Dallas McMillan's Glasgow Lawyers' Blog

Virtually every day you open the paper there are articles about the property market, reporting, for example:-

A new assisted purchase scheme to help first-time buyers has been launched by the Scottish Government.  It is called the First Home Fund and is designed to help first-time buyers get on to the property ladder.  It is a shared equity scheme and provides up to £25,000 towards the purchase price of new builds or existing homes.  Available to first-time buyers only, it runs up to March 2021 alongside other shared equity schemes.  It does not replace the current Help To Buy Scheme which will run until March 2021.   

It is crucial that you seek legal advice as soon as you decide you sell your home. In addition to instructing a Solicitor, you will also have to instruct an Estate Agent to market your property. To ensure the sale proceeds as smoothly and as efficiently as possible, it is sensible to instruct a Solicitor whose firm also has an Estate Agency practice. There are several key advantages to you in doing so:

Following a surge of sale transactions in the northeast and East Lothian, the Scottish housing market had collective sales of £3.4 billion during January-March 2019; the highest figure recorded since the credit crunch in 2008, according to Aberdein Considine’s Property Monitor report.

According to the latest data from the Landbay rental index, Scotland recorded the highest annual rental growth across the UK at 1.78 per cent of the yer to end April 2019, and the best monthly increase of 0.15 per cent to £750. This compares with the national average, which grew just 0.96 per cent in the year, and 0.07 per cent month on month to £1,218.

During 2018, there were 34,519 first-time buyers in Scotland; a rise of 56 per cent from the 22,100 recorded ten years ago, according to recent research. Up from 37 per cent in 2008, first-time buyers now make up 50 per cent of all house purchases with a mortgage in Scotland, the Bank of Scotland data reveals.

A recent survey of more than 1,000 individuals revealed that half of Scottish homeowners expect the value of their house to fall after Brexit, while only three per cent believed their house value would rise.

Developer Drum Property Group has announced plans for the new G3 Square development on Minerva Street, Finnieston, which will feature a selection of apartments and penthouses set within a landscaped outdoor space.

Property portal Zoopla announced that Scotland was the fastest-rising region in the UK property market, with property prices up by 6.43% since January 2018 and an average value of £195,739. Wales came second with a price jump of 3.9% to £192,362, and West Midlands followed where prices increased by 2.91% to an average property price of £220,746.

The average price of a property in Scotland reached £153,309 in August 2018, which is an increase of 4.1 per cent compared to August 2017, and an increase of 0.3 per cent compared to July 2018.

The Southside of Glasgow is set to benefit from a massive £15.4 million regeneration project created by Southside Housing Association.

Following Phillip Hammond’s recent announcement in the budget of a tax break for first-time buyers which could see savings of up to £5,000 for buyers in England it would appear that the Scottish system is being considered ahead of the new budget proposals to be announced in the coming weeks.

Concerns have been raised over the safety of twelve blocks of flats in Glasgow which were built using an outdated construction method. 

Housing provider, Serco, has declared it will pause its plans to change the locks on the houses of 330 refugees who were refused asylum and are currently living in Glasgow.

Registers of Scotland (RoS) has launched a new register that will record all applications of community bodies to buy land or property that is abandoned, neglected or causing harm to the environmental wellbeing of the community, where the owner is not willing to sell that land. 

The total value of the residential sales market in Scotland from 2007-08 to 2017-18 was £161.3 billion, according to the latest Property Market Report from Registers of Scotland. 

A scheme that helps people purchase a new-build home in Scotland without the need for a large deposit is to be extended beyond 2019. 

There has been a sharp rise in the proportion of adults owning more than one property in the UK, according to new research by the Resolution Foundation.

Average house prices in Scotland reached £146,354 in August this year, which is a rise of 3.9% over August 2016 but a fall of 0.7% compared to July 2017.

New research has looked at the average length of time between house moves for people in Britain.