Press Round Up November 2024

Tue 21 Jan 2025

In her Budget, the Chancellor resisted calls to extend the stamp duty holiday for first-time buyers (FTBs), and it will come to an end in March. Jeremy Leaf, principal of Jeremy Leaf & Co, told The Evening Standard that this was a shame: “FTBs are the engine room of the housing market and they tend to trade up regularly. They are vital to keeping the market moving.”

A reader asks whether he will have any rights if the council tax band of the house he is buying changes. Michael Zucker of Jeremy Leaf & Co told The Daily Mail: “Council tax bands are based on the market value of each residential property, remarkably, as of 1 April 1991, but if subsequent alterations and improvement such as extensions or loft conversions have been carried out, then the Valuation Office Agency may consider it appropriate to place your property in a higher band…. When purchasing a property it is a good idea to check the council tax band and the annual amount payable online rather than relying on information provided by the estate agent… the selling agent cannot guarantee that the council tax band will not change in the future as they have no control over this.” 

Latest house prices from the Land Registry show values rose the most in the North West of the country, by 4.6 per cent in the year to August, whereas the South West had the lowest annual price inflation (prices rising by just 0.8 per cent over the same period). Jeremy Leaf told Money Week: “This most comprehensive of all house-price surveys, as it includes cash and mortgage transactions, demonstrates once again considerable market strength despite reflecting activity over the past three months at a time of economic and political turbulence."

A retirement home developer has offered to pay winter fuel allowance for pensioners buying one of its properties but Jeremy Leaf warned that prospective buyers should be careful about headline rates and check whether service charges are in line with regional averages. He told The Telegraph: “Don’t be too attracted by a headline-grabbing statement, because you might find a competing company which doesn’t pay the winter fuel allowance but does charge considerably less for their service charge and other costs."

Rents rose again in October with London seeing the biggest increase in the country. Jeremy Leaf told The Financial Times: “Headline rents are still rising, partly due to continuing demand as well as landlord sales ahead of the Budget.” However, he added that some tenants were resistant to pay higher rents: “As a result, in some cases, landlords have had to adjust their expectations, although the overall trend continues upwards."