Tag Archives: british
Councils must provide plan for new home building in UK, says landmark housing bill
Councils in the UK must produce local plans for new homes in their area by 2017 or the government will ensure, in consultation with local people, that plans are produced for them. Under a new Housing and Planning Bill the government sets out its ambition that one million homes will be delivered by 2020, including starter homes for first time buyers. However, while 82% of councils have published local plans which should set out how many homes they plan to deliver over a set period only 65% have fully adopted them, and there are still almost 20% of councils that do not have an up to date plan at all. The Prime Minister David Cameron has now made it clear that he expects all councils to create and deliver local plans by the deadline. The Bill also spells out a series of further proposals to boost home building and home ownership. This includes a new legal duty on councils to guarantee the delivery of Starter Homes on all reasonably sized new development sites, and to promote the scheme to first time buyers in their area. The government also announced that local authorities will be able to bid for a share of a £10 million Starter Homes fund, part of a £36 million package to accelerate the delivery of starter homes by helping councils prepare brownfield sites that would otherwise not be built for starter homes. Under the new legislation there will be automatic planning permission in principle on brownfield sites to build as many homes as possible while protecting the green belt and other planning reforms to support small builders such as placing a new duty on councils to help allocate land to people who want to build their own home. In other boosts for house building, Cameron also announced that a temporary rule introduced in May 2013 allowing people to convert disused offices into homes without applying for planning permission will be made a permanent change after almost 4,000 conversions were given the go ahead between April 2014 to June this year. A new website has just been launched which allows prospective home owners to go online to www.ownyourhome.gov.uk to see what government schemes are available to open doors for them. ‘The government will do everything it can to help people buy a place of their own and at the heart of this is our ambition to build one million new homes by 2020. Many areas are doing this already but we need a national crusade to get homes built and everyone must play their part,’ said Cameron. He explained that councils have a key role to play in this by drawing up their own local plans for new homes by 2017. ‘If they fail to act, we’ll work with local people to produce a plan for them,’ he added. Officials pointed out that the latest announcement builds on the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which was introduced in 2012 as a… Continue reading
New property tax regime hits prime property sales and prices in Edinburgh
Demand for prime properties for sale at £1 million and above is on the rise again in Edinburgh after a sharp decline in activity immediately after the introduction of the new property tax. The Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT), introduced on 01 April this year, is credited with leading to surge in demand beforehand and a dampening of demand afterwards. But now, according to Scottish property consultants CKD Galbraith, there are signs that prime property buyers are coming back to the market, although the available data shows how strong the effect has been. The first three months of 2015 saw 56 properties sold at £1 million plus in Edinburgh alone and there was a surge in the week before the introduction of LBTT when 30 of the 56 sales were completed under the old Stamp Duty system. Under LBTT, the buyer pays different rates of tax on the portion of the purchase price that falls within various bands, rising to 12% for the portion of the purchase price over £750,000. Registers of Scotland recorded a dramatic decline in subsequent sales at the £1 million mark from April until September with only three sales successfully completed in Edinburgh. ‘Our recent research shows that buyer and seller confidence is returning following the introduction of LBTT in April and the UK general election in May, with an increase in the number of properties coming to the market in Edinburgh,’ said Jamie McNeill, head of residential at CKD Galbraith’s Edinburgh office. ‘We are currently handling a number of private sales in the £1 million plus market in Edinburgh and are experiencing a rise in the number of local, national and international buyers registering with our Edinburgh office looking for prime property in the city centre,’ he explained. ‘With the tax changes for properties over £1m, the number of sales at this level is considerably lower than at its peak in March this year, however we expect the number of transactions at this level to continue to increase throughout the remainder of the year,’ he added. The new tax has affected the price of prime property in Edinburgh, according to the latest research from Knight Frank, with values up by just 0.4% between July and September and the rate of annual price growth in the city slowed to 2.5%, its lowest level since September 2013. The Knight Frank report points out that a £900,000 property now attracts a LBTT bill of £66,350. Previously, buyers would have paid £35,000 in stamp duty. Against this backdrop, a two speed market has emerged in the city. Price growth has been driven primarily by the sub-£500,000 market, which has proven to be more resilient to the recent tax change. As a result, price growth at this level has been stronger than the average for prime Edinburgh properties, the report explains. The average value of homes below £500,000 has risen by 1.1%… Continue reading
Auckland property market gets boost after three cooler months
The average sales price of a property in Auckland, New Zealand increased by 1.9% in September to $836,275, the latest published data shows. The median sales price reached $790,000, a rise of 4.6%, the data from real estate firm Barfoot & Thompson also shows with the firm also reporting an extremely active month with sales up 3.4% month on month and up 41.6% compared to a year ago. Peter Thompson, managing director of Barfoot & Thompson, said that nearly a third of all homes sold were for in excess of $1 million, which is the highest number of $1 million plus homes ever sold in a month. ‘You have to go back to June this year to see a similar lift in values in one month to that we experienced in September. In part the price surge may be down to buyers getting in ahead of the new regulations around equity ratios for investors, which came into force in October, but without doubt an element of the traditional lift that comes with spring was there,’ he explained. Some 11.9% of all homes sold were properties for under $500,000. This is significantly lower than the 14.3% of sales in August in this sector or the 31.8% recorded in September last year. New listings at 1,940 were the highest in a September for 12 years, and created a reasonable level of choice, he also pointed out, which has given a boost to the residential real estate market following three months of cooling. ‘Whether September’s prices have set a trend for the remainder of the year has yet to be seen,’ said Thompson who also pointed out that new regulations for international buyers are due to come into force in November and these have coincided with a tightening of requirements around the export of money out of China. ‘In the last week of the month there was a falloff in sales made under the hammer at auctions, and there was less pressure on buyers to make immediate decisions. This end of the month development carries with it a note of caution that September’s prices may not prove to be the start of a new round of increases, and that buyer’s may not be prepared to overstretch themselves to secure a property. The future direction of prices still remains at the crossroads,’ he added. Continue reading
