Tag Archives: apartments
Survey reveals shocking lack of knowledge over residential property leases
Property owners in the UK who are leaseholders do not know enough about how the system works and much of this is down to poor advice from conveyancing solicitors, it is claimed. They have a ‘shocking’ lack of understanding on how leases work, how they can be extended and the consequences of failing to extend a short lease, says research from law firm Bolt Burdon Kemp. The survey found that over half of leaseholders are unaware of the crucial 80 year rule that once the time left on a lease falls below 80 years, the extension will immediately cost thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of pounds more. Almost all flats and apartments in England and Wales are leasehold property yet a fifth of leaseholders are aware that they have leases with less than 80 years left to run and therefore face hefty bills to extend but 36% do not know the length of their lease at all. The majority of leaseholders are unaware they can extend their lease after two years of ownership and overall the situation is a time bomb, according to the firm. The firm points out that a lease with less than 80 years left steadily becomes less valuable, leaving the property owner with a diminishing asset that they may be unable to sell or mortgage. The survey also reveals that many respondents were not given basic information about the importance of lease length and renewing the lease at a time when the number of leasehold owners has increased. Indeed, it points out that buying a leasehold can be fraught with issues and the lack of knowledge can create an avoidable and very expensive problem for home owners further down the line. ‘It is clear from these results that leaseholders are simply not being given enough information by their professional advisors before buying flats and apartments. This is creating a ticking time bomb for many leaseholders,’ said Stephen Hill, partner at Bolt Burdon Kemp. ‘Not knowing the length of your lease or the impact if it falls below 80 years is very serious, it could mean you struggle to sell the property or renew your mortgage. Solicitors and conveyancers advising leaseholders must do more to ensure property owners are fully aware of what they are getting themselves into when they buy a lease,’ he added. The current law states that after an unexpired term of a lease drops below 80 years, the way that the cost of a lease extension is calculated changes. When a lease is extended, the freehold becomes less valuable. It is only if the lease has less than 80 years to run when you extend it that the law requires you to pay the owner of the freehold compensation for the lost value. If there are more than 80 years left to run on the lease, no compensation is payable and the cost will usually be minimal. With each year that passes below 80 years, the lease becomes increasingly… Continue reading
UK rental market sees sharp rise in demand for one bed flats
Rent rises for one bedroom flats in the UK accelerated sharply in September, sparked by high demand from recent graduates renting to live near their first job, new research has found. Rents for one beds saw an annual rise of 3.9%, from 2.9% in August, reaching an average of £1,054 according to the monthly Landbay Rental Index. The new index, which launched last month, is the first to track rental trends to the county and London borough level in combination with the number of bedrooms. Edinburgh with a rise of 12%, Swindon up 11% and Southend on Sea also up 11%, saw the biggest rises in rents for one bed flats, albeit from lower average rents than some of the other areas to see big year on year increases. The index also shows that rents for three bed properties are seeing the biggest overall rental rises, up 4.8% year on year to £1,489 in September. Across all properties, UK rents rose by 3.7% in the last year to an average £1,288. This was the first increase in annual growth since February, when the average monthly rented price was £1,277. ‘The upward trend in UK rents can simply be explained with one word, jobs. The UK’s job market is going from strength to strength and the rental market is staying hot on its heels,’ said John Goodall, chief executive officer of Landbay. ‘The sharp seasonal jump in rental growth for one beds reflects a buoyant graduate job market as people move to their first job. Flexibility and freedom is the order of the day for first jobbers, and one bedroom flats offer the perfect springboard to take the plunge into full-time working life. One bed flats are also popular for couples and young professionals who don’t want to flat share,’ he explained. ‘Higher housing costs can be a nightmare for tenants when other costs are rising and their wages are stagnating. Fortunately these rent increases come at a time of growing wages and falling costs, according to the latest inflation figures, so while they may not be welcome they don’t leave the same dent in consumers’ pockets,’ he pointed out. ‘For potential investors, these rental figures show how resilient residential property is as an asset class, even when you have unusual economic forces combining like the current mix of low inflation, low interest rate, and high wages,’ he added. Across all property sizes, the top rental risers outside of London were in the southeast, with all but two of the top 10 rental risers of Swindon and Edinburgh, clustered around London. By contrast only one of the top 10 rental fallers, Buckinghamshire, was located in the southeast. According to Joe Macklin, director of index compilers MIAC, there is likely to be a small decline in data volume in the run up to… Continue reading
Planning consent for new homes in New Zealand up 24% annually
The new build property sector in New Zealand is growing with planning consents up 24% in July compared with a year ago, the latest data shows. Overall there were 2,824 new dwellings consented nationally, the highest number since march 2005, according to the figures from Statistics New Zealand. It was boosted by apartments and town houses, flats, and units and Waikato led the growth with consents up 40% while Auckland saw growth of 31%, well above the national average. The total value of consents for all buildings in July 2015 was $1.4 billion, with some $976 million for residential buildings and $455 million for non-residential buildings. The data also shows that over $4 billion worth of building work was put in place in the June 2015 quarter, up nearly 8% on the June 2014 quarter, the highest quarterly value recorded in the 50 years since the series began, and represents almost $900 worth of building work per person. 'The value of both residential and non-residential building work increased overall. In Auckland, residential work grew, while in Canterbury most of the growth was in non-residential work,' said Statistics New Zealand business indicators manager Neil Kelly. After removing price changes and seasonal variations, the overall volume of building activity increased 1.6% following a 1.8% increase in the March 2015 quarter. Within this, the volume of non-residential work increased 5.2% while residential work fell 1%. The volume trend for non-residential building activity reached a new high in the June 2015 quarter, exceeding levels last seen in the March 2006 quarter. Meanwhile, the residential building activity volume trend is still 8% lower than the June 2004 quarter peak. The overall building activity volume trend grew to a level last seen 10 years ago in the June 2005 quarter, the previous series peak. Continue reading
