Eco-towns are eco-spin say Tories24dash.com 4 March 2008 Conservatives are warning today that the Government’s much trumpeted eco-town policy could turn out to be nothing more than eco-spin, according to new research carried out by Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps. Read more
CML call for holistic policiesAlex Coxall 4 March 2008 The council of mortgage lenders are calling on the Government to take a more "holistic" approach to housing policy as homeownership behaviour has changed dramatically in modern times. Read more
Move to protect rural communitiesAlex Coxall 4 March 2008 In a measure to reverse the deterioration of rural communities the Government are looking at ways to deter second home owners from buying properties that will be left vacant for most of the year. Read more
Affordable homes a necessityTimes 3 March 2008 Estate agents have been counting the minutes until Gordon Brown unleashes his kindlier capital gains tax regime. The abrupt deflation of confidence in the property market last year was marked first by the retreat of buy-to-let investors, just as the advantageous changes were announced. Such buyers had accounted for about one in ten purchases in the recent boom years. Read more
House prices will drop 6 per centGuardian 3 March 2008 House prices will decline by 6 per cent in 2008, and continue falling next year, as anxious homeowners rush to cash in their gains from the decade-long property boom, analysts at JP Morgan warned this weekend. Just three months after predicting that prices would remain stagnant for at least a year, Malcolm Barr, JP Morgan's chief UK economist, said the evidence now looked 'pretty bleak'. Read more
Your own private islandTime Magazine 2 March 2008 When A.J. Longmaid spent his boyhood summers on Spectacle Island, a private 4.5-acre (1.8 hectare) refuge off the coast of Bar Harbor, Maine, his family had no electricity or pressurized water. He read by kerosene lamp and showered by pouring a bucket of freezing water over his head. Read more
Estate agents target lettingsTelegraph 29 Feb. 2008 Estate agents are stepping up their presence in the lettings market as they seek to avoid closing branches as sales slow, according to one of Britain's largest property websites. Read more
Don't fall for the freebiesTimes 28 Feb. 2008 Stacey Bell is thrilled with the incentives offered by Fairview New Homes at its Modus scheme in Ipswich ? they helped her to buy a one-bedroom flat there and become a homeowner at just 19. "I paid £110,000," she says (her father kindly went guarantor on her loan). "But the developer paid my 5% deposit for me, gave me £1,000 cashback and furnished the property with £5,000 worth of goods. It came with linen, cutlery ? even a cheese grater." Read more
Buy-to-let bucks downward trendTimes On-line 27 Feb. 2008 Britain's buy-to-let market is continuing to prove resilient in the face of falling house prices and declining residential mortgages as total lending on homes-for-rental rose 13.6 per cent in the second half of 2007. Read more