More mortgage deals are withdrawn

BBC NEWS | Business | More mortgage deals are withdrawn

Rocky times ahead, for what it's worth our enquiry levels are as good as they have been in previous years.

RICS Podcasts

A series of quite useful podcasts is now available at the RICS website all narrated by Phil Spencer of TV fame.

Get them here - Chartered Surveyors Podcasts

Nationwide Building Society House Price Index

Suggests little or no movement in house prices but also that the MPC may bring forward their indicated rate cut to April which may be good news to all.

House Prices

This all supported by the RICS Housing Market report which states:

• The RICS house price balance dropped for the seventh month in succession signalling more than half a year of negative market sentiment.
• 64.1% more Chartered Surveyors reported a fall than a rise in house prices, an increase from 54.7% in January.
• This figure is close to the historical low of June 1990 when 64.5% more Chartered Surveyors reported a fall in house prices.

Read more here

And finally...

Steve

Collier Stevens Welcomes...

... Graham Dowse FRICS. Graham has joined us as senior Chartered Surveyor and will be undertaking a good number of our house surveys and party wall jobs. Graham was previously employed by Habitus until their sad but predictable demise and brings significant skills and experience of all building types to the practice.

Halifax House Price Index

Halifax House Price Index

The latest price index shows a slowing of prices, this is in line with what we have seen in the market - more property available and a fall in demand, however our instructions remain strong and there is goof movement in the market areas we cover.

Zoopla!

Zoopla! Free value estimates, house prices, homes for sale & more

Here's an interesting site, we ran a few checks and found that there was no e-substitute for a real qualified surveyor (like us!!) doing a proper valuation, nonetheless a useful tool for "getting a steer". Not sure where they'll make their money or what shelf-life it'll have...

Mix in some subsidence and some pointing failures and...

Collier Stevens joins Independent Surveyors Association

Collier Stevens has finally joined the ISA, after years of thinking about, toying with the idea and generally not doing anything about it we finally sent of our subs and were admitted this week as members -

"An association of independent surveying and valuation practices with members throughout England and Wales able to offer independent advice to property buyers and lenders All members are professionally qualified chartered surveyors as denoted by the letters FRICS or MRICS after their name. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is the largest professional body for the property profession in the World. Click here to find out more about the RICS.
Associate members are qualified Chartered Surveyors, often with many years' experience, who run their own independent practices but where the practice has been established for less than three years. The ISA is an independent organisation whose members are either partners or sole practitioners who run their own practices and are not owned by financial or corporate institutions."

Just When You Thought it Was Getting Better...

CGT change may hit second homeowners and Buy to Let Investors| This is Money

So a neat bit of legislation apparently designed to increase the tax charge on venture capitalists is ill thought through (again) and catches out the BtL market.

RICS Information Guides

Are now available for download from www.collier-stevens.co.uk/RICS Information Guides.htm, these are really useful and cover the following topics:

• Buying a Home
• Selling a Home
• Property Surveys
• Party Walls
• Rights to Light
• Boundary Disputes
• Flooding
• Extending your Home

Best of all they're free

Nationwide puts up mortgage rates

BBC NEWS | Business | Nationwide puts up mortgage rates

Interesting property have we've surveyed this week 1

A nice conversion flat in Rochester, Grade 2 listed and really rather nice.

Rightmove details here

Go ahead for Stratford residential scheme - Property Week | Residential news - Property Week

Go ahead for Stratford residential scheme - Property Week

Health & Safety

Ever wondered why you need a hard hat, ever wondered why it's preferable to knock down a builidng from the outside, ever wondered why some people are just dopey...

Property slump? House prices in London just keep going up | Evening Standard

Property slump? House prices in London just keep going up | Evening Standard

And then of course a completely contrary view...

Bargain hunters reignite UK housing market - Times Online

Bargain hunters reignite UK housing market - Times Online

Well, what a surprise. We didn't see much of a peak around 14 December, in fact most sellers now seem to have accepted HIPS. Not of course that Estate Agents are making much use of them, yesterday an agent told us that we were the first surveyors to ask to see a HIP. We like HIPS, look past the bumf and the energy appraisal and there is good stuff in there that helps us to help you, if we know where the drains run or there is a right of way we can fully advise on extensions and alterations for instance.

steve

BBC NEWS | Business | Average house prices fall further

BBC NEWS | Business | Average house prices fall further

Yep, it's true. We're watching values fall right now, most of the stuff we've looked at this year is definitely slightly down on value from say September. Will it continue, we don't know - we're surveyors not economists - but we suspect that some onward down movement is inevitable.

steve

BBC NEWS | Business | House price gloom 'recalls 1990s'

BBC NEWS | Business | House price gloom 'recalls 1990s': "House price gloom 'recalls 1990s'"

RICS UK Housing Market Survey December 2007

RICS UK Housing Market Survey December 2007

Here it is! The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors market survey, the one that says house prices are dropping faster than they have for 10 years - well, actually it doesn't say that despite what the papers say. What it says is that most chartered surveyors are seeing prices falling slightly in their areas.

Steve - http://www.collier-stevens.co.uk

Here We Are

Welcome to the Collier Stevens blog, not quite sure how we're going to use it yet but watch this space. I think we'll have building defects, mad building things, the occassional woodworm, rants raves and everything else. We'll also keep you posted as to what our surveyors are up to in their spare time...

Steve - http://www.collier-stevens.co.uk