Developers who want to build 81 homes on green belt land in Bookham have been branded "opportunists" by villagers.
Gleeson Developments has submitted an application to Mole Valley District Council to construct the homes on 12 acres of grass and scrubland in Guildford Road.
However, Bookham Vanguard, the group charged by the district council with identifying land for development in the village, says the company has jumped the gun. Read more...
The divide in house prices between the North and South of the country grew more pronounced in the past year as property price falls in some Northern regions contrasted with 10 per cent average gains in the capital.
Average property prices in London have surged higher over the last year with the cost of the average property in the capital now 9.6 per cent higher than twelve months ago at £374,568.
That compares to an increase across the country was a whole of just 0.9 per cent, while some areas suffered hefty falls. House prices in the North East during the same 12 months plummeted 5.5 per cent.
Boom and bust: homeowners in different parts ofEngland and Wales have seen wild variations in the value of their homes.
The North East is now the only region in England and Wales where potential home owners could buy an average property for less than £100,000, with the typical home in the region costing £97,033.
The Land Registry said average house prices across England and Wales rose 0.1 per cent between February and March. The average cost of a property in England and Wales is now £161,793, it said.
But that compared to a 2.5 per cent surge in house prices in the capital last month while in the North West house prices fell by the same percentage and now stand at £106,537.
In total, 47,600 properties changed hands in March, ranging from as little as £14,000 to £12.5million.
The £12.5million property which sold in March was in the London district of Kensington - the most expensive place in the UK in which to live. The cheapest sale in March 2013 at £14,000 was located in Burnley in Lancashire.
Sales were significantly below previous monthly averages. From October 2011 to January 2012 there was an average of 56,445 sales per month. In the same months a year later, the figure was 54,810. In more positive news for the property market, the Land Registry said repossessions fell 18 per cent in the year from 1,602 in January 2012 to 1,317 at the start of this year.
The Land Registry said the most up-to-date figures available for January showed house prices sales fell 5 per cent year-on-year to 41,763 compared with 43,752 in January 2012.
The number of properties sold in England and Wales for over £1million in January 2013 increased by 28 per cent to 610 from 476 in January 2012.
Graph showing the average annual change in residential property prices across England and Wales.
London and Wales were the only regions to see an increase in repossessions over the past year, rising 28 per cent and 24 per cent respectively.
The Land Registry data comes as a separate report out today showed property prices rose 0.3 per cent in April - powered by a London market that is showing signs it has recovered to 2007 levels.
Hometrack, which measures house price growth using data submitted by estate agents, said house prices rose for the third consecutive month, with 0.7 per cent growth in London behind the increase in property prices.
Demand heavily outstripped supply, with interest from new buyers registering with estate agents in the capital growing threetimes faster than the rate of homes coming on the market over the last three months, the study said.
Elements of the London market recovered to levels not seen since the property boom in 2007, with the typical proportion of the asking price achieved on property sales at over 95 per cent compared with 93 per cent in the rest of the country.
And homes in the capital now take around four-and-a-half weeks to sell, half the national average and the quickest-selling time seen since 2007.
Across the country, the length of time it takes to sell a home has been cut from almost 10 weeks in January to nine weeks by April. Across southern regions it now takes less than two months to sell a house on average, although across the Midlands and northern regions it still takes over 10 weeks, and the average selling time in the East Midlands is 13 weeks.
Table showing the average annual change in residential property prices.
Elsewhere, Halifax said new build house prices have risen 3 per cent faster than other property type in five years.
A report published by the bank today said the typical new build home price across England and Wales had risen 12 per cent since 2007 to £233,822, compared to 9 per cent for the rest of the market, but there were sharp variations across the country.
Read more...
London homes changed hands at the fastest pace since 2007 in April as the capital’s property market drove a third month of U.K. house-price increases, according to Hometrack Ltd.
Average values in England and Wales increased 0.3 percent, the same as in March, which was the largest gain in three years, the London-based property researcher said in an e-mailed statement today. In the U.K. capital, prices jumped 0.7 percent and homes stayed on the market for an average of 4.6 weeks, the least since October 2007.
“The real driver of price rises in April has been the London market where demand has grown three times faster than supply over the last quarter,” said Richard Donnell, director of research at Hometrack. In the city, “key market indicators, such as the time on the market, are now back to levels last seen” during the peak in 2007, he said. Read more...
Hart in the northeast of Hampshire is the best place to live in the UK, according to a new survey measuring quality of life.
Its residents are healthier, better paid and better educated than your average Briton, and there is plenty of green space to stretch your legs.
