Are you a first time buyer, looking to get on the property ladder? Latham & Co Estate Agents in Leicester have put together a short guide to help you get started.

How much to borrow?
This was an easy issue in the past; landers offered multiples of your income, for instance two and a half times your salary.

Now, because of the information available from credit agencies and the level of unsecured debt many of us carry most landers use credit scoring and affordability techniques that make this calculation more opaque.  Read more...

Rightmove, the UK’s number one property website, today launches its latest television advertising campaign.

The new advert carries the tagline ‘Britain moves at Rightmove’ and captures the relationship that the British public have with Rightmove as the place they turn to for buying, selling, renting and letting property in the UK.

Rightmove director Miles Shipside comments:

“Britain moves at Rightmove in many ways, from our highly successful website to award-winning iPhone app. This latest advert captures the way that Rightmove has become firmly engrained with the British public as their place for all things property.”  Read more...

Social media is growing into a key part of the property search process for home-hunters, thanks to a series of innovations by Rightmove.
Rightmove’s traffic from Twitter and Facebook saw a three-fold year-on-year increase in January and the company predicts this traffic is now on a similar rapid growth curve to that of its highly popular mobile platforms.

Miles Shipside, Rightmove director comments:

“Rightmove have always looked to capitalise on the latest consumer trends to increase the reach of our member agents’ properties. Social media websites are highly influential and they have the potential to play a significant role in the home-hunting process.  Read more...

According to the Halifax, compared with the previous month House prices rose by 0.1% in March, but are still 2.9% lower than a year ago.

Its monthly survey found that the average price of a property was £162,912 – up £215 on February.
But over the first three months of 2011, compared to the previous quarter, prices actually fell 0.6%.

It was the fourth consecutive quarterly fall, and “the best measure of underlying trend,” said the lender.

“The overall decrease in prices in the first quarter of 2011 compared with the previous quarter was a little lower than the quarterly falls recorded in the third and fourth quarters of 2010,” said Martin Ellis, Halifax’s housing economist.  Read more...