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Property Report Infographics – May 2020

Posted on by James Crabtree

Highlights from the May 2020 property report:-

  • House prices annual change percentage – December 2019 data
    Wales has a 3.4% gain when compared to last year, whereas the East of England shows a 1.5% loss
  • House prices annual change percentage – two year comparison (December 2019/18/17 data)
    Leicestershire shows the most combined growth – 8.5% (2018), 2.9% (2019) & 4.7% (2020). Rutland follows closely behind with 10.2% (2018), 2.1% (2019) and 2% (2020).
  • Sales trend Q1 2020 sales comparison by County
    Counties were on average 52.5% down on last quarter and 47.1% down on Q1 2019. This huge downturn in sales was most likely down to the Coronavirus pandemic and its global effect on the nation.
  • Mortgage lenders – market share 2018
    58% of all mortgage lending in the UK goes through the top five providers

Coronavirus – an update from Severn Trent Searches

Posted on by Iain Robertson

We hope you’re all well in these challenging times.

Due to the current COVID-19 crisis, Severn Trent Searches have made some changes to the way we work.

Our staff are still working to provide as normal a service as possible. We have had to temporarily close our Nottingham office, but are all working remotely, and able to offer the majority of our services.

We are able to complete CON29DW searches as normal, and the majority of our suppliers are also offering a complete service. Some local authorities however have understandably had to reduce or halt production of CON29 and LLC1 searches as they prioritise their resources. Any updates we receive regarding affected services are posted in the news section of our website.

During this period, our usual phone numbers, email and postal addresses will continue to function as normal. Full details can be found on our contact page.

Most importantly, stay safe and we look forward to hearing from you as normal.

Update from Stratford-Upon-Avon land charges

Posted on by Iain Robertson

Stratford-Upon-Avon District Council have provided us with the following update regarding their CON29 and LLC1 searches:

“In adhering to government advice Stratford-on-Avon District Council have had to make a decision on which services they can viably sustain during the current Coronavirus Emergency.

As Land Charge systems do not facilitate homeworking in part or full Stratford-on-Avon District Council have temporarily suspended the acceptance of any NEW search requests (Official and Personal). We aim to try and complete all those currently committed in the system as soon as possible in order of date received (oldest to newest).

At the point we are able to resume accepting new (Official and Personal) search requests we will inform all our customers and update our website accordingly.

We will do all we can to work through our backlog.”

The council had previously announced that they would be implementing new prices for these searches in April. They currently intend to review these once they reopen.

Changes to Landmark commercial searches from 18th April

Posted on by Iain Robertson

Update 06/04/20: Landmark will still be decommissioning the Riskview Commercial and Sitecheck Flood searches as planned, but the price increase has been postponed. Prices have been removed from this post. 

Landmark Information Group have announced some changes to their range of commercial searches from 18th April.

The RiskView Commercial and Sitecheck Flood searches will both be decommissioned from this date.

Landmark advises that Riskview Commercial customers instead order Sitesolutions Combined.

The company are also making some changes to price of their Utilities Reports, Sitecheck Combined and Sitecheck Planning reports once the current health crisis is over:

Thames Water Property Searches

Posted on by Iain Robertson

Updated 21/05/20

Thames are now operating again remotely without issue. Orders should continue to be sent to them as normal.

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Thames Water have closed their property searches department during the current crisis. During this period we will not be able to obtain searches for properties within the Thames region, or complete searches in cross-border areas.

Their statement reads as follows:

“During these challenging times, we’ve made the decision to focus our resources on our first business priority – continuing to supply water and wastewater services , while keeping our customers and staff safe. This means that our property searches will be impacted. We’ve closed for now and will be pausing all current services.

“We’re sorry for the inconvenience this has caused and thank you for your patience during this time.”