Reference Briefings
Budget 2021: Property industry reactions
"This Budget could be regarded as a reprieve for the housing industry," says one commentator, while others bemoan an "underwhelming" speech...
Budget 2021: Sunak cuts Business Rates, but major house-builders face 4% cladding tax
Chancellor Sunak has promised to cut taxes, not raise them in the coming years. But the country's biggest house-builders will have profits taxed 4% to help pay for the cladding scandal.
Pandora Papers: ‘It’s time to pursue lawyers and accountants who enable tax evasion’
"It’s fascinating that so many of these people in the public eye must have known that eventually their activities would become common knowledge, and yet they opted for offshore secrecy anyway," says…
Stamp Duty Refunds: Too good to be true?
Stamp Duty is complicated and sometimes reliefs are overlooked, say top lawyers writing for The Chartered Institute of Taxation - so it can be worth revisiting transactions in search of a rebate.
Do you smell a rat? How to sniff out fraud in property development
Kate McMahon, who successfully prosecuted a businessman of 11 counts of fraud offences relating to a failed property redevelopment in Knightsbridge recently, explains the background to the case - and offers…
Is this the last property boom? Economists predict ‘the death of house price cycles’
Property markets are surging around the world. But "there are good reasons to think this will mark the last house price boom for the next 30 years," says Capital Economics.
Building Safety Bill: A new landscape for claims under the Defective Premises Act 1972?
Required Reading: "Building owners, developers, contractors and consultants need to be aware of the changes intended" by the new Building Safety Bill, say Joanna Lewis and Sophie-Rose Bowen of Beale &…
Required Reading: Changes to the planning regime for high rise residential buildings due this summer
Developers may have to submit a fire statement alongside a planning application for relevant multi-occupied residential buildings from 1 August 2021, write Fiona Bishop & Rebecca Delaney of Macfarlanes.
How to maximise the value of a resi development: An architect’s guide to space planning
In prime and super-prime locations, every inch of saleable floor space matters.
Going Interactive: How to level up your digital marketing
Developers, agents and architects will need to take the time to understand the new digital landscape in the post-Covid world, and create richer experiences for customers, writes Jess Pinkham...
How agents can & should protect vendors from dual fees
"In today’s competitive housing market, it is not uncommon for sellers to move agents", says Paul Offley.
Talking Heads: On winning bidding wars and paying above the asking
Recent weeks have been filled with tales of frenzied buyers bidding well over the asking price, as soaring demand collides with supply levels sinking to an all-time low.