Six properties, ranging from country cottages requiring renovation and modernisation to blocks of pastureland and woodland, sold for nearly £1m at Hall's collective auction in Shrewsbury last week, which saw a country cottage, Yew Tree Cottage, Ellerdine Heath, near Telford, sell for £313,000.

More than 60 people viewed Yew Tree Cottage, a three-bedroom property set in around 1.34 acres of gardens and pasture paddocks, in the run up to the auction and bidding soon raced away from its guide price of £190,000 to £200,000. The buyer exercised an option to purchase an additional 3.4 acres of land

After a fantastic sales rate of 90% in our April auctions, we are now accepting property entries for our next round of auctions taking place in June/July. If you're thinking about selling your property (residential, commercial, development site, land, mixed use, investment, ground rent), contact us today for your free auction appraisal and to chat with one of our auctioneers in your area.

If you have been struggling to sell your property with your estate agent, or you're just needing to sell quickly and are willing to drop your asking price in order to enter it into auction, then contact us

Last week's April 17th auction was another fantastic sale for our auction partner, Auction House London, with an amazing 88% success rate.

People are still talking about the incredible result on Lot 39 (for which UK Auction List was joint agent), a mixed use property in Enfield, Middlesex, which saw the bidding start at £170,000 (very close to its reserve) and ended up selling for £795,000 after the most intense bidding war Auction House London's auctioneer, Andrew Binstock, has witnessed in nearly two decades of being in this industry!

If you have any properties or land that you are thinking

Home owners in the UK are more confident that the value of their home will rise over the next 12 months than at any time for nearly three years, data from the latest House Price Sentiment Index (HPSI) indicates.

The jump in optimism coincides with the launch of Help to Buy, the government’s multi billion pound mortgage support scheme, says the report compiled property firm Knight Frank and Markit, a leading economics consultancy.

The index report indicates that households perceive that the value of their home rose over the last month, the first time this has happened since June 2010.

In

First-time buyer numbers in the UK increased throughout February, new research has shown.

Carried out by the Council of Mortgage Lenders, the study revealed this level rose by 3% in the month, which represented the best start to a year since 2008.

It was shown that activity among FTBs was 17% greater in February 2013 than it was in the same four-week period in 2012.

During the month, a total of 16,400 loans were advanced to those looking to get their foot on the first rung of the property ladder, which was markedly more than the 15,900 recorded in January and the 14,000 reported in February

Today (15 April 2013) the Housing Minister, Mark Prisk, announced that the Government proposes to exempt self builders from paying the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). There will be a 6-8 week consultation on the changes which will likely come into effect during the summer.

CIL, which was introduced under the Labour Government but began to be implemented by some councils in January 2012 (and now affects thousands of self builders in dozens of local authorities), raised a levy on new homes set at a standard charge per m2 of new development. On average, self builders and developers affected

Snow and bitterly cold weather nipped what looked to have been a promising spring upturn for the housing market firmly in the bud, reported Estate Agent Today, over the weekend.

According to data from telephone answering service Moneypenny, calls had been up by 25% in early March compared with the previous month. However, once the cold weather struck, the company recorded a drop-off in numbers, and comparing call rates for the same 100 agent clients for the four days to Good Friday, found the improvement had disappeared – with 2,605 calls against 2,624 in the equivalent period last year.

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As of Monday (April 1), local authorities will have the discretion to charge full Council Tax on empty properties. The change will affect properties that have currently been given exemptions and discounts, including properties for sale and rent, and second homes.

Owners of properties that are empty because of building work will also lose the automatic right to be let off Council Tax for up to a year. Many councils have decided to charge the full amount from day one. 

These are the exact changes:

     1.    Exemption class C (properties that are empty and unfurnished for up to six months) has

UK house prices in March were up 0.8% from a year earlier, according to the latest figures from the Nationwide.

The building society said it was the first annual increase since February 2012. Prices were unchanged in March compared with the previous month. The average UK home is now worth £164,630, the survey found.

Separately, the Land Registry said prices in England and Wales rose by 1% over the last year. London saw the sharpest increase, with prices going up by 6.3%. Yorkshire and Humberside saw the biggest annual fall, with prices tumbling by 0.9%.

The Nationwide said demand from buyers

After a fantastic sales rate of 82% in our March auctions, we are now accepting property entries for our next round of auctions taking place in April through to June. If you're thinking about selling your property (residential, commercial, development site, land, mixed use, investment, ground rent), contact us today for your free auction appraisal and to chat with one of our auctioneers in your area.

No matter whereabouts in the UK your property is located or what type of property, site or land it may be,  if you have been struggling to sell it on the open market or you're just needing to sell