News & Legal Updates

I was very encouraged to read a Report by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors indicating a small increase in the number of houses put on the market in November. The RICS Report from November also found 4% more Surveyors reported new buyer enquiries rose rather than fell and it advised that Chartered Surveyors were … Continue reading "RICS – Scottish market expected to pick up"

Chancellor George Osborne has not extended the Stamp Duty holiday for first time buyers despite massive lobbying from the mortgage and estate agency industries. The Government has taken the view that the Stamp Duty break has proved ineffective and has not benefited first time buyers the way that it had been anticipated. I do tend … Continue reading "Government gives up on Stamp Duty"

As readers of previous blogs will know, I am currently on the Board of the Tayside Solicitors’ Property Centre. One of the projects that TSPC has been working on recently is the creation of a Scottish wide property website.  Various Solicitors’ Property Centres throughout Scotland have joined forces to launch a new national property website … Continue reading "Launch of Scottish Property Centre website"

I am sorry that there have been so few blogs recently.  This should be taken as a good sign in terms of the activity levels in the Scottish property market.  I thought it would be useful to have a general update on the property market.  In January I will be starting off with my review … Continue reading "Property Update – November"

I was concerned to read a report from Valuers e-serv indicating that house purchase approvals for lending fell for the second successive month. The average deposit size was 40% in October with lower income buyers struggling to meet criteria for high LTV products. Loans with a deposit of 15% or under accounted for less than … Continue reading "Lending Levels Slump"

As readers of previous blogs will know I am always keen to keep Blackadders Property at the forefront of technological advances to the benefit of our clients.  It is important, especially in these uncertain times, that clients have agents working for them who use innovation and technology to add value to the client’s transaction.  With this … Continue reading "BLACKADDERS PROPERTY – USING INNOVATION IN TECHNOLOGY TO SELL YOUR PROPERTY"

The Housing Minister Grant Shapps has recently called on lenders to offer more long term fixed rate mortgages – up to 30 years.   This is very much a continental model and I welcome this input from the Minister.  I think that long term fixed rates add a degree of certainty to household finances and reinforce … Continue reading "Housing Minister Calls for 30 Year Fixes"

Readers of previous blogs will know that I have been campaigning over the last few years asking for Government assistance for first time buyers.  I was very interested to read figures from the British Bankers Association showing that the number of would be first time buyers left out in the cold in September was a … Continue reading "17,000 First Time Buyers Excluded from Mortgage Market"

I was recently involved in a chain of property transactions which reinforced the importance of the property market. The chain started off when my clients sold their property  to a family who lived outside of the Tayside area – an example of money coming in to bolster the local economy. The sellers of my clients’ new property were moving to a new … Continue reading "Property Merry Go Round"

I note with interest that Lloyds Banking Group has become the first big bank to raise standard variable rates prompting suggestions that the era of borrowing at rock bottom rates is drawing to a close as the Eurozone crisis deepens.  The rise would appear to be in response to the Eurozone crisis and in particular … Continue reading "Eurozone crisis forces Lloyds to raise SVR’s"