Blogs

Graham Penny Auctions’ first sale of the year has secured a 70% success rate and more than £1.3m in sales for its clients. The auction saw 27 residential and mixed use property and development land lots go under the hammer in front of a packed auction room of excited bidders.

Newly appointed Vejay Pal, senior valuer at Graham Penny Auctions, said: "There was a really positive attitude in the auction room this month with many of our vendors achieving sale prices above their expectations and several buyers getting their target property under their maximum budget."

Amongst the properties selling

Thinking about selling at auction? We are now undertaking property valuations for entries into the next round of auctions of the year. So why not send us a few details about your property, and one of our auctioneers will give you a ring, to chat further about your requirements.

Selling a property by auction is easier than many people think, and the prices that we achieve are usually higher than expected too. Our auction partners have sold more than 2,500 properties throughout the UK, over the past 12 months; that's more than any other auctioneer since, well since auctions started! This year

House prices in Northern Ireland were marginally higher at the end of 2013 than the start of the year, according to research.

The figures are contained in the latest University of Ulster quarterly house price index. They show that in the first quarter of 2013 the average price was £131,128 and by the end of the year it was £132,922. The price figure is based on 1,758 transactions, the highest number of sales since 2007.

The report is produced in partnership with the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and the Bank of Ireland. Alan Bridle, UK economist at the bank, said the Belfast market was

The Grand Designs Awards 2014

Does your renovation push design boundaries? Maybe you’ve built an affordable eco home? Or perhaps your clever extension suits its challenging plot perfectly? This is your chance to enter your project for Grand Designs Home of the Year!

No matter the shape, size, budget or location of your scheme, or whether it’s an extension, renovation, conversion or brand new-build, the competition is free for anyone to enter – homeowners, architects, designers or house-builders. Help to celebrate homes that truly excel in design and architecture by telling your grand design

Ten of London's fire stations have been put on the market for conversion into homes, along with major public buildings in Knightsbridge and Westminster.

The move is part of a government drive to offload land and public buildings for housing development. Police stations, including New Scotland Yard, are up for grabs, too, along with high-profile former ministry buildings such as the old War Office in Whitehall.

A website enabling individuals, communities and businesses to submit online applications to buy sites is being set up, paving the way for thousands of new homes. Coinciding with this is

UK house prices increased by 0.7% in January, and were up 8.8% from the same month in 2013, according to the Nationwide Building Society.

Robert Gardner, chief economist at Nationwide, said activity in the housing market was returning to "more normal" levels. He said the momentum was the result of rising employment, low mortgage rates and higher confidence.

The average price of a home stood at £176,491, the building society said.

The Nationwide's figures, based on its own mortgage data, come after surveys showed a sharp increase in housing market activity towards the end of 2013.

Over the year

Figures from Nationwide suggest there is an 18% premium for a property situated within a National Park and an 8% premium for a property within 5km of a National Park.

"Around 190,000 households in Great Britain are located within the boundaries of National Parks," said Robert Gardner, Nationwide's Chief Economist. "National Parks are highly desirable areas to live thanks to the beautiful countryside. Development is also strictly controlled, with very little in the way of new housing construction, which also helps to explain why prices are relatively high.

"The Peak District serves the highest

The last handful of London homes to go on the market for less than £100,000 have been sold or are under offer, research revealed last week.

Agents said a “milestone” had been reached, with flats never again likely to be valued in five figures, barring a property market collapse.

At the end of last year, just five flats were on sale for less than £100,000, four in east or south-east London and one in Barnet, although this was on a short lease. All five now have buyers and one, a second-floor repossessed flat in Barking eventually fetched £112.500.

The top 20 burglary hotspots in the UK have been named - and London is home to more than half of them.

According to research by MoneySupermarket.com the nation's capital has 12 of the postcodes on the list.

But Manchester had the most burglary claims overall in the past 12 months - with 45.2 per thousand people. Herne Hill and Tulse Hill in SE24 in London were close behind with 41.8, and Muswell Hill in N10 chalked up 40.9. Birmingham and Liverpool each have two postcode districts in the top 20. Leeds saw the biggest decrease in robbery claim hotspots.

The findings were based on more than

Tower Hamlets trumped Kensington this month as London’s less glamorous boroughs showed the biggest increase in property asking prices, according to property website Rightmove.

The average asking price demanded by sellers in Tower Hamlets jumped 3.6% to £531,917 in January — closely followed by Barking & Dagenham, where prices rose 3.4%. In contrast, Westminster saw an 8.3% slide in asking prices, albeit to £1.39 million while prices in Kensington & Chelsea were down 6.9% to a mere £2.05 million. Across the capital, overall average asking prices eased 0.2% to £514,704 in January.

Across the