Lettings
Scottish rents start 2018 on a high despite December drop
Research reveals the best and worst performing regions for rent in Scotland during 2017
News
Law
EYE NEWSFLASH! Judge dismisses landlord Fergus Wilson’s lawsuit against YouTube vlogger
The landlord was instead ordered to pay £3,000 costs at Yeovil County Court
Finance
Nearly a third of shareholders rebel against Zoopla boss’s £62m incentive scheme
Daily Mail boss Lord Rothermere elected as ZPG director
Agency
OTM ‘not a threat’ to leading portals, broker asserts
Broker maintains 'buy' rating on ZPG as it warns OTM's considerable marketing spend may still not be enough to catch its rivals
Finance
Mortgage approvals for house purchase shrink to three-year low
Latest gloomy data for property is confirmed by Bank of England
Law
Former letting agency boss charged with fraud, false accounting and theft
Letting agent in £450,000 charges
Agency
Buyer registrations slump by a third, NAEA figures suggest
Registrations drop but NAEA is cheered by an increase in first-time buyers in the market last month
Agency
Agent Provocateur: Alison Platt’s Countrywide missed a trick but at £1 it’s now a cheap buy
Battered Countrywide still has so much inherent 'rightness'
Finance
Interest-only mortgage timebomb puts owners at risk of losing homes, FCA warns
City watchdog calls for home owners to communicate early with their lender about repaying interest-only loans
Agency
Savills clarifies auction guide prices after complaint to advertising watchdog
Complaint about 'misleading' auction guide prices informally resolved
Acquisitions
LSL keeps its war chest stocked by renewing £100m credit facility
LSL snaps up financial services firm for over £5m
Politics
Alarm bells sound as residential sales collapse to 850,000
Official sales volume numbers make for gloomy reading, as transactions in 2017 approach 2013 lows
Compliance
CIELA puts in another complaint to advertising watchdog about Purplebricks
Purplebricks 'in breach of Advertising Standards Authority ruling', claims CIELA
Compliance
‘Make rules on tenancy default fees clear or agents could face costly PPI-style claims’, MPs warned
MPs urged to clarify rules on default fees and deposit replacement products and to ensure agents can't run off with deposits and rent if they go bust
Compliance
New register of homes owned by offshore companies could give criminals a ‘hit list’ of victims, claim
Tax expert says new property register could hand criminal underworld everything they need to track down their victims
Agency
Online commercial agent claims to have taken biggest-ever single instruction
Online agent says commercial property market 'ripe for disruption'
Compliance
New HMO rules expected in October amid warning that complexity of licensing is driving landlords out
Housing Minister reveals that extension to mandatory licensing is due later this year
Acquisitions
Investment firm forks out more than £100m for three proptech businesses
Proptech investment firm makes £116m worth of investments in the sector within just a few days
Finance
Landlords’ Barometer – #55: ‘Landlord cannabalism’ and tough tax positions – will this be Section 24’s legacy?
Signs emerge of just how tough the implications of Section 24 are going to be to deal with for landlords in the private rented sector
Agency
Agent ‘not entitled’ to commission after selling a neighbouring property for more, court rules
STORY UPDATE: Agents told they were not entitled to fee by court are to appeal