The summer break will soon be drawing to a close so this is a quick update to let you know that we've been busy adding new auction dates for property auctions being held around the UK in September and October. 

A few of the early bird auction houses have released catalogues for this month, all of which have, or will be uploaded into our database for viewing. A number of new catalogues for the September auctions will slowly start to be released from next week - so keep checking back on a regular basis for new properties to auction!

The Land Registry, which records all completed property sales in England and Wales, has been recording the price of all property sales since April 2000, although the data now goes back to January 1995.

The survey features the end of the buying process when a transaction is registered.

The Land Registry is using something called Repeat Sales Regression to measure the change in prices over time. This means it only measures the change in the price of properties that have been sold before, to ensure a proper comparison.

Most sales are included, except for commercial properties and a small number

UK house prices recorded their biggest year-on-year increase for nearly three years in July, according to the Nationwide building society.

Annual price growth hit 3.9%, the lender said, which meant the average home cost £170,825. Average prices rose by 0.8% compared with June, with the building society describing the increase as "robust". However, it said that housing remained in relatively short supply, as rental costs were still rising.

Buyer confidence Property prices a year ago were falling, according to the Nationwide's calculations, so this was part of the explanation behind the large

The chancellor, George Osborne, says the second stage of the Help to Buy scheme, aimed at enabling more people to buy properties, will be closed to second home buyers.

George Osborne has called housebuilders and mortgage lenders to a meeting to discuss the details.

The first phase of the scheme was launched four months ago and provides equity loans for buyers of new homes.

From January next year, it will be extended to help buyers of existing homes. It will allow people to buy with just a 5% deposit. The government will guarantee a proportion of the loan to give the banks greater confidence to

Just a reminder to let you all know that the majority of the auctions for July have taken place, with a few remaining this week and early next.

There are only a handful of property auctions taking place in August due to the summer break, with nationwide auctions recommencing properly from early September.  We will be displaying the Unsold (Available) Lots from the July auctions that have taken place, as and when the results are released by the auctioneers. So keep checking back to see if you can grab yourself a bargain post auction.

New auction catalogues should start being released from

The summer is upon us and our July auctions are in full swing. We are now undertaking property valuations for entries into our next round of auctions taking place in September.

An auction can be an exciting and efficient way to sell or buy a property.  If you need to sell quickly or want a guaranteed sale, then a sale by auction may be the best route.  It used to be associated with repossessions, but is now growing in popularity as the best way of attracting maximum interest in a diverse range of properties.

If you're thinking about selling your property (residential, commercial, development

A cliff-top house in Torquay, which has been deemed officially uninhabitable, has sold at an auction for £33,500.

Torr Cottage had a starting price of £25,000 - even though it would normally sell for around £400,000. The property which was described as being in immaculate condition, sits on land which is prone to landslips.

Nearby Ridgemont House featured in national newspapers and on television because part of it has collapsed because of a landslip.

'Degree of risk' Torr Cottage is yards from the edge of Oddicombe Cliffs in Torquay.

Torquay Council's prohibition order means it will not

Must be Sold, Spicerhaart’s auction wing, has been abruptly closed down in England after a fall in business. A notice on the Must be Sold website says only: “A new haart Auctions website is launching soon!”

The business, a joint venture with midlands auctioneer Graham Penny, will still be run in Wales by Spicerhaart, where it will be rebranded.

Must be Sold was started in 2008 and as its name suggests, specialises in properties ‘that must be sold’. It was running up to ten distressed property auctions a year in London, with others in Cardiff.

In a statement, Spicerhaart said it had “refocused

House prices are rising at their fastest annual rate for nearly three years, according to one of the UK's biggest mortgage lenders.

The Halifax said prices in the three months to the end of June were 3.7% higher than in the same quarter last year. That is the fastest rate of increase since August 2010.

The survey compares with a 1.9% annual increase reported by the Nationwide building society last week.

"Improved confidence in both the housing market and the economy, combined with a shortage of properties available for sale, appear to be pushing up house prices," said Martin Ellis, Halifax's

Deciding to buy a home is an exciting but nerve-racking step to take and one of the most apprehensive parts of the process is getting accepted for a mortgage.

Banks and building societies have tightened up their lending criteria considerably since the credit crunch hit, making them far less flexible when it comes to handing out loans.

But the good news is mortgage lending is on the way up again, with figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) showing that total gross mortgage lending in May was 17% higher than a year earlier at £14.7billion.

Mortgage deals are getting cheaper too