The cost of a NewBuy mortgage is 25% more expensive than the cost of renting. A new research paper from the property analyst firm Hometrack, says that the repayment costs are higher than those of an equity scheme such as FirstBuy, as well as being more expensive nationwide than renting...

A new insurance policy has been launched to protect home buyers and owners from breaches of planning regulations that may have been committed in the past without their knowledge...

Building of new housing has fallen sharply this year. According to the Office for National Statistics, there were 24,140 house-building starts in the first quarter, down 11% on the previous quarter...

Former Countrywide boss Harry Hill’s company In-Deed has bought one of the country’s top ten firms of licensed conveyancers for up to £4m after admitting that it had failed to make headway in its original ambitions...

Countrywide, the UK’s largest estate agent and mortgage broker, has called for the Government to introduce mortgage lending targets. The call, by financial services director Nigel Stockton, follows warnings from the Bank of England that mortgage rates are set to rise...

An advert which suggested that people would do better to put their money into bricks and mortar than keep it in the bank has landed an estate agent in trouble...

Just five homes have been sold between six of the UK’s biggest house builders under the Government’s flagship NewBuy scheme. However, house builders remain upbeat, claiming that 400 sales are in the pipeline...

The banking syndicate led by Royal Bank of Scotland which financed asset lender Davenham Group stands to lose up to £46.8m. Davenham went into administration last autumn, and now a statement of affairs from its former directors shows that although the company owed its backers £69m at the time, only around £22...