Raeside Chisholm Solicitors Blog

The most affordable towns and cities in Britain to buy a property have been revealed, with Scotland dominating the rankings.  Zoopla have published their findings, which they have based on calculations on house price to earnings ratios, using two-earner households on average salaries for the local areas.  In the whole of the UK, towns in Ayrshire have dominated the list with Kilbirnie and Cumnock ranking in third and fourth place respectively.

The Finance Secretary, Kate Forbes, has indicated that a tax cut for Scottish homebuyers will end as planned on April 1^st, despite an extension in the Westminster budget. The starting point for Land and Building Transaction Tax (LBTT) was increased during the first lockdown. Unlike the position in England however, this is not going to be extended to mirror the Stamp Duty cut extension in England and Northern Ireland, on the basis that the cut has already “achieved” its goal of supporting the recovery of the residential property market. 

Paul Denton, who is the Chief Executive of Scottish Building Society has called for urgent action to help get young people on the property ladder. He has warned that the impact of Corona Virus could prove a barrier to a whole generation of buyers getting keys to their first home.

House moves are being warned to watch out for scams which could involve their identity and large sums of money being stolen. There have been recent articles in the national press of several cases of emails from solicitors being intercepted and replaced with new messages containing payment details of fraudster’s Accounts.

A “rollercoaster year” for the property market ended in a boom for us here in Scotland, as house prices have increased at a faster rate than any other part of the UK since lockdown began.  Data shows that average house prices in Scotland rose by 6.8% between March and September – in England the rise over the same period was 4.9%, in Wales 1.9% and in Northern Ireland 1.6%.