• Open plan kills the dining room? Feb 05 2008

  The formal dining room could be extinct by 2020 if the current trend for open plan living continues.

• Bank to cut again? Feb 05 2008

  The Bank of England meets this Wednesday and Thursday to decide whether a further cut in interest rates is called for.

• House prices unchanged Feb 05 2008

  UK house prices remained virtually unchanged in January according to the latest monthly report from the Nationwide.
  

• Home Reports to be compulsory Feb 05 2008

  Plans to require homes for sale in Scotland to have a single survey have got the go ahead.

• Spending slow down - 12.02.08 Feb 12 2008

  In a further sign of a slow down in consumer demand, APACS, the UK payments association, reported that spending on credit cards over Christmas was lower than the year before.

• BTL has little impact on prices Feb 12 2008

  The growing popularity of buy-to-let as an investment has had surprisingly little impact on the overall rise in house prices.

• Scotland outperforms London market Feb 12 2008

  More evidence that homeowners in Scotland should not attach too much weight to UK wide house price reports has come from the RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors).

• House prices unchanged Feb 12 2008

  Just days after the Nationwide reported that house prices had hardly changed in January, the Halifax, Britain's largest mortgage lender, issued its latest report on the property market which came to exactly the same conclusion.

• But will it stick? Feb 12 2008

  The City expects that the Bank of England will cut rates at least one more time this year and some commentators (notably Martin Ellis at the Halifax) believe that rates will end the year at 4.75 per cent.
  

• Interest rates cut Feb 12 2008

  As expected, the Bank of England cut base rates to 5.25 per cent last Thursday, a cut of 0.25 per cent.

• Repossessions low but rising Feb 19 2008

  Following the news earlier this month that home repossessions rose by 21 per cent during 2007 to the highest levels this decade, it has been revealed that over half of repossession actions are being brought by specialised sub-prime lenders.

• Unemployment falls Feb 19 2008

  There was good news for the UK economy last Thursday, with official Government figures showing a drop of 61,000 in the number of people registered as unemployed across the country.

• Surveyors positive on Scotland Feb 19 2008

  The continued strength of the Scottish property market was highlighted in the latest housing market survey from the RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors).

• Pause for breath Feb 19 2008

  The boom in Scottish house prices has come to an end according to the latest Scottish House Price Monitor from Lloyds TSB Scotland.

• Interest rates set to fall Feb 19 2008

  Interest rates are likely to fall further this year - but not by much.

• Mortgage lending rises Feb 20 2008

  Gross mortgage lending rose unexpectedly in January according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). Typically, lending in January is lower than in December, but last month lending was 11 per cent up on the previous month.

• Planning shake up ‘too late' Feb 26 2008

  Scottish communities minister, Stewart Maxwell MSP, promised major reforms to the planning system last week. But property professionals have warned that even recent changes are not delivering an improvement in the planning process.

• Some shock - no horror Feb 26 2008

  The Financial Services Authority (FSA) used its latest Financial Risk Outlook to ring alarm bells about the number of homeowners facing a ‘repayment shock' when their current mortgage deal comes to an end.

• Tracker loans costing more Feb 26 2008

  If you have a tracker mortgage, make sure you are not paying more than you have to. A report covered by Reuters reveals that the interest charged by some lenders on their tracker mortgage have risen by almost 0.25 per cent since the start of December.

• Spending stronger than expected Feb 26 2008

  Retail sales rebounded in January according to the Office for National Statistics (ONOS), suggesting that consumers are more optimistic than some of the recent lending data might suggest.

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