Helping Innovate Property (HIP) – Blog, Housing Market News and Articles

Top 40 accountants Bishop Fleming are calling on the government to be open and honest about its plans to reform National Insurance Contributions (NICs) paid by the self-employed.
The firm fears that the promised £145 a year saving for the self-employed from the scrapping of Class 2 NICs in April 2018 will be cancelled out by a corresponding tax rise. Whilst some will be better off, many could face an effective tax rise of up to 2%

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M&G Real Estate, one of the UK’s largest property investors, has announced that it will install the UK’s largest shopping centre solar panel system on the roof of The Galleries shopping centre in Washington, Tyne and Wear.

The system will comprise 1,317 individual photovoltaic panels, covering an area of 41,000 sq ft – equivalent to a professional football pitch – on an otherwise unused part of the centre. New technology to save 165 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually

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So after detailing last week how Canyon Bikes sold me wheels they decided they no wanted to supply in various places across the internet. For eg my open Facebook post to Canyon (which they were asked to comment on) after they deleted my comments on their Facebook page which obviously didn’t fit in with the image they are trying to portray; lets be honest they are doing a good job on the marketing front and I know many are tempted. However, marketing and spin is one thing but backing those claims up are where from my experience they are lacking.

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2016 proved a challenging year for the Prime Central London (PCL) property market. The past 12 months not only witnessed a marked slowdown in sales activity as Stamp Duty changes dramatically affected sentiment, but uncertainty has been a recurring theme, both before and following the UK’s Brexit vote.

With the headwinds it has been encountering, this year has seen the PCL market fragment with different dynamics driving the performance of property at the lower end and the luxury end. This has created a watershed at £1m, above which tax is having the most significant effect on investor decisions.

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Canyon Fail!! Back to old tricks or did it stop?

I bought Mavic pro carbon sl wheels and a cassette on Monday from Canyon’s 12 days of Christmas sale. I completed the transaction and checked out and entered card details. Great I thought, Merry Christmas to me. I am recovering from surgery to my back and not able to ride at present, so it was a great pick me up and something to look forward to.

The reduction in the sale price was good, RRP now of said wheels is about £1600 and I paid just over £800 for wheels and a cassette. This is a big purchase for me and not something I take lightly. Looking around on tinternet, they are fairly new model I wasn’t going to find anywhere else at this time at that price. I can hear my dad whispering as I type…. ‘Son, it it is too good to be true… it normally is…’  How apt. Was this a sale or PR? I can only wonder.

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UK landlords surveyed who use a letting agent estimate that they save £1910 a year more than if they marketed directly to tenants, according to research by Endsleigh, one of the country’s leading specialist insurance providers for letting agents, landlords and young professionals.

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Located next to the Queen, a London home has gone on sale for £250 million, looking set to smash the price record for Britain. With the average London property costing approximately £370,000, this home is worth a whopping 700 times more but boasts views of St James’s park and the biggest living space in all of central London.

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Figures released today reveal that the net number of homes added to the housing stock in England fell to a record low in 2009-10, down 23% on 2008/9.

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The Big Property List, a new Google-powered, free-to-use property portal, has been launched today, laying down the gauntlet to everyone in the business of buying, selling and renting property in the UK.

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Nationwide building society have released their latest property market report which shows that prices rose again in June but only struggled to find a 0.1% increase.

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Google UK has finally moved into the UK property market by adding additional property search functionality to Google Maps. Initial reports indicate Google have willing partners in Countrywide estate agents, Zoopla and Trinity Mirror with Rightmove as the obvious missing player in the development so far.

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