Property Firms Seek Flexibility In Furlough Scheme

The Home Buying and Selling Group has written an open letter to the chancellor calling for greater flexibility to move staff into and out of the furlough scheme in order to manage peaks and troughs in market activity. The group, made up of estate agents, conveyancers, valuers, surveyors, energy assessors, search companies and removers, says there are likely to be spikes in activity as the pent-up demand from those who have put off completing on sales and moving home work through the system. Read more on the Mortgage Strategy website.

https://www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk/news/property-firms-seek-flexibility-in-furlough-scheme/

Increase In Property Companies In 'Financial Distress' As Housing Market Slows To A Crawl

Almost one in five companies in the British property industry are in financial distress after a year in which it was hit with slowing market activity as a result of changes to stamp duty an uncertainty surrounding the referendum. More than 25,000 companies in the industry – equivalent to 18.3pc of real estate companies including property managers, residential landlords and lettings agents – are in this state, according to research from Begbies Traynor, the insolvency specialists. The number is some 6.6pc higher than at the same time last year. Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.

Brexit Puts Almost 50,000 Property And Construction Firms At Risk

Almost 50,000 property and construction firms with “shaky” foundations could bear the brunt of Brexit, according to new research, which revealed that 49,186 construction and real estate businesses were classified as experiencing “significant” financial distress ahead of the EU referendum in the second quarter of 2016. Experts are now predicting London house prices could plummet by up to 20% following the decision to leave the EU. Despite the high proportion of construction firms at risk, the research found that financial distress decreased across every sector in the UK prior to the referendum. Read more on the Development Finance Today website.

Lies, Damn Lies and Rent Statistics

Here’s a quick quiz: how much are rents going up by in England?

A) 7.5%  B) 1.4%   C) 4.6%   D) 1%  E)  They’re not rising, they’re falling

It’s a tough one, but if you answered any of A, B, C, D or E then congratulations! You can make a case for being right. All five are estimates of the increasing cost of renting that have been published in the last month. But there’s a problem, surely: they can’t all be right. So why the wide disparity between the different results? Part of the answer simply lies in which data the measures are based on. The first three measures are all made by private property companies based on their own business data. All are thus based on different datasets and the differences between their results likely accounted for by differences in the geographic distribution or market focus of their clients. Read more on the Shelter website.