First UK Rent-To-Buy Scheme Agreed

An agreement has been reached that will see the UK’s first affordable rent-to-buy houses built in Plymouth. Plymouth-based housing companies Persimmon Homes and Rentplus have signed an agreement to develop 19 new affordable rent-to-buy homes in the city aimed at tackling the region’s housing shortage and helping people into home ownership. The Rentplus homes are available at up to 80 per cent of local market rent for an agreed period of between five and 20 years. When the tenancy has finished, the occupants are given the opportunity to buy the house and will be given a 10 per cent deposit by Rentplus to do so.  Read more on The Planner website.

Welcome To Britain's Most Affordable City for Renting a Home

Plymouth has been named as Britain's most affordable city in which to rent a home.  The average rents there took up just over a quarter of a tenant’s take-home income. At the other end of the scale, Londoners saw almost half of their incomes swallowed up by rent. Across the UK, tenants enjoyed a drop in their monthly bills in October as rents fell more than they have in any month for the last four years. The average rent plummeted £40 from £918 to £878 from September to October, the biggest month-on-month fall since January 2010, according to new data from Homelet, the industry body for the private rented sector. Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.