Initiative to improve home buying in Northern Ireland announced
A new initiative has been announced this week which aims to improve the experience of moving house in Northern Ireland. Following in the footsteps of National Conveyancing Week 2023, hosted in March of this year, The Law Society of Northern Ireland have partnered with Propertynews.com to launch a Conveyancing Week in Northern Ireland. Conveyancing Week will […]
Martello Joins Mishcon de Reya’s MDR Lab Programme
Martello, a digital platform that is building the first live property search database to help speed up the homebuying process, has today announced that it has joined the summer cohort of MDR Lab, the product-focused innovation programme of Mishcon de Reya, one of the UK’s leading law firms. Over the coming 12 weeks, Martello will […]
British Conveyancing Awards 2023 – Shortlist Part 1
The first half of the shortlist for The British Conveyancing Awards sponsored by Groundsure, has been formally announced this morning. Following on the opening of the vote for the Today’s Conveyancer Industry Champion, today’s shortlist reveals the first half of the programme, including the popular and hotly contested “Law Firm Innovator,” “Customer Service Champion” and […]
Kate Faulkner on the property market, ROPA, upfront information, and the HBSG
The latest Today’s Conveyancer podcast sees industry expert Kate Faulkner OBE deliver her verdict on the current state of the property market, the ills of the home moving process, regulation of property agents (ROPA), upfront information and the work being done by the Home Buying and Selling Group to improve the experience for all. Since […]
#BCAwards2023 | Industry Champion vote opens as tickets go on sale
Tickets for The British Conveyancing Awards 2023, sponsored by Groundsure, are now available as the vote for the Today’s Conveyancer Industry Champion, sponsored by Minerva, opens today. The winner of this prestigious award will be announced live at the hybrid event on 21st March. The shortlist for the remaining awards will be released on Wednesday […]
The state of play in the property market
Predictions for the 2023 property market continue to vary wildly as economic and social issues continue to create uncertainty in the property market. In the last week Estate Agency membership and training body Propertymark released its review of 2022 and predictions for 2023, RICS released it’s latest industry sentiment report and data from property portals […]
Crisis in local government will slow plans for progress
A local government workforce crisis is threatening vital local services – particularly relied on by those who urgently need support – with more than 9 in 10 councils experiencing staff recruitment and retention difficulties, a new survey reveals. The Local Government Association, which represents councils across England, has published its 2022 Workforce Survey which identifies […]
Industry urged to get behind National Conveyancing Week 2023
A National Conveyancing Week, designed to inform, educate, assist, motivate, reassure, help recruit new entrants, improve the profile of conveyancers and conveyancing, and ensure fees can be set at and kept at an acceptable level, is just under 3 months away with Supporters from across the conveyancing industry lending their support. Formally launched at the […]
Nearly 1m transactions from January to August 2022
Transaction volumes topped nearly 1.5m in 2021 and strong demand has continued to drive a buoyant market in 2022 with 908,509 residential transactions up to the end of August 2022 compared to 724,088 in the same period in the previous year. A conveyancing market report from IRN Legal Reports also indicated that the market value […]
What’s happening with Local Land Charges?
The intended centralisation of the Local Land Charges registers has been well documented; but it’s not the only item on the agenda for Local Land Charge teams. In this latest Today’s Conveyancer Podcast host David Opie is joined by Land Data Chief Executive Fiona Barron, Pat Morgan, Chair of the Local Land Charges Institute, and […]
NHQB launched to give greater protections to new build buyers
The New Homes Quality Board (NHQB) has been launched to ensure new build home buyers are granted more protections on their purchases. The NHQB has introduced a new Consumer Code which includes a broad range of requirements for developers to ease consumers fears in the house purchasing process. The Consumer Code was finalised following a […]
Bank of England figures show boom in mortgage approvals for August
Latest figures show boom in mortgage approvals, reversing pattern shown in previous months Following a week of turmoil for the property industry the latest figures from the Bank of England (BoE) have shown that approvals increased in August, reversing a spiral of downward trends seen for the last several months. Figures show approvals increased to […]
Diary of a high street conveyancer: 3rd October 2022
What a week – again! A week in which we were called on to dig deep and act as Agony Uncles and Aunts to our clients. Much of this week was not about property law, but a matter of reassuring clients as best we could. Some of the questions I have been asked this week […]
A week of turmoil for the property industry
Following the announcement last week of the immediate cutting of Stamp Duty Land Tax, alongside a host of other tax cutting measures announced by Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, there has been significant conjecture about the state of the economy. The value of the Pound against the US Dollar hit a record low; the interest rate rise […]
HBSG has taken industry as far as it can without government intervention
The government needs to step in to mandate reforms that promise to revolutionise the home buying and selling process, a roundtable organised by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) has heard. Speakers at the annual stakeholder event also highlighted recruitment issues in the conveyancing market, after the huge surge of work during the post-lockdown stamp […]
Index reveals the fastest and slowest regions to complete transactions
Five fastest and slowest areas in England and Wales to complete property purchases A new index has highlighted the fastest, and slowest, areas in the country for transaction times. The index calculates the average time it takes between the day when a property is marked as sold (subject to contract – SSTC) and the registration […]
Property market downturn yet to materialise as transactions rocket in August
Homemovers not put off by interest rate hikes as Land Registry data shows boost in transactions during August Suggestions of an imminent downturn are beginning to unwind as UK residential property transactions soared once again in August 2022, despite successive interest rate rises over previous months making borrowing more expensive. According to the latest data […]
The new normal: what does it really mean?
In a post-pandemic society “the new normal” has come to symbolise the way in which our personal and business lives have changed following the significant upheaval of the last 2 years. But what does a “new normal” mean in the property industry? Following a survey of over 700 property professionals we can reveal exactly what it means […]
Home insurance quotes with subsidence history increases by 637%
Home insurance quotes with a history of subsidence claims have risen by a staggering 637% over the last 10 years, new research has revealed. This is partly due to an increase in subsidence issues. Between 2012 and 2021, there was an average annual increase of 27.8% for home insurance quotes, according to GoCompare Home Insurance. The […]
Diary of a high street conveyancer; 1st August 2022
Watching the amazing sports events at the Commonwealth Games, I thought about how long these athletes train for and their dedication to their chosen sport. I then thought about conveyancing, and I know that there are no Olympics for conveyancing, but I do believe that to become a good conveyancer you need to learn about […]
