020 7538 0102
29th January 2016
In an interview with The Wharf, Tower Hamlets Mayor John Biggs discusses the planning legacy of his predecessor, Lutfor Rahman, describing it as “a very stressful issue, especially on the Isle of Dogs”, where he is keen to address concerns about housing density. He comments: “We’re reviewing our Local Plan but when you’re close to a very good transport hub like Canary Wharf you probably can get some denser developments there, it makes sense. But you have to make sure the services are there too and you need to resist the temptation for developers to stick a few more floors on their buildings”.
The Wharf (27/01/2016)
29th January 2016
Nationwide has warned that house prices are set to continue rising through 2016. Average house price growth eased to 0.3% this month from December's eight-month high of 0.8%. Robert Gardner, chief economist at the building society, said the pace of growth remained broadly stable: "The concern remains that construction activity will lag behind strengthening demand, putting upward pressure on house prices and eventually reducing affordability." Nationwide said the average price of a property in the UK was £196,829 in January.
The Daily Telegraph (28/01/2016)
29th January 2016
House buyers put down an average deposit of £81,721 in December, a 15% increase year-on-year and the highest level since the Mortgage Advice Bureau began collating the figures in 2009. "An inevitable repercussion of rising house prices is that higher deposits are required," Brian Murphy, head of lending at the MAB, said. The research also revealed that the average buyer's loan-to-value fell to 68.2% in December, the lowest LTV since June 2010. The MAB also recorded a 2.9% fall in the average salary of homebuyers from £39,983 in December 2014 to £38,820 last month.
The Times (27/01/2016)
22nd January 2016
Docklands Property Matters is proud to announce its membership of OnTheMarket.com, a direct competitor to Rightmove and Zoopla.
As a consequence, it will be advertising all of its properties from now on at OnTheMarket.com which features hundreds of thousands of properties for sale and to rent at all price points across the UK.
The portal has created a sea change in the online property search market since its launch in January 2015, and has attracted overall support from 6,000 estate and letting agent offices across the UK - of which more than 90% are contracted offices. The balance is from firms which have signed a Letter of Intent expressing their support and their intention to join as members when total support reaches 7,500 offices.
OnTheMarket.com has become a ‘must-view’ website for the key audience of serious property-seekers.
OnTheMarket.com is a mutual organisation without the requirement to feed dividends to external shareholders. The board includes senior representatives of Chestertons, Douglas & Gordon, Glentree Estates, Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, Knight Frank, Savills, Spicerhaart and Strutt & Parker.
All of these firms are advertising their properties at OnTheMarket.com and all of them are launching their new-to-market properties there in advance of advertising them on any other portal: typically 24 to 48 hours ahead.* This provides an extra and compelling reason for serious property-seekers to visit the portal and to return.
OnTheMarket.com member agents commit to advertise their properties on no more than one other competing portal. In practice, this means in most cases removing their properties from either Rightmove or Zoopla. Around 90% of OnTheMarket.com's members have chosen to remain with Rightmove and less than 10% have retained Zoopla.
The property search at OnTheMarket.com is slick, simple, fast and state-of-the-art, compatible with the latest technologies. The website adapts seamlessly to fit the screen of any device being used to view it. There is no clutter from irritating and distracting third party adverts, nor any spam email.
The properties are the “heroes” of the search, with great prominence given to the size and quality of the all-important photographs. Every property at OnTheMarket.com is marketed by a locally-based estate or letting agent because OnTheMarket.com knows the majority of the public recognises the benefits of having a local professional agent who can manage the sales or lettings process on their behalf. OnTheMarket.com does not feature properties marketed by online-only "agents".
22nd January 2016
House prices across the UK accelerated in the year to November, rising 7.7%, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), with the average cost of a UK home reaching a record £288,000. The East of England continued to see the sharpest increase, at 10.2%, with London and the South East seeing rises of 9.8%. Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight, said he expects house prices to rise by around 6% in 2016.
The Daily Telegraph (20/01/2015)
22nd January 2016
Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London, has vowed to double house-building in the capital, pledging to ensure homes are built at a rate of 30,000 a year by the end of his first mayoral term. Launching his campaign, Mr Goldsmith also said he will introduce a “Londoners First” policy that will see any homes built on mayoral land sold to people who have lived or worked in London for at least three years and don't already own a home.
Evening Standard (20/01/2015)