NEW CALL TO SCRAP STAMP DUTY

A PROPERTY sector coalition is urging the Government to abolish the “anachronistic” Stamp Duty Land Tax, which it views as “a tax on aspiration”...

Winkworth shares' debut

SHARES in the Winkworth agency made their debut on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) last week at a modest 4p premium over the 80p issue price...

LSL top 550-office mark as they buy Halifax EA for £1

LSL Property Services is overtaking Connells to become the country’s second largest estate agency chain, following its bargain basement deal to buy Halifax Estate Agents...

Lettings: four complaints an hour!

THE Property Ombudsman is dealing with an increasing number of calls — and he expects the figures to grow still more later this year...

Spicerhaart online launch set for New Year

THE Spicerhaart group is moving ahead with its new online estate agency business which will launch in the first half of 2010, subject to market conditions....

How the mighty have fallen!

TWO recent items of news crossed my ken at almost the same time. Both were stories critical to our industry: both indicative of significant changes in the market...

LSL buy Halifax Estate Agency for £1

LSL Property Services is overtaking Connells to become the country’s second largest estate agency chain, following its bargain basement deal to buy Halifax Estate Agents...

VAT'S Your Lot!

CONNELLS have won a landmark VAT tribunal ruling which they feel could have significant implications for all estate agents...

OFT's first ban over redress rules

THE Office of Fair Trading has issued its first ban on an estate agency for failing to join a redress scheme — a year after the stipulation came into effect...

What's in store now — revolution or evolution?

BILL GATES, the Microsoft supremo, once said that we overestimate the change that will take place in two years and underestimate what can happen in 10...

A bit like buses — a long time waiting, then three come along at once...

THE first attempt at creating a register of estate agents came with a Parliamentary Bill in 1888 or thereabouts, promoted by various professional bodies...

Bill celebrates 50 years in estate agency

BILL McCLINTOCK, chairman and chief operating officer for The Property Ombudsman board, is celebrating his half century in the property industry...

Agency expelled by TPO 'claimed to still be member'

THE Foundations estate agency in Ilford has been expelled from The Property Ombudsman scheme, still owing a £2,000 award made against it — but the company later passed...

INDUSTRY HITS BACK OVER HIP COSTS

THE industry has hit back after a report by the consumer magazine Which? claimed that Home Information Packs can cost substantially more if bought through an estate agent...

Ex-NAEA president quits NFOPP board

FORMER National Association of Estate Agents president Stewart Lilly has quit the National Federation of Property Professionals board over his concerns about...

Savills' profit slashed

SAVILLS, the international property consultants and upmarket UK residential estate agency suffered a crash in pre-tax profits to £100,000 for the first half of this year...

Consumers show confidence over prices — survey

MORE than three quarters of consumers are confident that UK house prices won't fall any further this year...

Lettings complaints dominate

FRUSTRATION with lettings agents is still the biggest cause of people contacting The Property Ombudsman and asking for help...

Going, going, gone — why homes under the hammer is getting some hammer

AUCTIONS are suddenly back in vogue. However, many of the recent spate are solely selling off homes where the original owners have been evicted by their mortgagees...

GROUNDS FOR OPTIMISM

THINGS are looking up — at least according to a survey of National Association of Estate Agents members who say there are grounds for optimism after the crippling slump in the market...

Connells’ sales and profit boost

CONNELLS, the country’s second-biggest estate agency group, have reported a 23 per cent rise in sales during the first half of this year, a rebound in profits, while its parent Skipton Building Society believes the housing market has bottomed out...

LSL in profit recovery

LSL Property Services, owners of YourMove and Reeds Rains, staged a profit recovery during the first half of this year, and the estate agency business is also back in the black...

Expelled agents agree to pay up

TWO estate agencies expelled by The Property Ombudsman service at the end of May have now agreed to pay the awards made against them...

Fund-raising Kings!

AN estate agency group and its parent company have boosted a local school for the visually impaired by raising £32,000 over two and a half years to fund a much-needed minibus...

A brave new world that certainly makes a change from featuring dead spiders

ARE we past the worst? Certainly there are encouraging signs out there to suggest this may be the case...

'Even better for sellers than in the boom times' — Hamptons

A LEADING estate agency group claim that new properties to the market are three times as likely to sell as last year, when comparing new stock to property exchanges...

Healey the new Housing Minister

JOHN HEALEY MP has succeeded Margaret Beckett as Housing Minister in the latest Government re-shuffle...

FIRST-TIME BUYER FUNDS 'IN CHAOS'

THE property market is set to be plunged into further chaos because money earmarked for first-time buyers is running out, a leading estate agency group has warned...

Connells 'not for sale’

CONNELLS, the second-largest estate agency group in the country, have categorically denied that there is any truth in a report in the Sunday Times (June 7)...

Healey the new Housing Minister

JOHN HEALEY MP has succeeded Margaret Beckett as Housing Minister in the latest Government re-shuffle...

New president Gary aiming to promote NAEA brand

GARY SMITH has taken over as president of the National Association — with a pledge that he intends to make the NAEA a household name...

Two firms expelled by Ombudsman

TWO estate agencies have been expelled by The Property Ombudsman service after failing to pay awards made against them...

Come gather round, people — why the times they are a-changing at the OFT

IT seems the times they are a-changing at the Office of Fair Trading...

'A WATER PISTOL TO PUT OUT A FIRE'

ALISTAIR DARLING's Budget has been slammed by the National Association of Estate Agents as "largely inneffectual" and an instance of the Chancellor of the Exchequer using "a water pistol to try to put out a fire"...

