Covid-19 Predicted To Cause Leap In Demand For UK Homes With Gardens

Britain’s housing market remains depressed despite a pick-up in enquiries from people looking to buy, but estate agents are expecting a sharp increase in demand for homes with gardens over the next two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite estate agents being allowed to reopen in England on 13 May following an eight-week shutdown, sales and house prices continued to fall across the UK in May, according to a monthly survey of surveyors and estate agents from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics). Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/11/covid-19-predicted-to-cause-leap-in-demand-for-uk-homes-with-gardens

Gardens: Parliamentary Written Answer

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department has taken since May 2010 to tackle garden grabbing and protect residential gardens.

Rishi Sunak: In June 2010 the Government removed domestic gardens in built-up areas from the definition of ‘brownfield’ land. This strengthened the discretion of local authorities to refuse intrusive new dwellings on residential garden land. We retained that policy when we revised the National Planning Policy Framework in June 2018. This does not impose a complete ban on the use of redundant garden land for housing. We expect local authorities to consider what is the appropriate density for a residential area, to resist inappropriate development, and to ensure green infrastructure is maintained in built-up areas.

https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2019-04-05/241488

Landlords Don’t Understand What Tenants Want

Landlords in the UK are generally out of touch with what their tenants want with new research indicating a wide gulf between the two. Tenants are often clear on what they want and the research suggests they would be willing to pay for it. For example, almost one in four tenants said they would pay an average of £50 a month more if pets were allowed and the same amount extra for a guaranteed parking space with 17% saying it would be the most important thing they would pay for. The research also found that gardens, parking, and furnished properties were in demand by tenants. Read more on Property Wire.