Less than 1m mortgage sold in 2009/10.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) this week released its product services data (PSD) report for regulated mortgage contracts, for the period between April 2009 and March 2010. There was a substantial decline in mortgage sales from 2008/09 when there were 1.2m sales with value of £171bn to 0.93m mortgage sales with a total value of […]
Council for Licensed Conveyancers annual report shows a steep decline in new conveyancers.
The Council for Licensed Conveyancers has produced its annual report for 2009. In 2009 there were 195 licensed conveyancing businesses and the need for one intervention. The number of complaints fell in line with market volumes collapsing and the claims on the compensation fund were £1435. The report shows that the number of students sitting […]
Bank of England's August lending data shows credit remains steady
The Bank of England today released their assessment of the latest trends in lending to the UK economy, The data set covers the major UK lenders: Banco Santander, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide and Royal Bank of Scotland. Together they accounted for 75% of the stock of mortgage lending at the end of 2009. […]
Rightmove announces 40% increase in profits for the first half of 2010.
Rightmove, the UK’s most popular property website, has posted a 40% rise in first half profits for the six months to June 30, beating market expectations. The company points to its new approach which encourages advertisers to spend a little more and explain to homebuyers “who they are, what they do and what they offer”. […]
Housebuyers should be aware of need to insure against fire risk
Communities and Local Government has this week released the latest national statistics on fires, casualties, false alarms and non-fire incidents attended by the Fire and Rescue Services in England. These statitics should remind solicitors that it is a real risk that houses burn down and the impact on the conveyancing process. Between April 2009 and […]
Bovis Homes releases its interim statement
Bovis Homes this week released a positive interim report, with statements that profits are up and cash flow performance is strong. Developers were hit hard by the downturn in the economy but despite subdued forecasts from some areas of the industry, Bovis has performed above expections so far for 2010. Bovis announced a total of […]
Mixed news for housebuyers looking for new build homes
Figures out this week showed that in the second quarter of this year, the number of new homes built in England rose for the first time since 2007. The Communities and Local Government website stated that the number of new housing developments begun during the period April to June 2010 was 84% higher than when […]
Bradford and Bingley threatens legal action for firms involved in "same day remortgaging"
Bradford and Bingley is taking legal action against solicitors who, it alleges, encouraged buy to let investors to practice “same day remortgaging” and thereby reap quick profits. Same day remortgaging happens when investors buy property from sellers who are under financial pressure to agree to a quick sale, or developers. The investor buys at below […]
How did firms fair in July with their applications to Land Registry?
The regular article here at Today’s Conveyancer that seems to draw some attention is the assessment of how firms have done in comparison to their competitors based on Land Registry data. This month it appears that the jump in volumes of registrations that happened between May and June seem to have continued with nearly 250,000 […]
Search Group TM Promotes Paul Albone to Managing Director
TM Search Choice is a search supermarket that has direct links to all the local authorities in England and Wales and provides official local authority searches, personal searches, a range of other services to conveyancers including title insurance. Paul Albone has been promoted to the position of Managing Director of the TM Group which provides […]
July 2010 Land Registry Data
This data is only available to members who have registered for our newsletter please click here to go to the data
CML forecasts a slow market for the rest of 2010
The CML released a downbeat market forecast this morning, reflecting buyer concern about a possible future hike in interest rates and weak consumer spending. However it’s not all doom and gloom; the good news is that the economy has grown sharply in the second quarter of this year – the largest quarterly increase in four […]
Stopping same day exchange and completions
Kirstie Allsopp the well known TV presenter and supporter of Grant Shapps policy to abandon HIPS has vowed to "do something if it kills me " about same day exchange and completions. Whilst there will always be detractors that would relish the thought of a failure to do something we hope that this may bring […]
New Legal Ombudsman rule change confirmed by CLC from 6th October 2010
The CLC has formally confirmed the rule change so that from 6 October 2010 unhappy clients will be able to take a complaint against a licensed conveyancer to the new independent Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman will also deal with complaints about the following legal professionals, and those who are licensed to work for them: […]
Is it time for conveyancers to seize back the initiative when providing information to clients?
The housing market and the internet have long had a symbiotic relationship: rightmove.com has cornered the market on house hunting, Google Street View can now give nosey homebuyers a good look around their potential local area from the comfort of their own sofa, and now homebuyers with children can go one better by searching the […]
“Greater Transparency, Efficiency and Commitment” – Sir Bryan Carsberg explains the E-HomeBuying Forum’s Blueprint.
The E-Home Buying Forum includes members like Salans, Landmark and Oyez. It has recently appointed Sir Bryan Carsberg as its Chairman to help it grow and gain influence over the home moving sector and we have been lucky to have him answer some of our questions about the Forum. Sir Bryan is has previously headed […]
Book review “The Conveyancer’s Guide to Money Laundering and Mortgage Fraud”
Book Title: The Conveyancer’s Guide to Money Laundering and Mortgage Fraud Publisher: ark Author: Matthew Moore Price: £195 but if you buy before the 31st August 2010 readers of Today’s […]
Staff Fraud – have you thought about the risk?
As conveyancers we are all very aware of the threats associated with clients, from money laundering, to husbands ripping off wives through to the issues associated with complaints. You name the external risk and conveyancers have generally thought about it. We put a tremendous amount of effort into trying to minimise these issues. As an […]
Buy to let mortgages see a 13% quarterly increase
The number of buy to let mortgages taken out in the second quarter of 2010 was a 13% increase on figures for the previous quarter. Despite a still-subdued market, the number of buy to let mortgages agreed for Q2 2010 was 24,900, with a value of £2.4 billion, of which £1 billion was remortgaging. Buy […]
Suspension of HIPS results in 90% decline in Searchflow personal searches
MDA Searchflow holds the licence to run the NLIS hub channel, owns it own channel, operates a personal search business and provides a broad range of services to the UK property sector. Prior to my holiday last week MDA Searchflow presented its quarterly podcast to its investors and released news indicating quite how badly the […]
