Blogs of author

The sixth and final Acuitus auction of the year raised £16.6m and concluded a successful year during which the firm has sold in excess of £180,000,000 of assets.

Reflecting on sales volumes that were 15% up on 2012, Acuitus auctioneer, Richard Auterac, commented: "This has been a year which has seen more momentum in the commercial property auction sector.

"Investors have an eye on the brightening economic outlook while the distressed property situations which date from the pre-crash boom are now being gradually addressed. This is bringing more stock into the auction room and creating a

We are reaching the final couple of days of auctions throughout the UK, with a handful taking place on Monday and Tuesday of next week.  All unsold lots from the past month's auctions are displayed in our database for you to peruse, and if anything takes your fancy, give the auctioneer a ring to find out more, and to find out what the reserve price is.

Property auctions for 2014 will commence from middle/late January, to give the auction houses sufficient time to process all the new lots that will be entered into their first auctions of the new year.  We will of course, start uploading them

Artist Damien Hirst plans to build 750 homes on land he owns in north Devon. The outline application for Ilfracombe also includes plans for a primary school, shops, business units and a health centre.

The artist's desire for homes "he would like to live in" has been the focus of public exhibitions and workshops for more than a year. A decision on the outline application for the Southern Extension is not expected until May or June.

Winsham Farm - bought by Hirst about 10 years ago - is near the centre of the proposed 187-acre housing development, although four other landowners are involved.

The

The Land Registry has now made available all of its historic price paid data.

Covering over 18m sales in England and Wales going back almost 18 years, it is free to download.
 
The data, which is used to calculate the Land Registry’s monthly house price index, includes records of sales at full market value lodged for registration since January 1995.

The records include the full address of the property, the price paid, the date of the sale, the property type, whether it is a new build or not, and whether it is freehold or leasehold.

The data shows that the cheapest property ranged from £5,200

Following on from yesterday's top tips from This Is Money, here are the remaining five pieces of essential advice for property investors:

6. Don't be over ambitious - go for rental yield and remember costs

We have all read the stories about buy-to-let millionaires and their huge portfolios. But the days of double-digit house price rises are gone, so experts say invest for income not short-term capital growth.

To compare different property's values use their yield: that is annual rent received as a percentage of the purchase price. For example, a property delivering £10,000 worth of rent that

For many buy-to-let looks an attractive income investment in a time of low rates and stock market volatility. Buy-to-let may no longer be the hot property of the boom years, but it has seen a resurgence in recent times.

As an income investment for those with enough money to raise a big deposit buy-to-let looks attractive, especially compared to low savings rates and stock market volatility. But beware low rates. One day they must rise and you need to know your investment can stand that test.

Many investors who bought in the boom years before 2007 struggled as mortgage rates rose before the

A rare Victorian railway carriage found semi-concealed in a hedge has sold for £2,300 at a wedding venue house sale.

The carriage, believed to date from around 1890, was among the contents of Birkin House, near Dorchester in Dorset, which were auctioned earlier.

Six serious bidders emerged for the carriage, used more recently as a garden shed, before it was eventually sold to a local buyer. Beforehand, auctioneers had only expected bids of around £1,500.

Birkin House, in the village of Stinsford, has been run as a wedding venue and bed and breakfast in recent decades. Its current owners are

Properties in market towns are noticeably more expensive than the average for their county, according to a new study.

Lloyds Bank has revealed house prices in market towns tend to be six per cent (£14,000) more than in other parts of their region.

The most extreme case is Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, where the average property value is £861,371, which is 181% higher than for the county as a whole.

All of the ten market towns with the highest house prices are located in southern England, with Lewes and Cranbrook the next most expensive after Beaconsfield.

Marc Page, mortgages director at

Auction House Devon & Cornwall’s November Land and Property Auction was a really successful event with 10 sales achieved from 12 Lots offered and combined Lot value of over £1.4M.

13 Briseham Road, a burnt-out Local Authority property in Brixham with a guide price of £30,000 - £50,000 sold for £60,000 and Furze Park, near Liskeard, a rural cottage to renovate with outbuildings and 3 acres of land, with a guide of £200,000 - £225,000 sold for £242,500. The adjoining parcel of land measuring 2.83 acres with a guide of £15,000 - £20,000 sold for £28,000.

Hard on the heels of this well attended

The number of people who are behind with their rent has fallen to its lowest level for five years, according to LSL Property Services.

LSL, which owns several chains of letting and estate agents, said the total amount of late rent fell by £49m between September and October. The figures are for private sector tenants in England and Wales. Significantly, they come at a time when rents across the country have risen to an all-time high.

In October, the proportion of rent that was late fell to 7.1%, down from 8.5% in September. That is the healthiest month since the data was first recorded, in