Any hint of positive news in the property market at the moment is inevitable followed by the phrase “despite Brexit”. So it was this week with news that last month UK banks approved the highest number of mortgages since 2017. In this blog, I look at the state of the property and lending market (with …
Will cautious developers miss out due to Brexit gloom?
If the press is to be believed, the Brexit shenanigans have triggered a sluggish property market. What’s more, they say, there is little chance of it improving any time soon. But how true is this? Is there are a risk that over-cautious developers are going to miss out? I was heartened to read this in …
Positive news for property developers as we head into 2019
We wouldn’t suggest 2018 has been an easy year for smaller developers but as the new year approaches, we think there are plenty of grounds for positive thinking. In our recent blog about the autumn budget, we suggested that developers should be cautiously optimistic about the steps the government it taking to help them build, …
Autumn budget is good news for smaller developers
Property developers should be cautiously optimistic about the proposals in Philip Hammond’s autumn budget aimed at helping councils and developers build new homes. But do they go far enough? The good news for property developers in the autumn budget is that the government is taking practical steps to help smaller developers build new homes. Chancellor …
A Guide to Mezzanine Finance for Property Developers now available for download
These are challenging times for small developers and housebuilders. In 1988 there were 12,200 small housebuilders in the UK but this had fallen to just 2,400 by 2014. These are alarming statistics for the industry at a time when the challenge to build enough new homes for the UK population has never been greater. One …
Is the land market the root cause of the UK’s housing crisis?
The conventional wisdom is that rocketing house prices have caused the UK’s broken housing market. But a new report claims that the real culprit is the land market and has called on the government to stop landowners raking in huge profits from land speculation. Few people would disagree that the UK housing market needs urgent …