Historic firms in key merger

CARTER JONAS and Dreweatt Neate, two of the UK’s longest-established property firms, have merged...

Name change for OEA

THE Ombudsman for Estate Agents scheme has changed its name to The Property Ombudsman Service...

Rightmove aim to help agents target bargain-hunters

RIGHTMOVE have launch ed a new free service to help agents marry up their best buys with the cash-rich and mortgage-ready bargain hunters they claim flock to the site in search of a good deal...

Be afraid, be very afraid — as the CPR give new life to consumer protection

HERE’S a rather jolly new wheeze from HM Government — and I am not talking about Property Information Questionnaires...

Where there’s a wheel — or two...

THORNLEY Groves of Manchester have introduced a fleet of bikes for employees to use when getting about the city centre for appointments. The branded bicycles have been brought in to help reduce the company’s carbon footprint as well as saving precious time and money in a challenging market...

NAEA'S FIVE-POINT BUDGET PLEA

THE National Association of Estate Agents is calling on the Government to pull the housing market out of its slump, help first-time buyers and set the country on course for economic recovery...

Connells' delight at profit

THE Connells Group last year overcame the vagaries of the current housing market slump to post a pre-tax profit of £37 million...

OEA's record payout

THE Ombudsman for Estate Agents has made the highest ever award to a complainant in the 20-year history of the Scheme, it is revealed in the OEA’s latest annual report...

Why do estate agents think they are so different?

WHY is is that estate agents think they are so different from any other business activity and therefore exempt from any law they dislike?

Repossessions website shows a 700 per cent demand surge

A SPECIALIST website covering repossession and part exchange property has reported a 700 per cent increase in traffic over the past six months...

Lets join forces, say ARLA chiefs past and present

THE president of the Association of the Residential Letting Agents and its immediate past president have joined forces to launch a new lettings agency...

How Countrywide suffered from the crash

COUNTRYWIDE plc posted an operating loss of £47 million in 2008, compared with a profit of £85 million the previous year, according to the annual report to...

A Cool £Million!

THE National Association of Estate Agents has highlighted research from a leading ‘think tank’ as evidence of the Government’s flawed stance on Stamp Duty...

The Rightmove in the economic circumstances

RIGHTMOVE are launching a new service which is designed to help agents cope with the current economic downturn...

Rightmove profits up 40 per cent

MORE than a fifth of estate agencies left the business last  year, but a shift from print media advertising  to the internet and the development of other activities resulted in Rightmove, the leading property website, reporting a 40 per cent rise in pre tax profits for 2008...

Move to ease Countrywide debt burden

PLANS to convert   borrowings into shares to  ease the heavy debt burden of Countrywide plc, the UK’s largest estate agency group,  have been put forward  by the major bondholders of its holding company Castle HoldCo 4...

Team in MIG plea to Chancellor

THE Team Association is calling on Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling to introduce a Government-backed mortgage indemnity guarantee scheme...

Capital optimism

LONDON could be set to lead the way in offering signs that the economic downturn is behind us...

TOP 10 AGENCIES SLASH AN EIGHTH OF BRANCHES

THE top 10 estate agency groups in the UK slashed their office numbers by more than an eighth during 2008...

NAEA — slivers of better news amid the gloom

ESTATE agents across the UK reported a slight increase in activity at the end of 2008, according to the National Association of Estate Agents...

First-time buyers 'still priced out'

A FAIRER deal on mortgage rates would bring 95 per cent of the country within the reach of first-time buyers, it has been claimed...

Townends: lets celebrate a record!

TOWNENDS residential lettings have announced their most successful bankings month and year since they started trading in 1991...

Homing in on the best and worst selling areas

BEARSDEN, Glasgow is the place in the UK where a home is most likely to sell quickly, while Aberystwyth in North Wales is the location for properties taking longest to sell...

Stuart's geared up to provide a Taylor-made children’s tale

WHAT is an estate agent to do when the housing market slows down?
Stuart Taylor, director of The Property Shop in Chatham, Kent, has found his own answer, with the help of a talking car!

Connells ponder expansion after Rightmove stake sale

CONNELLS have raised a £30 million ‘war chest’ for spending on acquisitions, following the sale of their remaining 18 per cent stake  in Rightmove...

'Cut Interest Rates, Suspend Stamp Duty'

A MAJORITY of members of the National Association of Estate Agents feel more must be done to boost the flagging housing market...

Lettings — 'think before you switch', says OEA chairman

ESTATE agents who are finding the pressure too great in the residential sales market should think carefully before they switch into lettings instead...

'Accidental landlords' return to sales market

THE flurry of ‘accidental landlords’ who joined the lettings market in the summer as their homes failed to sell, are now giving up on ‘riding out the slump’ and are returning to the sales market with more realistic price expectations, the Cluttons agency have reported...

We’ve 'gott' the Cup!

LINCOLNSHIRE-based Pygott & Crone have been ‘crowned’ as Home Sale Network’s best independent estate agency for 2008...

Wanted — a one-legged ballerina!

HAS this been the worst year ever for estate agents? Within living memory, I guess so. However, estate agents have been around for quite a while...

Gearing up for marketing yourself in '09

THERE is frost on the ground and the bitter wind of recession is blowing, but at The Frost Partnership, with 13 offices in the Thames Valley, the Chilterns and Middlesex, managing director John Frost and his staff are busy warming up business for 2009, with a co-ordinated canvassing campaign...