Over the last few months, we have been checking and scrutinising house market statistics as many were still being influenced by lockdown as the market didn’t open until mid-May. However, we are starting to see similar trends emerging between the indices suggesting that the stats are being less affected. But I would still only take averages with a pinch of salt. What matters to home movers and investors is what’s happening to property prices/rents on a particular street as at a local level, we see huge variations versus the ‘average’. Read my latest property price article here.

You may have seen the headlines about the government’s pledge to make the most radical changes to the planning system in England since our modern way of deciding when people are allowed to build was set up in 1948. It’s certainly true that in the summer of 2020 there were so many announcements about planning that it’s been hard for the experts to keep up, let alone everyone else. So we’d thought we’d take a moment to clear up what has already happened – a lot – and what the government is proposing will happen – even more, but there’s some way to go before we get there.

Over the last few weeks there have been an unprecedented amount of changes to the rules on evicting a tenant. In my view the changes have been unacceptable and too many, too soon. However, even if you are not having any issues with your tenants currently, with furlough ending shortly, every landlord needs to be up to speed with the new rules.

With much talk of a ‘mini boom’ in the housing market, it’s important to put this into context. Read my article to find out what's really happening in the property market.

We all often refer to the ‘rental market’ as if it’s one market, just tenants and landlords. However, if there was ever a time to appreciate the huge differences in the rental market, it’s now. For the latest on the current and future rental market performance, read my latest article.