Letting Agents Call For Dedicated Housing Court

Letting agents have called on the government to create a dedicated Housing Court system within England and Wales to prevent a ‘catastrophic’ situation when ‘no fault’ Section 21 notice evictions are abolished. Agent trade body Propertymark has used the Law Commission’s latest reform proposal programme to call for a new system of dedicated courts, which would replace the current County Court system. It says the current system is in need of urgent reform because, even before Covid struck, the time taken from claim to repossession was getting longer and longer – reaching on average 21 weeks. Read more on the Negotiator website.

https://thenegotiator.co.uk/letting-agents-call-for-dedicated-housing-court-to-avoid-evictions-catastrophe/ 

Investment In New Homes Is Being Strangled

Smaller institutional investors are being locked out of investing in the UK residential market, a new report has found. UK residential is an attractive asset class for investors such as small pension funds, but there need to be more routes to market. Smaller investors default route to market is still investing directly via buy-to-let but this is a high-risk strategy, according to the study by report by Seven Dials Financial. It says the UK’s residential market is missing out on billions of pounds of potential investment from smaller institutional investors because of a lack of suitable investable vehicles. Read more on The Negotiator website.

https://thenegotiator.co.uk/investment-into-new-homes-is-being-strangled-says-new-report/

1.6 Million Mortgage Holders Given Payment Holidays So Far

Lenders have revealed that 1.6 million mortgage holders - or one in seven households with a home loan - have been given payment holidays since the scheme began in early March. The majority of these payment holidays – 700,000 – have been granted this month, revealing the significant impact of the Coronavirus crisis on many people’s family finances as the lockdown has continued. And for the average mortgage holder, the payment holiday amounts to £755 per month of suspended payments, industry association UK Finance has revealed. This follows its earlier announcement that lenders would not move to repossess properties for three months, when the crisis is expected to have eased. Read more on the Negotiator website.

https://thenegotiator.co.uk/mortgage-holidays/

Housing Secretary Says He’ll Have ‘No Ugly Homes Built In The UK’

At the Conservative Conference, the Housing Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick, said that ugly homes have no place in his future vision for UK housing. “The government is committed to building the homes this country needs, but it is not all about bricks, mortar and numbers. Too often, new developments come at the expense of beauty, quality and design. This shouldn’t be the case and the Conservatives are determined to deliver homes that families and communities are proud to call their own,” he said. Read more on The Negotiator website.

https://thenegotiator.co.uk/housing-secretary-says-hell-have-no-ugly-homes-built-in-the-uk/