The location of Hart district makes it almost perfect for the commuter lifestyle being about an hour's drive from both London and the South Coast.
In Hartley Wintney, one of Hart's most desirable villages, the quality of life index is pretty good. Read more...
More than 1,500 square miles of open countryside - over twice the area covered by greater London - needs to be built on to meet housing demand, the Government’s planning minister has said.
Nick Boles, a Conservative minister who was appointed in the September reshuffle, also risked offending millions of people living in England's suburbs by describing many of them as “pig ugly” in a speech, singling out an estate in Purfleet, near Thurrock, Essex as a particular example. Read more...
Investment in student accommodation in the UK reached a record £2.7 billion in 2012, a 125% increase on that invested in 2011, new research has revealed.
Despite an overall decline in the number of students, investment in accommodation has risen rapidly over the last three years and is now nearly eight times higher than in 2009, according to an analysis by property consultants CBRE. Read more...
England must accept the building of homes on undeveloped land for the sake of the younger generation, planning minister Nick Boles said today (January 10).
In a speech at the Policy Exchange, Boles said that the prospect of home ownership – a “moral right” - was slipping away for many. He blamed the predicament on the failure of previous governments to release enough land for development, and inflated house prices triggered by restricted home building. Read more...
Huge areas of green belt land are to be given up around the country to make way for new houses and building developments despite government pledges to preserve this protected part of the countryside.
The Telegraph has established that more than 9,000 acres of land – an area the same size as the city of Gloucester – is set to be removed from the Green Belt by local authorities following the Coalition’s controversial planning reforms.
Read more...Unlike many other assets farm land in the UK has continued rising in value throughout this year, a trend analysts expect to continue into 2013 and beyond.
One of the key factors helping to support values is the dwindling supply of farmland available to buy, according to the latest research from Savills. Read more...
Controversial plans to build 250 homes on green belt in Benfleetare set to go on display. Developer Persimmon Homes is gearing up to submit an application to build hundreds of homes on Jotmans Hall Farm, off Jotmans Lane.
Worried neighbours fear it could be the tip of the iceberg as the company’s former proposals for the site was for 600 homes. Read more...
More than 250,000 homes must be built each year to tackle the "serious dysfunction" in England's housing market, experts are warning.
Campaign group Housing Voice called on the government to take emergency action to tackle the property "crisis" including extending help with deposits for first time buyers into the existing property market rather than just new builds.
Read more...Nick Boles was appointed as planning minister in last week's reshuffle. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian.
Green-belt land in England should be freed up for new housingdevelopments, according to a centre-right thinktank established by the new planning minister, Nick Boles.
In a report which warns of a "failing cycle" on planning, Policy Exchange says releasing 2% of English land for development would allow for the building of an extra 8m homes. Read more...
Annual planning permissions have slumped to record lows, with less than 25,000 recorded in the second quarter of 2012.
According to a survey of residential planning data compiled for the Home Builders Federation by Glenigan, the 12 months to Q2 2012 saw the lowest number of permissions since the survey began in 2006. Read more...
George Osborne’s push to reform planning laws and allow building on green belt land has come under attack from the country’s most senior planning officer.
Malcolm Sharp, president of the Planning Officers’ Society, said the proposals would fail because developers' lack of finance and the weak state of the economy were the obstacles to building and not red tape.
'I don’t think that it is the planning system that is the issue. It’s the wider economy,' he said. Read more...
England is suffering a massive housing crisis. There simply aren’t enough decent, affordable homes.
- More than two million people find their rent or mortgage a constant struggle or are falling behind with payments.
- Against a background of mounting debt across the country, huge numbers of homeowners are having their homes repossessed, because they are no longer able to keep up with their mortgage repayments.
- Second home ownership is pricing local people out of many rural areas.
- Over 1.7 million households are currently waiting for social housing.
- Some homeless households - many with dependent children - wait for years in temporary accommodation.
- Families renting privately on low incomes have to put up with poor living conditions and little security.
- The number of new households is increasing faster than the number of house builds.
- And at the sharpest end, many hundreds of people sleep rough on the streets every night, cold and fearing for their safety.
Cambridge’s green belt “must be loosened” if the city is to retain its status as a centre of high-tech business, academic and medical excellence. That’s the view of Mark Hyde, director of planning at Cambridge consultant surveyors Januarys, who welcomes the green belt review currently being undertaken by Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council.
He hopes it will identify areas of land that can be developed to provide much needed new housing and work places. Read more...
