for long term private rentals, so-called build-to-rent. He says that done correctly, this could help meet specific population needs in certain urban centres. There is also more detail on the concept of applying fixed affordable housing targets in Housing Zones and Opportunity Areas, which will be the source of significant growth in housing supply in coming years. Advice for local boroughs is included on how to incorporate the Vacant Building Credit into their local planning policy to ensure the credit delivers the aim of the Government policy, which is to bring forward brownfield sites that otherwise wouldn't come forward for development. The credit allows the existing gross floor space to be credited towards affordable housing contributions. Continue reading
UK home owners save average of £1,400 on stamp duty
UK home owners have saved £701 million in the six months since the introduction of the Stamp Duty Land Tax reforms last December, according to new research. The changes to how stamp duty is levied cut the tax for the 98% of people purchasing homes under £937,500 with each house buyer below this level saving an average of £1,400, says the analysis from conveyancing services firm myhomemove. ‘The stamp duty reforms have saved UK home buyers a significant amount of money since its introduction and provided an important boost to the property market, just as house transactions were starting to slow down in the run up to the general election,’ said Doug Crawford, the firm’s chief executive officer. He pointed out that the changes have a particularly positive impact on those struggling the most to get onto the property ladder, first time-buyers, as they can now save more money towards a deposit for their purchase. He also explained that under the previous system, there was a substantial increase in price at the stamp duty thresholds, which the reforms have reduced significantly, leading to greater movement up the property ladder and enabling home owners to aspire to own properties that would have previously been unobtainable. ‘While there are losers from the changes, these are a small minority of buyers. For them, the risk of a prospective ‘mansion tax’ was far greater than the increase in stamp duty. Early signs indicate that the election result has reassured buyers of higher value properties, with many estate agents reporting a buoyant market at the top,’ added Crawford. Continue reading
Detached home approvals in Australia reach five year high
Detached house approvals in Australia hit a five year high during April, according to the latest report from the Housing Industry Association, the voice of Australia’s residential building industry. During April, detached house approvals rose by 4.7% in seasonally adjusted terms to reach 10,264, the highest monthly total for detached house approvals since February 2010. However, HIA senior economist Shane Garrett pointed out that a weaker month for the multi-unit segment of the market actually drove total new dwelling approvals lower during April. In the month the total number of new dwelling approvals fell by 4.4% to 18,715 in seasonally adjusted terms. The reduction was driven by the multi-unit segment, with a 13.6% fall. The data also shows that the detached house market saw a total of 214,331 approvals recorded in the year to April, the highest 12 monthly total on record. ‘Strengthening activity in detached house building is crucial to broadening the base of the new home building recovery which has been largely contained to the multi-unit market to date,’ said Garrett. ‘It is important that policy settings allow the expansion in detached house building to deliver on its full economic potential,’ he added. A breakdown of the figures show that seasonally adjusted new dwelling approvals only increased in Tasmania with growth of 29.8%. Approvals declined in all the other states, with the largest monthly reductions occurring in New South Wales with a fall of 14.6%, Queensland down 14.2% and South Australia down 10.3%. New dwelling approvals also declined in Western Australia by 3% and in Victoria by 2.2% while in trend terms, new dwelling approvals increased in the ACT during April by 8.4% and fell by 6.2% in the Northern Territory. Continue reading
