Sharon Dale

UK house prices increased by 0.3% in September, according to the Halifax bank. Year-on-year prices are up 4.7%, still the strongest rate since November 2022. Northern Ireland continues to record the strongest year on year price growth in the UK with a 9.7 % increase in September. The average price of a property in Northern Ireland is now £203,593.

Channel 4’s Grand Designs and its eloquent presenter Kevin McCloud have been captivating TV audiences since 1999. The 25th series is now on the box and long may it continue.

UK house prices increased by 0.3 per cent in September, according to the Halifax bank. Year-on-year prices are up 4.7per cent, the strongest rate since November 2022. Northern Ireland recorded the highest price growth in the UK with a 9.7 per cent rise between September 2023 and September 2024, while the North West had the greatest growth in England with 5.1 per cent.

That Jonathan Maud has a magic touch when it comes to property is an understatement. Rushbond, the development business he founded in Leeds in 1986, has been a big success in both the commercial and residential property arenas.

The pandemic and its lockdowns put a rocket under the sale of rural and coastal homes as working from home became “a thing” and we looked for an escape from towns and cities and dreamed of fresh air and fabulous scenery.

The trajectory of Hebden Bridge from a mill town in decline to one of the most sought-after places to live, started with hippies, the original real ones, not the well-heeled yuppy hippies who came later.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves has announced her plans on spending and taxation. There were several policies affecting residential property starting with an increase in the stamp duty land tax for second/additional homes from two per cent to five per cent, applicable from tomorrow, Thursday October 31.

Virtual reality headsets are not a new phenomenon. They were first released by video game companies in the early-mid 1990s and are used in 3D cinema, on amusement park rides and in other areas of life including education and health care. More recently architecture practices and some developers have embraced the technology.

New analysis of the performance of the Help to Buy scheme, including loan redemptions, reveals that the initiative, introduced in 2013 to support households onto the housing ladder, has already delivered a positive return on investment for the Exchequer of more than £900 million from the first 40 per cent of loans that have been fully paid back by homeowners and interest payments to date.

In the antiques world, “having a good eye” is a compliment that recognises a person’s ability to spot something of quality and/or interest and there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence to show that it can be inherited. Lizzie Mills is a prime example. Her father is John Tennant, who founded an auctioneering and estate agency business in his home town of Middleham in 1971.