In the first half of 2015, £3.8 billion was invested in student property in the UK and it’s predicted that this will rise to £5.7 billion by the end of the year - nearly equal to the last three years combined.
As the market goes from strength to strength, the demand for growth continues to increase. There are rising numbers of UK students, and figures are predicted to double in the next decade. A huge number of international students are also attracted to our educational system; 18 percent of the UK student population are international and a 50 percent growth has been seen over the...
Landowners behind England’s 5,000 largest rural estates should be called upon to release land for affordable housing, according to The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
The RICS Rural Policy Paper, published today, sets out a number of recommendations as to how central and local Government could better manage rural land and support countryside communities, including offering measures to encourage large landowners to release space on their estates for eight or more affordable houses. This might include partial inheritance tax exemptions, allowing heirs to avoid paying...
East Devon District Council’s housing team is looking for tenants or leaseholders who can help to improve its service by being part of a special scrutiny panel.
First set up in 2011, the Tenant Scrutiny Panel reviews housing services on behalf of other residents, making recommendations and working with housing officers to make improvements. The panel has just completed its third in-depth project, scrutinising tenant involvement of the housing service.
Sylvia Martin, the current chairman of the panel, who has been a member since 2012, said: “Panel members have a real...
A government scheme to make social housing tenants pay higher rents if they are earning more, has come under criticism from Exeter City Council.
The City Council has been critical of the Pay to Stay scheme which is due to be introduced from April 2017. The Council believes there should be greater freedom for local authorities to decide on the level of rents and not be dictated from by central government.
It is also critical of the scheme for ruling that any increased rents should be ploughed back to central government and not the City Council. The City Council has fed its...
Anyone who rents a property and wants to find out more about their rights can attend an open day on Monday 26 October.
The drop-in event has been organised by the Exeter Private Rental Forum and will be held in Bedford Square, Princesshay, between 11am and 2pm.
A stall will provide details of what resources are available to people who rent, and where to turn to for help and advice if there are problems. There will be information on tenant’s rights, responsibilities and general housing advice.
Housing experts from the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, Young Devon, Exeter City...
Housing charity Shelter has revealed the potentially devastating impact of government plans to freeze housing benefit for private renters, with new research showing just under 36,000 working families in the South West could be affected.
Housing benefit helps families on lower incomes to pay their rent, and is already restricted to cover rents in the cheapest third of privately rented homes. The freeze, which comes into force next April, will see housing benefit frozen at its current level until 2020.
Worryingly, this comes at a time when private rents are climbing,...
Excavations being carried out at Tithebarn Green, Redhayes, near Exeter are revealing a complex ancient landscape with occupation dating from the Neolithic through to the Medieval period.
The Bronze Age Pin Brook enclosure, located at the northern end of the Tithebarn Green site has been particularly interesting.
The enclosure may have been built to adapt a Neolithic causewayed enclosure and there is evidence of ongoing use of the site in the late Roman and/or post Roman British or Anglo-Saxon periods. There is also evidence of the post-medieval enclosure of the landscape...
Residents of Sandford, near Crediton, are celebrating after the official opening of affordable new homes in the village. Summerfield Developments have recently completed work on the Creedy View development set in the Mid-Devon countryside.
The scheme is the first major residential development in the area for over 20 years and each of the nineteen properties have been carefully designed by the Taunton-based developer to complement its delightful rural location, while offering all the benefits of a modern home.
Chair of Sandford Parish Council, Shuana Waller, invited local...
Six new brightly coloured council homes set to providing sustainable and low energy housing for some of Exeter’s most vulnerable families.
New eco-friendly homes at Reed Walk, Newport Road will house six local families who have been waiting for a suitable place to live on Exeter’s Housing Register. The new three-bedroom homes, including one fully wheelchair accessible property, were completed in September.
The houses are noticeable due to their bright colouring, which were carefully developed to reflect typical natural building materials of the Exeter area like Devon...
Almost three million homes could be released into the housing market if better incentives and information were offered to older home-owners, encouraging them to downsize into smaller properties, according to The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
The RICS Residential Policy Review published last week, sets out a number of recommendations on how Government could do more to tackle the UK’s housing crisis, including incentivising home owners to sell or rent out under-occupied family homes.
Jeremy Blackburn, Head of Policy at RICS said: “Britain’s older home-...
