The upward trend in house prices continues unabated but there are still ways you can add value to your home. For tenants, too, there are bright spots on the horizon with a promise of further government aid for affordable housing and the removal of financial barriers for those tenants wanting to keep pets.
These are just some of the headlines to feature in the property pages of the media so let’s take a closer look.
How to add value to your home
It takes an average of just longer than four months from first listing a home for sale until completion. But there are a few simple tricks not only to smoothing this passage of time but also increasing the eventual sale price of your home by as much as £40,000, according to an article in Property Wire on the 2nd of September:
- by taking a closer look at the condition of the walls and around door and window frames, for instance, simply filling in and making good all the cracks you find could fetch an extra £9,000 or more on the value of your home;
- look after the garden – the outside space has become especially important to house hunters freed from the recent stay-at-home lockdowns;
- give the place a lick of paint and redecorate in currently fashionable tones and styles – the article suggests you go Scandi with neutral tones, luscious houseplants and splashes of colour; and
- make sure you’ve tidied up and given your home a thorough spring clean. Failure to do so could knock off more than £9,000 from its value.
Over £8.5bn to be spent on 119,000 affordable homes
A further £8.6 billion has been promised by the government for its Affordable Housing Programme revealed a story by the online listings website Zoopla on the 31st of August.
The new injection of funds is expected to pay for the development of as many as 119,000 new affordable homes. Some 57,000 of these will be earmarked for those eager to get a first foot on the housing ladder by buying their own home.
A further 29,600 will be reserved for social rent. Some 6,250 affordable homes will also be built specifically in rural areas.
Government says ‘’No” to separate fees for pets in lets
In an important note of clarification, the government has made clear that the Tenant Fees Act – which prevents landlords or their agents from charging tenants certain fees – also prevents making any kind of charge for insurance or a special deposit against the risk of damage by pets owned by tenants.
The clarification was given during a written answer given in Parliament by the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick, reported Landlord Today on the 8th of September.
In February of this year, we posted reports by the National Residential Landlords’ Association (NRLA) about the government’s release of a new model tenancy agreement for use by landlords that chose to use it and which gave encouragement to those tenants who wanted to keep a well-behaved pet in the home they rented.
Although landlords are not required to use the model tenancy agreement, those that do are indicating their willingness to accommodate tenants with pets.
UK house prices hit record high despite cut in stamp duty break
The average price of a home in the UK reached an all-time high during August, revealed a story in the Guardian newspaper on the 7th of September.
Despite the recent halt to the major part of the Stamp Duty holiday, the average price paid for a house in August increased by a further £1,789 (0.7%) to £262,954, according to figures compiled by building society Halifax.
The story added that prices are currently 9.9% higher than when the housing market first re-opened in June 2020 after the initial restrictions of the pandemic – an average of an extra £23,600 per transaction. This is even though the rate of inflation in house prices has slowed to just 7.1%.
