News and reports

£35 million of new lending has been announced to unlock around 2,500 homes and regeneration projects in Salford, Bromley, and Ludlow. The Bank’s ability to offer flexible finance and work with a wide range of partners is welcome. However, its success must ultimately be judged by how quickly announced investment delivers completed homes of the types and tenures needed in each local market.

The UK Government has announced new funding for the remediation of unsafe cladding on eligible residential buildings under 11 metres in England, delivered through the existing Cladding Safety Scheme and administered by Homes England. Applications will open on 17 August 2026, with funding prioritised according to the cladding fire safety risk posed to residents.

Since 1 May 2026, landlords who want to sell a tenanted property must rely on specific possession grounds under Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988. For sales agents and auctioneers, this changes how rented property is valued, marketed and sold. Sellers may still be able to sell with vacant possession, but the process is no longer as straightforward as many landlords expect.

The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee has called for stronger enforcement, better local authority funding, and faster implementation of key protections for tenants in the private rented sector (PRS). Propertymark gave evidence to the enquiry, highlighting that standards must be improved through clear, practical and consistent rules that support responsible landlords and agents, while targeting those who deliberately operate outside the law.

The property market remains an attractive target for money laundering because of the value of property assets and the ability to hide ownership through companies, trusts, and overseas structures. An estimated £6.7 billion of UK property was bought with wealth suspected to have come from questionable sources between 2016 and 2022 — yet the National Crime Agency (NCA) reports that the volume of SARs from the property sector remains low.

As periods of hot weather become more frequent and intense, overheating in homes is moving from a comfort issue to a health, safety, and property management concern. For professional agents, the key risk is not simply that a home feels warm in summer, but that the property design, condition, or management allows indoor temperatures to become excessively high and potentially harmful to occupiers.

Sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 should now be using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD), and further deadlines in 2027 and 2028 will bring many more agents, property owners, and businesses into the new system. MTD requires affected taxpayers to keep digital records and submit quarterly updates to HMRC using compatible software.

New analysis has shown that the average UK house now costs 1.7 times as much as the average flat, the greatest disparity since records began. The findings underline the growing impact that leasehold complexity, service charges, ground rent, and uncertainty around reform are having on buyer confidence, especially in England and Wales where flats are most sold on a leasehold basis.

From 2031, privately rented non-domestic buildings over 1,000 sqm in England and Wales will be expected to meet EPC B, where it is cost-effective. Buildings below 1,000 sqm are expected to remain as the current minimum EPC E. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DENZ) has stated the changes will only take effect after Parliament has passed secondary legislation.