The application by housebuilder Barratt Homes was for outline permission for an urban extension comprising up to 350 homes with associated infrastructure, a cycleway and footpath network, 51.5 hectares of open space, landscaping and local community facilities.
The plans were called by the secretary of state in May 2011 and public inquiry was held in October last year. Read more...
An attempt to use greenbelt land to build 1,000 houses between Bristol and Bath has been thrown out.
Liberal Democrat-controlled Bath and North East Somerset Council (Banes) had wanted to build on brownfield sites.
But the Planning Inspectorate had questioned the feasibility of the plans and suggested it needed an alternative.
The ruling Liberal Democrats backed a motion to identify land outside Keynsham for up to 700 homes but the opposition rejected it. Read more...
UK Coal has announced plans to build more than 1,000 houses on the site of a former South Yorkshire colliery.
The development would see 1,200 properties at Rossington near Doncaster, marking the third stage of a £100m redevelopment. Read more...
In each case the Secretary of State agreed with the recommendations of the planning inspector who held the resulting public inquiries. Two were recovered appeals (one for two sites at Horsforth near Leeds) while one – for a location in Essex Green Belt - was a call-in.
The largest scheme - for an urban extension to Swindon by Swindon Gateway Partnership, on land south of Marlborough Road (A4259) adjoining the Great Western Hospital – had been refused by the borough council after considerable local opposition from residents. Read more...
Boris Johnson has won the London mayoral election after a close run fight with Labour’s Ken Livingstone. Read more...
With the number of new homes being built in Britain at the lowest level for almost a century, developers are accused of hoarding land and waiting for house prices to rise. But others blame the planning system and say reforms will lead to much needed new housing. Fred Attewill investigates. Read more...
More new homes needed to meet anticipated rise in Liverpool's population.
House builders need to construct as many as 41,000 new homes in Liverpool over the next 15 years in order to cater for growing demand for properties in the city, according to research.
The new Core Strategy by Liverpool council has set out where new homes developments should be built in the city until 2028, based on future demand on the back of an anticipated rise in the local population. Read more...
1. The Government strongly believes that the key to successful planning is in enabling the building of communities that are attractive and good to live in and the promotion of sustainable development through an up-to-date Local Plan.
2. Through reforms set out in the Localism Act, the Government wants to:
- restore democratic and local control over the planning system;
- rebalance the system in favour of sustainable development; and
- produce a simpler, quicker, cheaper, less bureaucratic planning system.
Key reforms to achieve these objectives include the abolition of regional strategies, the introduction of neighbourhood planning, and the simplification and streamlining of the process of preparing Local Plans. Read more...
Business and conservationists should be able to "unite behind" revised planning rules for England, say ministers.
The guidelines, which have been amended after arguments about their effect on the countryside, include encouraging development on brownfield sites. Read more...
Controversial reforms to the planning system have been unveiled but campaigners say they amount to a licence to concrete over the countryside.
The new draft of the National Planning Policy Framework has been published and cuts the current 1,000 pages of planning rules to just 50. Read more...
Planning minister Greg Clark has today announced the publication of the National Planning Policy Framework, designed to simplify the complex planning system and boost growth. Read more...
More than 100 communities eager to trial new rights that give local people powers to bring jobs and homes to their area and shape development were announced today by Communities Minister Bob Neill.
The areas are some of the first preparing to use new neighbourhood planning powers introduced in the Localism Act. Neighbourhood planning is an innovative part of the Government's localism agenda and ensures people for the first time have a major say in shaping development in their area. Communities can help determine where development should go and can decide the type and design of development that can be granted automatic planning permission, through a Neighbourhood Development Order. Read more...
The extent of the surge in UK farmland prices has driven foreign buyers and pension funds to the sidelines, leaving farmers to pay prices more than double those three years ago, property consultancy Savills said.
The number of overseas buyers tumbled to 3% of the total last year, down from 26% in 2006, when Irish and Danish purchasers led a wave of foreign investment.
Indeed, Danish investors were, for a second year, net sellers of UK farmland.
Meanwhile, corporate and institutional investors, including pension funds, accounted for 13% of sales, double the proportion seen in 2010, Savills said, noting "a lot more caution amongst the financial sector".
'Probably due to profit-taking' Read more...
The amount of farmland being bought and sold rose sharply in parts of Yorkshire last year with more farmers looking to expand their own farms or buy up new land, research has shown.
Figures released by real estate advisers Savills showed six out of 10 buyers of farmland were farmers, with less land having been bought by private landowners. Read more...