Been a little while since I’ve been able to post here, but I’m back and trying to keep the blog up to date!
I keep getting asked what we’re doing, and what the plans are for PI. Well, I’ll try to outline current issue, enhancements and changes in the wider context of the property market and the system as a whole.
Most of my time recently has been spent getting together v3.1 of Property Intellect. What started out as a few tweaks quickly turned into a monster update with a completely new interface and a good long hard look at how we approached certain aspects of the system. Our aim was a big reduction in complexity, more ‘obviousness’ in how things worked and general a more pleasant user experience. You never get these things 100% right, and design is always a process of iteration and a trade off between new users and existing or more demanding users.
Just released 3.1.3 a couple of weeks ago which adds some new toys that have been sitting around unfinished for some time like a pretty neat 2-way sync for Outlook.
We’ll be rolling out new stuff pretty frequently by the looks of things, so I’ll keep you posted!
Rather interesting. Has few times re-read for this purpose to remember. Thanks for interesting article. Waiting for trackback
For the first time i have scan through your old and current blogs and i think some of your comments on interest rates and remortgaging issues are fantastic. i will choose to stay for some months before considering remortgage thank you.
LOCAL AUTHORITY IN HOUSING MARKET.Vs Compulsory Purchase Orders.
There is one area of concern to me as am begining to see quite number of cases coming up.
This to some extent, might link up with local authority redeemption plans on unsold house stocks and lands from developers.
You may recall that the government through the local authorities and development agencies working for the government, carried out a lots of Compulsory purchase Orders on private properties for example in London proir to the Olympic games 2012 developments lots of properties have been compulsorily purchased’(CPOed’) in London-Stratford Canning Town, Hackney Bow etc.
In Manchester where significant growth emerged post Commonwealth games, regeneration plans lead to lots of CPO declarations in areas such as Moston- Kingsley Avenue area; Clayton; etc.
Unfortunately, not reasonable redeemption money was paid out to home owners and landlords.
My key concern which i would like you to look into if you have the chance is:
Are there any positive policies to be carried out by government in assisting property and home owners who lost their houses under CPO apart from the compensation pay outs to get new homes?
My take on this is the fact that lots of people who lost out on CPOs cannot get mortgage to buy new homes from the banks when the banking crisis emerged. this is due to high deposit demand and mostly, change of personal credit circumstances as a result of loss of jobs etc.
Are there any steps govenment is taking to assist such people back into the property market?
I think this may increse sale on developers stocks in a way if there is government assistance for people getting their homes back from that dimention as well- may be in the form guaranteed mortgage Schemes where they fail credit checks.
This issue might not be of interest to many am not sure however, it has some effect on investors wealth if they are affacted by cpo I can forsee a direct correlation between boosting the property market and individual home ownership which is in line with governments fiscal policies.
Interesting time for mortgages again – will blog again later today if I get 5mins!
You make some valid points on the down side of CPO’s. Its not an area I know particularly well, and I’d be interested to know why you think that the compensation payouts are below ‘reasonable’ value (it was my understanding that the Gov were obliged to pay ‘fair market value’ for them. To paraphrase from the Wikipedia entry on this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_purchase_order):
‘Compensation rights usually include the value of the property, costs of acquiring and moving to a new property, and sometimes additional payments. Costs of professional advice regarding compensation are usually reimbursed by the Authority, so that people affected by a compulsory purchase order can seek advice from a solicitor and a surveyor and expect to be reimbursed.’
But as I say, I have no direct experience to claim on what is happening in practice…
Whilst I agree with you that there is a strong moral case for the Gov to assist further than simply turfing people out, shoving cash in their hand and wishing them well…I cannot see it happening for the simple reason that its not a vote winner, and the rest of the home owners will view the targets of CPOs and having been well renumerated. Providing guarantee schemes would work, but would be a direct cost for the Gov, something that the treasury is very unlikely to be keen on in the current climate.
It appears that the CPO ‘refugees’ are caught in a difficult situation. The legistlation that permits CPOs was designed in a different market era – perhaps if it had been written now, things might be different. My first thought though is whether these people could file a class action suit under human rights legislation given the extreme difficulty of getting a new home for some – one could argue that they are effectively being made homeless. Just a thought – any legal people out there care to comment?