Lettings without the headache

If you missed our hugely successful briefing on "Lettings without the headache" download the slides HERE.

In front of around 100 landlords from both London and the local area, Mullucks Wells and Nockolds provided an excellent presentation on the regulations affecting landlord’s, the do's and don’ts of renting properties, common concerns with tenanted properties, buy to let mortgages, commercial rental market and what to do when things go wrong.

Feedback from the event was excellent, such as “Very informative discussion” and “What a great event it put my mind at rest that I was doing the right thing”.

If you are interested in attending other events in this area please contact marketing@nockolds.co.uk

Maria-Christina Peyman (profile) Monday 30th April 2012
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Stamp Duty Exemption for First Time Buyers

The Government's exemption of Stamp Duty for first time buyers finishes on 25th March 2012.

You can save up to £2,500 in Stamp Duty if you complete by March 25th.

For more information contact our Moving Home team on movinghome@nockolds.co.uk or 01279 755 777.

For more information on Stamp Duty clike here.

Jo Rogers (profile) Michael Stark (profile) Wednesday 11th January 2012
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Budget 2011 - Highlights of property implications

Highlights of the 2011 budget from the developer and property perspective are as follows:-

1.  Extension to the First Buy Scheme, the Government is to provide loans, jointly with house builders, to first time buyers to help with deposits. See Michael Stark's blog for more details.
2. Reforms are proposed to encourage sustainable developments, there will be a presumption in favour of applications of this kind.
3. National targets imposed on brown field sites are to be relaxed.
4. Consultation will begin on whether to make it easier to convert commercial premises into residential property.
5. The Government will speed up the process for sale of publicly owned property, particularly surplus military land.
6. Auctions of planning permissions on land will be trialled for the first time, starting with publicly owned property.
7. The planning system is to be speeded up, there will be a new 12 month limit for the processing of planning applications, inclusive of any appeals process.

No doubt more details will be published in due course and we will then be able to assess the full impact on the property market and the development industry. In the meantime, if you would like any further information regarding commercial property  or property development, please contact our expert team at property@nockolds.co.uk

Alison Hare (profile) Thursday 24th March 2011
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Budget 2011 - First Time Buyer scheme announced

The New First Time Buyers Scheme

A buoyant property market is dependent upon there being a sufficient number of first time buyers.  Because many lenders require them to have a deposit of up to 25% of the value of the property first time, buyers have been in short supply since the credit crunch.  In an attempt to kick start the housing market the Coalition Government announced a First Buy scheme in this year's budget.  This is joint Government and House Builders scheme that would see first time buyers eligible for an equity loan of 20% of the value of a new property.  10% of the equity would be provided by the Government and 10% by the House Builder and a further 5% of the property’s value would need to be provided by way of a deposit by the first time buyer.  The equity loan would be interest free for 5 years and would have to be repaid when the house was sold.

It is felt that the scheme is quite modest because it will only apply to first time buyers wishing to buy new homes, only 10,000 first time buyers will be eligible and the scheme will only be open for one year.

For more details or to discuss how Nockolds can help you move home, please contact movinghome@nockolds.co.uk

Michael Stark (profile) Thursday 24th March 2011
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HIPS's Replacement

HIP REPLACEMENT

One of the first acts of the incoming coalition Government has been to abolish the much maligned Home Information Pack (HIP).  HIPs were first introduced on the 1 August 2007 with the intention of speeding up the home buying process, increasing transparency and reducing the number of sales that fell through.  The initial cost to the seller was anything up to £500 which had to be paid out before a property could be put on the market.  There was undoubtedly a reluctance on some people to pay this money and put their house on the market without knowing if it would sell.  The packs themselves quickly went out of date and often contained incomplete local search results provided by private search companies rather than the Local Authority.

Interestingly the number of properties coming onto the market increased substantially during the weeks immediately following the abolition of HIPs.

However, one element of the HIP, the Energy Performance Certificate has been retained.  Every property that is sold must have an EPC providing current and potential energy proficiency ratings with recommendations as to how the energy proficiency can be improved.  Fortunately these EPCs do not have to be in place before a property has been marketed so long as they have been ordered, but surely it would be sensible to only insist on an EPC being obtained once a property has actually been sold.

Michael Stark (profile) Thursday 17th June 2010
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