An Edinburgh house where Harry Potter author JK Rowling lived until she moved to the outskirts of the capital has been sold.

Estate agents Rettie said it took just three weeks from when it went on the market for offers over £2.25m to the missives being concluded on the sale. The Rettie listing attracted more than 16,000 unique visits on its website.

The multi-millionaire writer moved from the eight-bedroom Merchiston home to a house in Barnton in 2009.  The author of the bestselling book series about a boy wizard lived with her husband Dr Neil Murray and her three children at the Merchiston

Symonds & Sampson’s November Auction, held in Sherborne, was another well attended event with strong prices for properties in Dorset and Somerset.  Auctioneer Mark Lewis said “A lot of the properties were development opportunities or land with long term hope value and people were certainly prepared to take the risk.”

Key results included:

Land at Beer Hackett near Sherborne, 4 acres on the edge of the hamlet, sold for £55,000.

A potential development land at Nunney Catch near Frome sold for £52,000 and an industrial site at Gibbs Marsh, Stalbridge, sold for £53,000.

An investment property in

A three-bedroom property in Stockton billed as Britain's cheapest house has sold for £14,000 at auction.

The semi-detached house in the Teesside town, on Limetrees Close, Port Clarence, went under the hammer with a starting price of just £750. But a surge in interest saw its value reach £14,000 when it was bought on Tuesday evening.

Similar properties have sold for more than £50,000, according to auctioneers Robinsons estate agents.

Richard Watson, from Robinsons, said the property needed a "huge amount" of work to bring it up to a "decent standard".

He added the house "has been vandalised to

As the mortgage market continues to be a challenge for some, the UK rental market appears to be thriving, attracting more and more prospective tenants. But once the mortgage has been granted and the rental lease secured, which group is better off, buyers or tenants? Estate agency organisation, Home Sale Network surveyed their members to find out.

When asked who pays more per month, the tenant renting a property or the buyer paying a mortgage, nearly three quarters of Home Sale Network survey respondents indicated that it was the tenant. A further 60% stated that the gap between monthly

Banks and building societies are continuing to ration mortgages despite having access to cheaper funds through a new scheme, figures have shown.

The data reveals that there has been little movement in the availability of mortgages for potential borrowers who are unable to offer a large deposit. Brokers say that, for those who have a large enough deposit, lenders have been dropping mortgage interest rates.

But there are few signs yet of things becoming easier for first-time buyers.

More than two-thirds of the mortgage products available on the market in the UK at the start of November required

The penultimate property auctions have taken place, and we are now focussed on the final property auctions of 2012.  Catalogues will be released on an ongoing basis between now and early December, with the final auction in the UK taking place 17th December.  There will be a break over the Christmas, with nationwide auction houses closing until early January, and the first round of auctions for 2013 commencing late Jan/early Feb.  The first catalogues of the new year, should start to be released (and in our database) from second week of January.

If you are thinking about auctioning your

Homeowners in the UK are becoming increasingly optimistic regarding the nation's housing market, according to new research carried out by Ipsos MORI on behalf of Halifax,

The report showed that more Britons expect prices to rise rather than fall over the next 12 months. It suggested that 35% of respondents anticipate an increase in such costs, which is markedly higher than the 20% who predicted a decline.

Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, said: "Despite some regional differences, the general improvement in confidence in the outlook for house prices over the past year reflects the

The number of people taking in a lodger has almost doubled to a million, according to new research from LV. And thanks to the Government’s Rent a Room scheme, you can earn up to £4,250 in rental income without paying a single penny in tax. If you rent out a room jointly – perhaps as a couple – you can each earn up to £2,125 tax-free.

Better still, you won’t have to declare this income if you don’t normally complete a tax return, and there's no need to apply for the scheme either. The exemption is automatic – what could be easier? That means you could earn over £350 a month from your spare room

We are currently accepting entries into the final auctions of 2012. If your property has been on the market for ages or you're just needing to sell quickly, and want to find out more about auction, then contact us today!

What are some of the benefits of selling at auction?

•         The possibility of obtaining a higher price and an earlier sale.
•         A greater certainty of selling your property - 60-70% on average.
•         Predictable time scales so you can plan ahead with confidence.
•         A much quicker sale from first marketing to completion of sale of property.

There

The cost of renting a home in England and Wales rose by 1.1% in September to reach a new record high, a survey has suggested.

LSL Property Services, which owns the Your Move and Reeds Rains property chains, said that the average rent was now at £741 a month.

This was 1.1% higher than August and 3.2% up on the same month a year earlier.

Rents rose in seven different regions, at a peak time of tenant demand. This was driven by increases in London and the South East of England, the survey said.

"Rents have risen consecutively for half a year as tenant demand strengthens on the back of a