Uk
£26 million fund announced to boost UK starter home programme
A £26 million fund for house builders in the UK has been launched to pave the way for the first wave of new starter homes aimed at first time buyers. Communities Secretary Greg Clark said high quality homes will be available for first time buyers and the fund will make sure that a range of different types of properties can be accessed. The fund will support architects, developers, councils, housing associations and small builders to build properties that will increase the quality of design as the government delivers on its pledge to build 200,000 starter homes by 2020. It will be used to acquire brownfield sites to provide land for starter homes. Money from the sales of these sites will go back to the government, securing good value for the taxpayer. In a further move to support aspiring home owners the government has also made available up to £10 million for local authorities to prepare more brownfield land for development of starter homes. ‘We are committed to delivering 200,000 starter homes by the end of this Parliament, providing a real boost to aspiring young first time buyers. This competitive fund will build homes that will clearly show the wide range of new properties that will be available for first-time buyers as they take their first step on the housing ladder,’ said Clark. ‘We are also helping bring back into use more brownfield land for development, keeping the country building and delivering the homes our communities need,’ he added. Helping young people achieve their dream of home ownership is a priority for the government, according to Housing Minister Brandon Lewis who added that already more than 100,000 households have been helped to buy a home through the flagship Help to Buy scheme and starter homes should be another game changer. ‘This fund will help kick start that change and show young people across the country the quality they can expect when they buy a starter home. It’s further proof that this government’s long term economic plan is on track,’ he added. The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), said it will support the starter home initiative by offering its land and development expertise and this will help even more first time buyers into affordable home ownership. ‘We look forward to working with our key delivery partners including councils, developers, housing associations, small builders and architects in taking this forward, through the identification and purchase of land suitable for exemplar starter home sites,’ said HCA chief executive Andy Rose. According to Stephen Stone, chief executive of construction firm Crest Nicholson, the announcement will not only help first time buyers get onto the property ladder, but it will also accelerate further output across the industry at a time when housing need is at an all time high. The government’s new Housing Bill and proposed national planning policy changes will introduce a series of planning reforms that will ensure hundreds of thousands of starter homes will be built. These include requiring local… Continue reading
Land owners in Scotland urged to register voluntarily for new mapping process
Registers of Scotland (RoS) is to work with Scottish Land and Estates to make sure that landowners in Scotland are part of the process that will see all privately owned land registered and mapped by 2024. The Scottish Government has asked RoS to complete the country’s land register by 2024 for privately owned land and property and by 2019 for publicly owned titles. At the moment, around 58% of all Scottish properties are on the register and around 27% of Scotland's land mass. Almost all the remaining properties are held on the General Register of Sasines. Property currently transfers from the Sasine to the Land Register through change in ownership, or by the owner voluntarily applying for registration. However from April next year this register will close to standard securities, such as a remortgage, and any change to title will automatically come on to the land register. Landowners are being urged to register their land voluntarily with officials pointing out that benefits will include clarity of title on the map based system, which provides greater certainty and security about what is owned. A voluntary registration also includes a state backed warranty of the information contained in the title deed. The Keeper of the Registers of Scotland has a new lever known as Keeper Induced Registration (KIR) where she can register land and property with no involvement of the owner. The details of how this process will work have yet to be finalised and a public consultation will be held later this year. ‘Our commitment is to take reasonable steps to ensure that ownership of land is visible and to ensure that landowners or their named representatives are accessible and contactable,’ said David Johnstone, chairman of Scottish Land and Estates. ‘As owners and managers of land, members are concerned about the process and professional costs of voluntary or keeper induced registration of title and in particular the impact of any changes from a practical perspective. In general, we are concerned to ensure the integrity and accuracy of the land register for landowners across Scotland and will continue to work closely with Registers of Scotland as it progresses this work to achieve its target,’ he explained. Charles Keegan, head of Land Register Completion at Registers of Scotland, said that when titles are added to the map based public register, RoS will provide a title sheet that provides greater clarity on what is owned and should make any future transactions quicker and easier. ‘We look forward to continuing to work with Scottish Land and Estates members going forward on registering their titles and would encourage anyone with an interest in voluntary registration to get in touch with the team,’ he added. Continue reading
Housing supply in UK fell significantly in July, new index shows
The number of UK home owners putting their properties on the market fell dramatically in July, down 13.2% across the UK and almost 15% in London, according to the latest property supply index. The majority of locations have seen new stock levels fall in the past month with Glasgow and Edinburgh seeing new property listing fall by 30.3% and 29.7% respectively while supply was down 28.2% in Milton Keynes and 28.1% in Sunderland The index from online estate agent House Simple, which used new listing on Rightmove in July compared to the previous month of more than 100 major towns and cities and all 32 London boroughs, also shows that while Swindon saw a 40.5% rise in new property listings in June, they fell 25.2% in July. Meanwhile, a quarter of the towns and cities that saw the biggest falls in new property listings in July were in the south west of England. A fifth were each in the south west of England and the West Midlands. In London new property listings fell 14.9% in July and only the borough of Bromley saw increase in new stock, but this was still less than 1%. Bexley saw new property listings fall by 31.4%, while new stock levels in Kensington and Chelsea, a favourite with foreign buyers, fell by 24.5% ‘Any hope that sellers were finally returning to the market seems to have been a vain one for the time being,’ said Alex Gosling, chief executive of House Simple, adding that the reasons are not easy to ascertain but it could be due to prices rising. ‘Or maybe they’re not confident about market conditions, despite the strength of the economy and the highly competitive mortgage rates on offer at the moment. Somehow, sellers need to be encouraged back to the market because there are buyers galore waiting when they do. It’s a very attractive market right now for motivated sellers,’ he pointed out. ‘The next few months are going to be important as the property market looks to gather momentum heading into the last quarter of the year. We fully expected activity to drop off in the summer months, but come the Autumn the market needs to replenished with stock to realign the supply versus demand balance,’ he concluded. Continue reading
