Monthly Archives: October 2013

Taylor Wimpey’s Pete Redfern reacts to Ed Miliband’s “use it or lose it” land grab ultimatum

Pete Redfern, Taylor Wimpey’s CEO, went on the offensive on Monday in a blog Pete Redfernon the company’s website regarding Ed Miliband’s announcement during the Labour Party conference last week, that if elected, he will introduce a “use it or lose it” policy on land banks with planning approval, if house builders fail to build on them.

Redfern joined the growing list of builder CEO’s to bemoan the planning system saying: “the greatest challenge for our industry is getting sites through our slow and complex planning system, and then getting them started as quickly as possible”

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAHe denied that house builders were sitting on land with planning permission in order to benefit from increases in land value and house prices, claiming: “if we could be criticised for anything, it is rushing the final stages too quickly to get a new site open – born out of frustration with a planning process which has often taken many months longer than expected”

Redfern was particularly critical of planning conditions, which he said: “can be as many as 100 but the average is around 25. They can vary from obtaining a ‘newt licence’ to approval for a road access layout.”

Continue reading

Share this:
Share this page via Email Share this page via Stumble Upon Share this page via Digg this Share this page via Facebook Share this page via Twitter

Estate Agents are after easy sales not best prices

Even without David Cameron mad decision to bring forward Help to Buy (2) the state-backed mortgage indemnity for lenders by three months, the housing market is already doing quite nicely.

The latest data from Sequence, a national network of 300 estate agents shows, the number of new buyers has risen 58% in the last 12 months and UK house prices are rising at 7% a year.

House pircesAs the housing bubble inflates, with buyers finding they can borrow more for less and sellers reacting to the increased demand by raising asking prices, estate agents are cleaning up. So much so that they are focusing on ‘easy’ sales rather than ‘best price’ sales, by grading buyers according to their potential ability to complete the deal quickly, without any delay or complications. Showing houses to the best buyers first – those most likely to be able to complete the quickest and easiest. According to Francis Long of buyer’s agent Hanslips, top of their list are buyers with cash.

Continue reading

Share this:
Share this page via Email Share this page via Stumble Upon Share this page via Digg this Share this page via Facebook Share this page via Twitter

Government invites house builders to apply for £400million Build to Rent fund

House builders are being offered a share of a new £400 million government investment scheme, to help encourage the building of new homes specifically for private rental. Now for the first time, the government is offering support for developers and investors looking to move into the private rental market.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAHousing Minister, Mark Prisk recently said this new ‘Build to Rent’ scheme, will encourage people to invest in the untapped private rental market and offer a better choice and quality of homes for those looking to rent a home. Whilst acknowledging the housing market was “turning the corner” he said: “I want to go further, which is why I’m inviting bids for a share of up to half a billion pounds to help build a bigger, better private rented sector.”

Continue reading

Share this:
Share this page via Email Share this page via Stumble Upon Share this page via Digg this Share this page via Facebook Share this page via Twitter