All posts by Jonathan Bevan

House Sales Hit 4 Year High in UK

The RICS Residential Market Survey says that the number of homes sold in the UK hit an almost four-year high last month as the housing market recovery continues to gather pace.

Britain’s property sector is enjoying its best market conditions for nearly years as the housing revival gathers pace, according to a report.

Property analyst Hometrack said a further 0.4 per cent hike in house prices between July and August, together with marked improvements across all key indicators, means the sector is now in its best shape since before the financial crisis.

The market shrugged off the traditional August downturn as house prices grew at an annual pace of 1.8 per cent, marking their biggest year-on-year rise for more than three years.

The figures come amid speculation the UK may be heading for another property boom.

October 17, 2013 0 Comment(s) Post By Jonathan Bevan Property News

Housing Market Improvement ‘spreads across UK’

Research by the RICS – Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, has indicated that activity in the housing market is increasing fastest in parts of the UK where previously house prices have been the most depressed.

They state that homebuyers are returning to the market in their highest numbers for four years with the greatest activity being in the West Midlands and the North East. Although every region saw an increase in house prices, the biggest rises occurred in London and the South East.

Prices rose higher in July than in any time since 2006 but in the West Midlands and the North East this was the highest rises in some 14 years.

Wales and Scotland are also experiencing an increase in activity. Although house prices have been rising in part of the country since the beginning of the years this is the first time that the increase has affected the whole country.

At Bevan Surveyors there has been a sharp increase in demand for Homebuyer and Building Surveys since February and this has continued throughout the summer further emphasising the pick-up in the housing market.

August 13, 2013 0 Comment(s) Post By Jonathan Bevan Buying a House, Property News

Blocked Drains

The value of lifting drain covers for Homebuyer Surveys and Building Surveys cannot be underestimated. Often there is no sign of problems above ground and sometimes little evidence of problems below ground. Also where a property has single occupancy what was not much of an issue can, once a family move in with increased usage, become a far more significant problem.

Age of property can also be a problem as some drains during the 1960’s especially were built using pitch fibre drains which are quite brittle and easily crushed.

Tree roots can spread quite some distance laterally and just because there is no actual damage to a building does not mean that the drains are not defective.

CIMG9484

I recently saw a bungalow that was affected by all these issues with the result that the drainage system was blocked/backing up in five of the six inspection chambers. The old lady who lived there probably had no idea as the only evidence was underground and with low usage did not overflow the inspection chambers.

Occasionally in reports I will recommend having a full drains survey and where this is stated you should always arrange for this to be done as drainage problems can run into thousand of pounds of repairs.

July 22, 2013 0 Comment(s) Post By Jonathan Bevan Buying a House, Maintenance

Mortgage Approvals At 3 Year High

According to the latest figures from the Bank of England more mortgages are being approved than at any time in the past three and a half years.

In May 58,242 mortgages were approved up from 54,354 in April.

However, although the Bank of England figures show a significant improvement in the demand for flats and houses, the number of mortgage approvals is still less than half what it was 10 years ago.

Read the full article here;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23127136

July 1, 2013 0 Comment(s) Post By Jonathan Bevan Buying a House, Property News