Features

Don’t fall into the luxury property trap

With all of the talk of the housing shortage in the UK, it seems...

No bread for ‘jam tomorrow’?

I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say that the Chancellor’s Spring...

95% LTV: looking behind the figures

There are a whole raft of ways in which we can judge the performance...

Not what it seems

A friend recently asked me if I could have a word with his brother-in-law,...

Problems with free legals have not gone away

In this business, issues which at one point seemed incredibly important often get resolved...

The ‘professionalisation’ of buy-to-let is dominant

Sporting contests are often described as a ‘game of two halves’ which tends to...

It really is harder for today’s first-time buyers

Whenever there is a debate about the difficulties younger people have today in purchasing...

Closing the window on cyber threats

It’s no secret that small businesses are often over-stretched with their workload. That’s the...

Don’t be apathetic about protection

The ‘protection gap’ is often mentioned but, as time passes, there seems little progress...

Saving and spending

While we are working, we earn money; we spend some of that money, and...

Softly softly approach to secured loans

2017 was a strong year for second charge loans and while we wait for...

Tackling the construction skills shortage is only the first step

It’s no secret that there is a skills shortage in the construction sector. It...

Ex-pat buy-to-let mortgages an opportunity for brokers 

Ex-pat mortgages were back in the news recently when challenger bank, Aldermore, launched a...

The stamp duty conundrum

I’ve often thought that if stamp duty land tax didn’t exist, those within industry/economic/regulatory/political...

COMMENT

We need to wait to get a clearer picture

It's been a week where the political and economic backdrop has moved almost as fast as rates themselves, and it's worth taking stock of...

Leasehold valuation reform: the consultation is asking only half the question

The Government's consultation on leasehold enfranchisement valuation rates is important because it will help determine what leaseholders pay to extend leases or buy freeholds,...

What commonhold will mean for mortgage lenders and brokers

Commonhold is often presented as the straightforward alternative to leasehold. It removes the freeholder, gives flat owners greater control and avoids some familiar problems...

Why you need to know what sits behind the average review score

There’s a funny thing about review scores. The better they are, the less likely we are to question them. If a company is sitting at...

The new Chancellor wants to remove barriers to growth; he should start with housing

There was probably a degree of unintended irony in the Treasury choosing to call the Chancellor, John Healey’s, first major market ‘intervention’ his ‘Growth...

Latest news

Housing wealth could help close retirement income gap for 3.7m homeowners

Almost half of homeowner households aged 55 to 79 are expected to fall short...

Northern regions lead rise in Land Registry activity

Property transaction activity is strengthening more quickly in northern England and the Midlands than...

Middle-aged workers face similar financial strain to younger employees

Financial pressures remain widespread well into employees' peak earning years, with debt and housing...

VAS overhauls valuation platform with new lender and broker dashboards

VAS has rebuilt its lender and broker dashboards as part of a wider programme...

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