Welcome to the Basingstoke Property Blog

Further to our newsletter last week, please find attached a letter that was sent to a number of bodies representing the private residential sector following the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower in London. The letter offers support to owners of private residential buildings in England to carry out tests on cladding. This is only relevant to you as a landlord or property owner, if you own a property in a building over 18m high which has, or appears to have cladding on the exterior. If you do, queries should be directed to your block management company. The government has confirmed it is offering: •                   In addition to the checks on residential blocks owned by social landlords, DCLG are offering private owners of residential buildings an opportunity to test cladding on blocks over 18 metres high through arrangements put in place with the Building Research Establishment (BRE). ...

  We have had a lot of enquiries over the past week from both landlords and tenants, following the awful fire at Grenfell Tower on June 14 th , to find out if their particular apartment block has a sprinkler system.   Although there is clear evidence to show that these systems can dramatically reduce the potential for damage to the property and potential loss of life or injury, regulations in England mean that only buildings constructed since 2007 and which are taller than 30m are required to have sprinklers fitted. This requirement wasn't applied retroactively so it does not apply to buildings that were built or modified before this date.   Whether a building is required to have these systems can also be influenced by when planning permission was submitted. So, if planning permission was submitted before April 2007 when the new regulations were introduced, but the building was not completed until afterwards, the building would not be subject to the...

The latest UK Residential Market Survey from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has provided some interesting insight into the Sales and Lettings markets in the lead up to the election and beyond. Sales Market In the sales market, there has been a continued decline in the number of properties coming to the market, the number of sales completing, and the number of people looking for properties to purchase. The number of buyers however, continues to far exceed the number of properties available. Anecdotal evidence would suggest these are two main contributors to this: ·          The snap election has caused a level of uncertainty in the market, although this should be less marked than in the past due to the short period before the election. ·          The second contributor is the changes to stamp duty starting to take effect, both in the buy-to-let market, but also for prop...