Residential sales and letting agent, Mansons in the North East, shares its checklist of cost cutting tips to help reduce energy and maintenance costs As a tenant, you have far less control over implementing money-saving measures in your home than the average homeowner but that doesn’t mean that the amount you spend is already set […]
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Society reverses June decision following announcement of tax holiday on certain homes
Nationwide building society has returned to the high loan-to-value mortgage market, cutting the deposits it requests from first-time buyers following last week’s announcement of a stamp duty holiday.
But in a sign that lenders are uncertain about the direction of the housing market, it has capped loans at 90% and introduced new hurdles for would-be borrowers.
Continue reading...I’m worried we won’t be eligible for the stamp duty cut as my fiance owns a flat he can’t sell
Q I live with my fiance, who part-owns a one-bedroom flat in south London through a shared- ownership scheme. He has been trying to sell the flat for two years so that we can buy a house together and start a family. However, due to issues with the fire safety of the insulation in the development, he is unable to sell the flat as no banks will lend a mortgage on the property.
The housing association with which he co-owns the property has said that he can sub-let the flat, so we can move out, then sell the property once the work to replace the insulation is finished (this has no date yet and we suspect it may take years, not months). However, this would mean that he is technically buying a second home, so we wouldn’t be eligible for the new cut to stamp duty. Our budget is already tight as we don’t have the money from the sale of his flat, so this could be the difference between being able to buy another home and not.
Continue reading...If you are buying a property, or own one already, that is on a shared private road, there are some things you should be aware of to avoid unnecessary expense or conflict with the road’s owner or you neighbours. This article considers the issues that can arise in relation to shared private roads and how […]
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Having green fingers is not as complicated as you might think
After months of self-isolating, this weekend I masked-up and joined the queue for my garden centre. As someone who normally visits nurseries or plant shops at least twice a week, it was a huge relief to be surrounded by all the greenery. But perhaps what was even more exciting were the enormous numbers of young people waiting patiently in line to get a houseplant fix. Working in an industry that has struggled for decades to figure out how to make itself relevant and accessible to those under 50, it’s wonderful to finally see a new generation discovering the joys of the natural world through indoor gardening.
But with so much frankly terrible advice on houseplants out there (ironically on the very social media platforms that have created this new flowering of interest), I also had to repress the desperate compulsion to advise the 20-somethings on the plants they were buying. However, doling out unsolicited advice is a bit more socially acceptable in a magazine column than to random people in queues, so here are my top tips for those starting out on their adventure in the great indoors.
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