Category: Property Market

Despite the progress made in 2025 to reduce mortgage and inflation rates in order to incentivise consumer participation, several estate and letting agents have raised concerns regarding the property market in 2026. Underlying these concerns are the ways in which regulation compliance and financial factors will affect how estate and letting agents engage with the...

Culminating the year on a high note, the Bank of England slashed the bank rate on 18 December from 4.00% to 3.75%. This is the fourth time in 2025 that the Bank of England has reduced the bank rate, compared to only two times where the Bank of England voted in favour of bank rate...

As the year draws to a close, it is useful to highlight the positives and negatives that this year has witnessed for the property industry. It has been a noteworthy year. Important national policies have been passed under the Renters’ Rights Bill and Autumn Budget, the effects of which are yet to be fully seen....

On 26 November, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves announced the introduction of two key housing policies. The first is the introduction of the High Value Council Tax Surcharge, also known as the Mansion Tax, which is set to introduce a surcharge of at least £2,500 for properties valued over £2m. The second is increasing...

A Government memo was leaked earlier this month expressing the commitment to launch a package that aims to fertilise property construction throughout London. Following weeks of speculation arising from the leaked memo, the Government has recently confirmed this direction to the public, arguing that it will bring about important changes to accelerate property construction. ‘Extraordinary...

Affordability continues to be a major hurdle. Aware that there is a market desire to purchase property, Barratt Redrow and Persimmon have partnered with Barclays and TSB to open more opportunities for prospective customers to invest in the property market. This initiative has materialised under the Rezide Equity Loan scheme, which, among other provisions, enables...

‘Landlords today are contending with perhaps the most complex operating environment in recent memory,’ Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons, observed. Although some landlords are concerned about the future viability of the buy-to-let market, it is crucial to underscore that the sector is not expected to sharply decline. On the contrary, it is currently...

Ongoing efforts are being made by the Government to push the lending sector to support aspiring first-time homebuyers, some of whom are currently facing challenges in entering the property market due to market and lending conditions. ‘Helping first-time buyers onto the housing ladder’, Lucy Rigby, recently appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury, said, ‘is central...

Heralded as news which is ‘injecting a renewed confidence into both buyers and sellers’, TwentyEA has forecast 2025 as the best year since 2022 in terms of the overall volume of property exchanges. In particular, TwentyEA has put this figure at approximately 1.18m exchanges in 2025. Such a forecast is underpinned by the first half...