Latest news with #propertyexperts
The Sun
31-07-2025
- General
- The Sun
Warning signs of hidden damp and mould in your home – it could cost you thousands and damage your health
BUYING a home is a very exciting time, and many believe summer is the best time to do it when the better weather can make things easier for viewings and moving. But when the sun is shining and the temperatures are warmer, you might not notice things that could indicate problems in the winter months. 3 3 While you're looking at big-ticket items like kitchens and bathrooms, it's easy to miss subtle warning signs of bigger problems. And these issues could quickly turn your dream home into a nightmare - even costing you thousands of pounds further down the line. For example, small indicators of mould could easily be hidden while you're viewing a property and your attention is elsewhere. So, in a bid to help, property experts have revealed that three subtle signs could indicate that a home has a major dampness and mould problem. Kevin Barzegar, from award-winning estate agency Kaybridge Residential, said these red flags are surprisingly common but frequently overlooked. He said: "Too many buyers get caught up in the aesthetics and forget to look for the warning signs that matter. "They're focused on whether they like the layout or imagining their furniture in the space, rather than looking for problems. "Estate agents and sellers know this, so they'll often schedule viewings during optimal conditions, like bright sunny days when condensation is minimal, or after the heating's been off for hours so musty smells have had time to dissipate. "Damp and mould issues can affect not only your wallet, but your family's health too." "Finding these issues before you buy gives you negotiating power, but discovering them after completion could cost you thousands in repairs." 1. Paint bubbling or uneven finishes Most people don't pay attention to the paint job because they know it's likely that they'll repaint anyway. However, the experts have urged people to take a closer look when entering a prospective home. Paint that's bubbling, peeling, or has an uneven finish often signals water damage lurking behind the walls. This is particularly telling when you spot it in unexpected places, like behind furniture or near ceilings. They have also encouraged people to pay special attention to areas where walls meet ceilings, around window frames, and behind radiators. Even small patches of discoloured or textured paint could indicate a much bigger problem underneath. Kevin says: "Water trapped in walls will always find a way to show itself. 'Fresh paint might cover the problem temporarily, but it can't hide the telltale signs forever.' 2. Musty or sweet, stale odours Many estate agents can hide smells with cleaning products or air fresheners, but the property pros have urged people not to be fooled by this. Take a moment in each room to breathe normally and notice any unusual odours, as they could be hiding something worse. Your nose is one of your best tools during a house viewing. Musty, earthy, or sweet stale smells are dead giveaways for hidden mould growth, especially in rooms with poor ventilation, like basements, bathrooms, or converted loft spaces. Kevin said: 'If you walk into a room and something doesn't smell right, trust your instincts. "Sellers often try to mask these odours with air fresheners or candles, but the underlying smell will still come through.' KEVIN has also shared some practical inspection techniques, beyond these three warning signs, that could save you thousands. Bring a torch - Dark corners, cupboards under stairs, and basement areas often hide the worst problems. A simple torch can reveal staining, discolouration, or mould growth that you'd miss in poor lighting. Don't ignore small patches - That tiny dark spot near the skirting board might look harmless, but it could be the tip of the iceberg. Small patches of mould or damp often indicate much larger problems hidden from view. Use your nose as much as your eyes - Walk through each room slowly and pay attention to changes in odour. Different types of mould and damp produce distinct odours, from musty basement smells to sweet, sickly scents. Kevin says: 'I always tell my clients to take their time during viewings. 'Spend at least five minutes in each room, open cupboards, look behind furniture if possible, and don't be afraid to ask questions about anything that seems off.' 3. Condensation when rooms are 'well-ventilated' Excessive condensation on windows, in addition to being a result of poor ventilation, could signal rising damp or inadequate insulation. If you notice water droplets or fogging on windows in rooms that appear to have good airflow, dig deeper. Check window sills for water damage, peeling paint, or soft wood. These are all signs that condensation has been a long-term problem. Kevin explains: "Condensation that persists even when windows are open or ventilation seems adequate is a red flag. 'It often points to moisture coming up from the ground or trapped within the building structure.' 3
The Guardian
28-07-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
New mortgage affordability rules help UK housing market avoid summer lull
