Housing and mortgage groups, including chairman of the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association John Heron and chief executive of the National Housing Federation David Orr, spoke before a Communities and Local Government select committee on the effect of the credit crisis on the mortgage market, and said the government hadRead More →
The amount of money retired people unlocked from their homes fell to a six-year low during 2015. Falling house prices contributed to a 9 per cent drop in the value of equity released, however volume dropped by only 4 per cent. The researchers said that some of the decreaseRead More →
WE’RE TAKING a break but will be back with all the latest news and views on housing and homelessness on Monday, January 8. Read More →
Tenants who receive local housing allowance (LHA) will be able to choose to have their rent money paid directly to their landlord if the Conservatives win next year’s general election. Grant Shapps, shadow housing minister, will announce today at the Crisis national conference in Birmingham that a Conservative governmentRead More →
Tessa Jowell, Minister for the Cabinet Office, discussed with housing co-operative tenants and staff whether the mutual model – tenant and staff owned enterprises – could play a bigger role in the UK housing market, in a visit to New Cut Housing Co-operative in Lambeth. She asked tenants aboutRead More →
One of the biggest buy-to-let landlords, Cevdet Caner, has had his £ 20 million home, a six-storey property in Mayfair, seized in what is thought to be Britain’s biggest ever house repossession. Before going bust, Mr Caner had risen to become to a billionaire property magnate with a portfolioRead More →
Facebook has been used to repossess an Australian couple’s home in a legal first. A lawyer used the social networking site to serve legal documents on the couple who had defaulted on their mortgage and a supreme court has ruled that court notices served on the site were binding.Read More →
TENANTS IN Stirling have voted 2-1 against stock transfer, leaving both the council and the Scottish Executive with a major headache. The 68% vote against the deal follows a narrow rejection of transfer in Edinburgh. The next test of the policy will come in Renfrew, which is currently balloting, followedRead More →
A closely watched survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors found that rents were still falling, albeit more slowly than earlier this year, in part because fewer ‘accidental landlords’ are entering the market by seeking tenants for unsaleable properties. A majority of agents surveyed by RICS reported thatRead More →
CONSUMER PROBLEMS with housing debt rose 20% last year, according to Citizens Advice statistics published yesterday on people needing its help. The charity dealt with 127,000 housing debt problems – including problems with mortgages, secured loans and rent arrears – in 2005/06. Nearly 10,000 of these were people threatenedRead More →