As the saying goes ‘an Englishman’s home is his castle’. And only in the UK with its obsession with owning your home could such a thing be said. On continental Europe and even in America, owning your own home is for the few with the majority choosing to rent.
Why does the UK have such an obsession with buying rather than renting property?
May 6th, 2010 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Guest Articles, Property Market 3 Comments »
How election outcomes could affect the property market
April 28th, 2010 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Press Releases, Property Market 11 Comments »
With the General Election just around the corner, the final outcome is still difficult to predict. However, whether we have a change of Government after the election or not, the outcome is likely to be a defining moment for the property market, especially in terms of how property information, future housing supply/demand, and technological developments will be affected.
Interview with chairman of IPPA Colin Smithson-Connelly – Part 2
March 16th, 2010 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Home Information Packs, Interviews, Property Conveyancing 10 Comments »
Part 2 of 2 of our indepth interview with the chairman of the Independent Pack Providers Association (IPPA) Colin Smithson-Connelly discussing Home Information Packs.
If ‘they’ do remove HIPs, what affect will this have on your members and the wider domestic energy assessors in your opinion?
Interview with chairman of IPPA Colin Smithson-Connelly – Part 1
March 15th, 2010 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Home Information Packs, Interviews, Property Conveyancing 10 Comments »
Colin Smithson-Connelly, Chairman of the Independent Pack Providers Association (IPPA) joins us to discuss the finer points of Home Information Packs, their future and what more they could offer property conveyancing.
What areas of the property buying and selling process has the Home Information Pack positively changed and which areas could be improved and how?
Landlord Licencing – Why Residential Management Needs It
March 2nd, 2010 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Guest Articles, Landlords, Property Conveyancing Comments Off on Landlord Licencing – Why Residential Management Needs It
There is currently plenty of opposition to the idea of private landlord licencing by their powerful lobby organisations with objections ranging from a blanket ‘we don’t need any more legislation’ to ‘it’s just a scheme to make more money out of landlords’.
New green strategy to overhaul Britain’s homes
March 2nd, 2010 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Energy Saving, Press Releases 6 Comments »
Today the Department of Energy and Climate Change have released the following information on their green strategy.
Paving the way for ‘pay as you save’ green finance to make energy efficiency pay from day one.
- Up to 7 million British households to benefit from eco upgrades by 2020
- Up to 65,000 jobs in the green home industry
- Energy companies and local authorities to join forces to help consumers
- New standards for social and rented accommodation to be proposed
Is This What London Will Look Like in 2012?
February 15th, 2010 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Guest Articles, Property Market 4 Comments »
On a global scale, the United Kingdom simply doesn’t compete with having any significantly tall buildings. In fact, the UK’s tallest building is not even a third as high as the world’s tallest man made structure (Burj Khalifa – Dubai).
Interview with Brian Scannell of NHER – part 2
February 10th, 2010 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Energy Assessors, Energy Saving, EPC, Home Information Packs, Interviews 4 Comments »
Brian Scannell of NHER and managing director of National Energy Services (NES) Ltd continues with further thoughts towards our questions in part 2 of the interview.
Q10 Do you support the current HIP legislation and if it was ‘scrapped’ what impact do you envisage it will have on your members?
I certainly support the original aspirations of the HIP – ensuring that reliable information on a property was available at the time of marketing. It is an absolute tragedy that the most directly beneficial component to consumers – the Home Condition Report – was made voluntary and, to all intents and purposes, killed.
Interview with Brian Scannell of NHER – part 1
February 8th, 2010 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Energy Assessors, Energy Saving, EPC, Interviews 7 Comments »
Brian Scannell of NHER and managing director of National Energy Services (NES) Ltd joins us to answer our questions in a two part interview.
Read the rest of this entry »
Government Tax Levy on Banking Bonuses will impact UK Housing & Mortgage Market
January 25th, 2010 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Financial Products, Guest Articles, Property Market 2 Comments »
After the government bail out of the UK banking system in 2009, there is a now 50% tax levy on all future bonuses. Traditionally we enter “bonus season” in Q2, we expect to see buyers to start investing from this point and despite the new tax constraint the majority of banks have announced their intent to assign significant bonuses.
However, it is estimated that the bonus payments will be lower than in previous years and a larger proportion of payments will be made in shares and other types of investments. Looking to 2010, it is yet to be apparent what extent this will negatively affect sales volumes. In essence, bonus money will continue to play a central factor in the housing market and many cash rich individuals will still invest in the UK and abroad.
How has social media affected the property industry?
December 7th, 2009 HIP-Consultant.co.uk Posted in Guest Articles, Property Market 5 Comments »
There’s no doubting that business participation on social media is the flavour of the month, with almost every established brand now having a Twitter page, a Facebook group and a frequently updated blog, we can assume that there must be some very significant benefits to business’ getting stuck in with social media.