The typical summer lull in Britain's housing market has been avoided amid the availability of bigger home loans fuelling a 'buyer's market', according to a property website. Despite the signs of a bustling market, Zoopla said it had halved its house price forecast for 2025 as buyers were taking into account increased stamp duty costs in their offers in England and Northern Ireland. The record number of homes for sale was keeping price rises in check, it said, with the average UK house price in June sitting at £268,400, up £3,350 (1.3%) from a year earlier. Richard Donnell, the executive director of the research and insight team at Zoopla, described the housing market as being 'broadly in balance' with the flow of new properties matching the appetite of house hunters. 'We're seeing healthy levels of demand and sales, but this isn't sparking faster price inflation. In fact, more homes for sale, particularly across southern England, is re-enforcing a buyer's market, keeping price rises in check.' While market activity usually slows during the summer, this is not happening this year. Buyer numbers in July are 11% higher than in the same month of 2024, resulting in an 8% increase in sales being agreed. Earlier this year property experts had reported a dampening effect on house price growth after the end of a stamp duty holiday in England and Northern Ireland on 31 March. However, recent government-backed changes to the way lenders assess mortgage affordability have served as a catalyst for increased activity, Zoopla said. Homebuyers using a mortgage can now borrow up to 20% more than they could as recently as three months ago. With mortgage rates 'holding steady', Donnell said: 'Less stringent affordability testing has boosted buying power.' At the start of the year Zoopla predicted house prices would rise 2% in 2025, but it has cut this to 1%. While the index showed the annual rate of price inflation slowed to 1.3% in June, the report pointed to stark regional differences. While house prices in Scotland, Wales and northern England are experiencing faster growth – typically of 2-3% annually – prices are rising at a much slower rate in the south. Prices have risen by 0.2% in the south-east and London and by 0.3% in the south-west. The figure for the capital is pulled down by declines in some areas, including a fall of 1.5% in west London. Elsewhere in England, Truro, Torquay and Exeter registered some of the biggest declines, down 1.3%, 1.2% and 1.1% respectively. 'Greater supply of homes for sale and mortgage rates remaining higher than expected are the key reasons for weaker growth,' Donnell said. New figures from Rightmove showed average asking rents across Britain, excluding London,rose 1.2% to a new record of £1,365 per month in the second quarter of 2025. The average advertised rate in the capital also reached a new high of £2,712, up 0.5% over the quarter. The property website's report said the average monthly rent paid by new tenants was £417 more than in 2020. This is an uplift of 44%, outpacing a 36% rise in average earnings over the same period. However, much of this growth occurred at the height of the Covid pandemic. Since 2023, yearly rent rises have gradually slowed as supply and demand rebalanced. The number of available properties is now 15% higher than this time last year. However, it is still 29% below 2019's level. The less frenzied market means landlords are taking longer to find tenants, in some cases leading to rent reductions. Nearly a quarter (24%) of asking rents were cut during marketing, the highest number since 2017. Rightmove's property expert Colleen Babcock said despite rising asking rents, the 'big picture is that yearly rent increases continue to slow'. 'Supply and demand is slowly rebalancing towards more normal levels, though we still have a way to go before we reach pre-2020 levels,' she added.
News.com.au
03-07-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Suburbs where prices have been rising by $1k a day over five years
Home prices have been rising by an average of over $1,000 each day of the last five years in many areas as property industry experts slam governments for their sluggish response to critical housing shortages. The alarming price rises have occurred amid record population growth since the Covid pandemic started in 2020, coupled with slow progress on the home construction front. Government figures showed the country needed nearly 250,000 new homes built per year to keep pace with population growth but building activity has been well short in most years since 2020. ABS figures released Tuesday revealed Australia approved 181,643 new homes last year, up from 165,000 the year prior. It has meant the country is already 60,000 homes short of the number of new homes needed to meet housing targets just one year into the National Housing Accord plan to build 1.2 million homes by 2029. Analysis of PropTrack figures have laid bare the kind of price impact housing shortages have had in the last five years – a period marked by historic lows in interest rates and record home purchasing activity. Close to 200 suburbs nationally saw median prices rise by an average of more than $500 each day of the five years between May 2020 and May 2025. This included 19 suburbs where median price rises exceeded $1,000 a day during the five-year period, leaving local prices millions of dollars higher than they were just five years ago. The most significant rises were recorded in Sydney's inner regions, along with the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and parts of Adelaide. North Shore Sydney suburb Wollstonecraft had one of the most extreme price rises. The suburb median house price ballooned from $2.8 million in 2020 to $5.7 million today – an average rise of $1550 across each day over the last five years. There was a similar rise further north in the suburb of Warrawee, where the median house price grew from $2.45 million to $4.9 million, with prices rising an average of about $1,340 per day. Houses in Gold Coast hub Surfers Paradise had the largest gain in Queensland, going from $1.78 million five years ago to $4 million today – an average rate of about $1210 per day. Unley Park was the top growing market in South Australia, with rises equating to an average of $1,240 per day for first years. Economist and buyer's agent Rich Harvey of Property Buyer said many of the Sydney areas with the fastest price rises had major issues with the pipeline of new housing supply. 