Category: News Section

RICS research highlights surprising level of unpredicted repair costs for buyers without a survey

PropertySurveying.co.uk

According to new research by RICS, over a fifth of home buyers who did not take out a pre-purchase survey are in a property they would never have bought had they been aware of its true condition before purchase.

The recently released results of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyor’s survey of home buying consumers show that homeowners who did not get a survey are lumped with an average of £5750 in repair bills – matters that would have been highlighted before exchange of contracts by a competent Chartered Surveyor.

Read the rest here…

Derby and Nottingham highways deal up for Bidding

Derby and Nottingham City Councils’ four-year joint highways deal up for tender

The framework will be split into 14 separate lots with a total estimated framework value for both councils of £100m and a potential for the framework to be used by other Midland Highway Alliance members with an estimated value of a further £25m.

 

In case you missed it…What have you got in your barn or garage?

Milton Keynes Surveyors

In an intriguing story this month, an Aston Martin bought for just £1,500 in the 1970s looks set to sell for around £150,000 when it goes to auction in May, after being discovered in a barn.

The 1964 DB5 Sports Saloon has covered just 48,000 miles and, after 10 years of driving, was parked in a garage in Newport Pagnell, near Milton Keynes, and left for 30 years.

£20m investment for 300 Manchester properties – from Tokyo!

Manchester Surveyors – A £20m scheme from Nedo, the Japanese Government’s R&D agency, is set to hit Manchester,  involving the replacement of conventional boilers with air source heat pumps – highly efficient electric heaters that absorb heat from the outside air. These will be twinned with a heat store, which is essentially a hot water tank, to allow heat to be stored until it is needed.

The innovation is in the energy management system that will connect all the homes, linked to the electricity grid and using the stored energy from the heaters to balance the load on the electricity network.

Bristol Uni seeks builder for 400 new student homes

bristolsurveyor.co.uk – The University of the West of England presses ahead with plans to build 1,200 student flats next to its main campus in Frenchay, Bristol.

The £36m building programme is being carved up into three phases stretching over the next five years. Each phase will include around 400 new 8-12 bedroom homes and a contractor is now being sought for the first £15m phase.

Are you involved with this work, or similar work in Bristol? Contact your local propertysurveying.co.uk member here to speak to a Chartered Surveyor about how he could help.

Nottingham Site Restarted After Four Year Hiatus

nottinghamsurveyors – Willmott Dixon has won the contract to complete the construction of a £40m mixed-use development in central Nottingham, that has remained unfinished since 2008.

The complex – formerly known as Southreef – is structurally complete and partially occupied. When finished it will provide 237 residential apartments as well as office, restaurant, leisure and retail facilities.

Chartered Surveyors don’t just provide reports for home buyers. Many are qualified to provide project management and commercial services to. Contact a local surveyor here to find out more.

Mold development put on hold by flood risk assessment

moldsurveyors.co.uk – A long delay in assessing the flood risk of a reservoir in Greenfield, near Mold, is claimed by a local property developer to be putting homes and lives at risk.

The flooding risk of Flour Mill Reservoir must be determined, before work on eight new townhouses can begin. The Environment Agency instructed Flintshire County Council to complete an inundation map, but this has still not been done, despite a deadline of December 31, 2012.

If you are a developer in the Mold area, or elsewhere in England and Wales, contact your local surveyor to help navigate these difficult issues and ask them about how they can help elsewhere in the development.

Brighton to house homeless in shipping containers

Brightonbuildingsurveyors.co.uk – In a clever move to reduce their pressing homeless list, Brighton has taken inspiration from a Dutch solution – converting old shipping containers into temporary homes.

36 converted shipping containers to be installed in the city centre has been submitted to Brighton and Hove City Council by housing charity, Brighton Housing Trust, and local developers, QED. The response is reported to have been overwhelmingly positive, and the solution may see further interest in cities across the country as a result.

Can a shipping container form a structuraly sound home? Ask your local surveyor.

Man in Cardiff reduces own home to rubble with sledgehammer

cardiffbuildingsurveyors.co.uk – A brother has demolished his own home in Cardiff over a will dispute that has dragged on 7 years.

Reaching the end of his wits, Mr McGuire took a sledgehammer to his semi-detached house to demolish the extensions and additions he had made to it during an 8 year residency (for which he had reputedly invested £200,000).  Police stood by powerless as he destroyed the private property.

If you have a property issue in Cardiff, put down the sledgehammer and call your local Chartered Surveyor to assist and represent you.