Day: November 16, 2020

The recent record hikes in UK property prices have been reversed by a rush of sellers seeking to complete deals ahead of the end of Rishi Sunak’s stamp duty holiday.

In July, the chancellor announced that the stamp duty threshold on residential properties sold in England and Northern Ireland was to be increased from £125,000 to £500,000 until 31 March 2021.

The move “helped to stoke a strong recovery in the housing market after the country’s first coronavirus lockdown”, says Reuters, with mortgage lender Halifax reporting a 7.5% annual increase in prices in October – the highest such increase since 2016.

The housing market has remained open during the current, ongoing lockdown, and agreed sales are “well up on the same month a year ago”, adds Sky News.

But new figures from Rightmove show that average house prices have dropped by 0.5% in November. That equates to a decrease of just over £1,500 from the previous month, when the average asking price reached a record high of £323,000.

Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property data, said: “Given the ongoing mini-boom, prices might have been expected to rise again this month.

“But instead we have a slight dip, which could be a result of some new sellers pricing more realistically to have a better chance of agreeing a sale in time to benefit from the stamp duty savings on their onward purchase.”

Hammer time

The BBC’s popular daytime TV show Homes Under the Hammer is being credited with helping to fuel a “new boom” in the property market, The Guardian reports. Property auctioneers are reporting a sharp increase in sales and bidders – particularly for family homes.

Estate agent Savills has sold property worth a total of more than £240m at auction this year, while Auction House has sold £65m worth in October alone.

Online auctions have helped to make such sale events more accessible to first-time bidders, while TV shows such as Homes Under the Hammer have made the practice “more mainstream”, Charles Lovell of Auction House Robinson & Hall told the paper.

Having held on to his job following his much-criticised journey to Durham during the last nationwide lockdown, Dominic Cummings has finally departed No. 10 following the resignation of close ally Lee Cain.

Cummings is leaving as the UK continues talks with the EU to reach a deal for future trade following Brexit, which he helped to deliver, and midway through his pledged shake-up of Whitehall and revamp Downing Street operations.

But what was life like at No. 10 during his reign? “Sycophants imitated him and he imported a gang of yes men (and they were mostly men) to act as his lieutenants on the public payroll,” a fellow aide told Politico’s London Playbook.

“These were a collection of strange people with no social skills, who alienated officials and colleagues and contributed nothing to government. We wondered what they did all day.”

Another insider told Politico that Cummings would often “go dark”, meaning that he was impossible to reach for “long periods of time” at crucial moments.

“Most decision-making simply became a matter of guessing what Dom would do – an odd way of forcing everyone to be brainwashed into the mind of Dom,” the aide said.

“He was entirely uninterested in 99% of issues or crises, leaving the No. 10 staff leaderless.”

Not everybody is celebrating Cummings’ departure though. Some northern Tory MPs are worried that “the Downing Street faction that ousted Cummings and Cain is too London-centric in its worldview”, The Times says.

On the other hand, few will miss Cummings’ penchant for flamboyant public appearances.

After he was pictured leaving Downing Street through the front door after quitting on Friday, a senior No. 10 official told the Financial Times’ Whitehall correspondent Sebastian Payne: “That’s the last time he walks down the road like Kim Kardashian, preening for the cameras like the spoilt lord of Barnard Castle.

“In future advisers will go round the back and let the elected prime minister use the front door.”