'Somewhere like Wollstonecraft is highly sought after and is slated for higher density. There should be more stock there but getting it approved and out the ground is difficult,' he said. 'Some sites are no longer viable for new projects even after being earmarked for higher density because of the huge increases in building costs.' He added that the country as a whole was failing to build enough housing to accommodate population increases from migration. 'There are numerous reasons prices have increased and all the forces work together, but perhaps the most significant is migration,' Mr Harvey said. 'We had close to zero migration at the start of Covid and then there was catch up migration and after that migration figures were essentially double (pre-Covid) numbers. 'Migration is still elevated and that's put massive pressure on rents and prices at a time when building activity is slow.' PropTrack economist Eleanor Creagh said the cycle of price rises was often self-fulfilling. Home seekers often bid up prices to secure homes faster out of fear they would eventually be priced out of their intended suburb, but this activity often ensured swifter market rises, Ms Creagh said. Prices rises also fuelled strong upgrader activity: home buyers were able to secure new properties with larger and larger offers because of the steep value gain in their existing homes, she explained. Housing Industry Association economist Tim Reardon said government taxes have exacerbated the problem. He pointed to recent industry data that showed close to half the cost of supplying new house and land packages in major markets, including Sydney, was now government taxes and red tape. Mr Reardon said taxes on foreign investment in new housing projects, including a doubling or tripling of stamp duty charges for foreign buyer in some states since 2017, had backfired. The increased taxes meant a key source of funding for new housing projects disappeared, he said. 'They taxed the capital not the people,' Mr Reardon said. 'The money dried up but people continued to come into the country through migration, putting more pressure on the housing market.' DAILY GROWTH IN HOUSE PRICES MAY 2020-2025 Suburb Avg. price rises per day Dover Heights NSW $1,781 Bellevue Hill NSW $1,589 Wollstonecraft NSW $1,547 Bronte NSW $1,342 Warrawee NSW $1,338 Double Bay NSW $1,281 Arcadia NSW $1,266 Centennial Park NSW $1,242 Unley Park SA $1,237 Surfers Paradise QLD $1,212 Vaucluse NSW $1,211 Northbridge NSW $1,110 Mosman NSW $1,110 Horsley Park NSW $1,099 Palm Beach NSW $1,063 Minyama QLD $1,063 North Bondi NSW $1,047 Waverton NSW $1,014 Woollahra NSW $989 Riverview NSW $974 South Coogee NSW $966 Hyde Park SA $934 Queens Park NSW $914 Putney NSW $911 Willoughby East NSW $905 Mermaid Beach QLD $896 Kensington NSW $893 Shelly Beach QLD $889 Greenwich NSW $884 East Lindfield NSW $882 Balgowlah Heights NSW $871 Tennyson Point NSW $863 Medindie SA $856 Burraneer NSW $852 …
Daily Mail
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
I worked on A Place In The Sun - people think it's a dream job but it's seriously difficult and there's even a strict dress code with two sorely-needed items BANNED
A presenter from A Place In The Sun has revealed the more difficult side to her job, including a strict dress code she had to follow. The Channel 4 show helps house hunters find their dream abode abroad. Scarlette Douglas, 38, first appeared on the property programme back in 2015 and has used her expertise to aid many prospective buyers. Despite travelling to many stunning locations and meeting a range of interesting people, working on the show isn't always fun. Scarlette told The Express how A Place In The Sun is actually 'really hard' and five days of filming is put into creating just one '47-minute show'. She also revealed the two sorely-needed items that presenters are banned from wearing. 'There's a lot that goes into it. It's hard work,' the property expert said. She added: 'You can't wear sunglasses or a hat.' The presenter admitted: 'You just about have time to drink some water. You keep going and going and going, so as much as it looks glamorous, it's actually a really difficult show.' Scarlette left A Place In The Sun back in 2022 and has since gone on to feature on another property show, Worst House On The Street. The Channel 4 series sees property developers Scarlette and Stuart Douglas, who are brother and sister, help people transform their family homes without breaking the bank. Another presenter from A Place In The Sun shared her own tale from the show. Jasmine Harman, 49, has been a property expert on the Channel 4 programme since 2004. Over the two decades she has seen a range of holiday homes and plenty of potential buyers find their dream abode abroad. However, she shared one incident that stood out to her and she described as 'awful,' to the Express. The TV star described how she suffered from motion sickness during a ride on a microlight plane in the Algarve. 'We were flying and he was doing all of these little tricks and I got a bit of motion sickness and I started to feel a bit dodgy. I kept telling myself, "I'll be alright, I'll be alright,"' she recalled. Jasmine felt 'so sick' when the plane landed but 'just couldn't get the helmet off'. She added: 'I ended up vomiting inside the helmet. And it was so embarrassing. In front of the house hunters and this handsome pilot. The whole team.' The presenter described it as 'an awful moment' and 'everyone was there,' but she has now laughs about it instead.
Daily Mail
10-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
The 10 common blunders people make when they move home revealed by experts
Buying and selling a home is an expensive business even before you take into account stamp duty, removal costs, a surveyor and estate agent fees. However, homeowners needlessly add thousands of pounds to the final bill, property experts warn.
