RICS have reported that 19% more chartered surveyors have reported price falls opposed to rises, and newly agreed sales turned negative. The end of the stamp duty ‘holiday’ has been blamed, and weak economic data has “eroded confidence in the market”.

The only UK region which defied this recent downturn was London, where surveyors reported a completely different picture from the rest of the UK. 86% of London surveyors stated that prices were the same or were rising.

All of the major property indices are now showing steep fall – Halifax (the UK’s largest mortgage provider) have said prices have fallen by nearly 2.5%, subsequently knocking £4,000 off the value of the average UK property.

Now could be the ideal time to think about escaping the doom and gloom of the UK, with hundreds of idyllic overseas homes for sale, why not browse www.propertyline.co.uk today?

Research data released by the lender has indicated that 49% of all residential property purchases in the first 3 months of 2012 were valued between £125,000 and £250,000. The buyer is required to pay 1% of the sale price in Stamp Duty Land Tax – the deal offered by Halifax could save the buyer £1,250.

This offer has been welcomed by many, especially first time buyers who missed out on the temporary Stamp Duty threshold rise which ended in March 2012, where the government only charged the duty on properties worth £250,000 or more.

This is one of many initiatives which Halifax will be rolling out to help movers across all rungs of the property ladder, which is aiming to recreate a vibrant UK housing market.

As the property market is slowing, homeowners who are selling are being forced to lower their asking prices to attract buyers.

A lot of sellers are eager to list their property on the market, however some are unwilling to sell as they feel that they are ‘giving’ their property away. Unfortunately this has resulted in many people who are holding on to their properties to avoid low sale prices, but this has caused the Bahamian property market to be full with so many properties that agents fear will take many months, if not years to clear.

The biggest opportunities (or “bargains”) are often high-end properties in the Out Islands.

Now it could be the ideal time to start looking for that beach-front villa – with hundreds of homes for sale, browse www.propertyline.co.uk today.

This positive news follows a less impressive final 3 months of 2011 – where the average price fell by 1.1%. Property asking prices tend to fall slightly towards the end of the calendar year, but a healthy recovery similar to what we are experiencing is not so common.

Given the fragile economic climate, the rise in asking prices could be inferred as a return of confidence to the UK property market. 8 of the 11 UK regions saw an asking price rise, with London increasing the most (5.4%). This regional rise could be due to the upcoming Olympic Games – which has lead to a surge in demand of properties surrounding the major venues.

With this news, now could be the ideal time to list your UK property on the market – and with many idyllic homes in the sun – why not browse www.propertyline.co.uk today?

Elsewhere in the world, the rate of decline of properties in Dublin appears to be slowing, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistical Office.

The Irish data release illustrates the grim reality that prices have fallen by 16.3% in the year to the end of March – however this is an improvement compared with an annual rate of decline of 17.8% in February and a decline of 11.9% recorded in the twelve months to March 2011.

House prices in Dublin are now 55% lower than their highest level in 2007, and apartments are 61% lower than the price which they were in 2007.

Now could be an ideal time to sell your Turkish villa – or even purchase your dream home in Ireland! With hundreds of properties for sale, why not browse www.propertyline.co.uk today?

The fall in house prices over the past 3 months has been felt all over the UK, however Scottish residents suffered less of a hit with a fall of 1.4% to £162,777. Even after this hit, Scottish homes are still 4.1% up over the past 12 months.

In England – average values dropped 1.7% since the start of the year and are now 3.2% lower than they were a year ago, the figure currently stands at £222,849.

Now could be the perfect time to escape the doom and gloom of the UK – why not browse www.propertyline.co.uk for your dream property today?

£1.7 billion worth of loans were taken out by first time buyers, up 6% in volume from January and over 20% higher than February last year. In addition to this good news, remortgaging has continued to decrease – a 6% fall was noticed compared to both February 2011 and January 2012.

It is encouraging to see the year on year improvement in house purchase lending, howver it is too early to clearly notice that the end of the stamp duty concession will lead to the improvement slowing down, if not dropping off.

With more potential buyers entering the market, now could be an ideal time to put your UK home up for sale – browse www.propertyline.co.uk for your dream property overseas!

The standard variable rate will increase by 0.5% to 4.74% from 1 May 2012. Apparently the reasons behind this increase are the changing conditions in the mortgage market and the increased cost of funding. This will add £42 p/a to the cost of a £100k mortgage on an interest only basis.

The Co-op has followed a string of other large banks such as Halifax, Band of Ireland and Yorkshire Bank who have increased their rates despite no change in the Bank of England rate.

This increase will largely affect borrowers with high ‘loan to value’ mortgages, and are considering new options to avoid aforementioned customers suffering financial difficulties.

This means that the year on year growth of the UK property market is now in negative waters for the first time in six months.

The North of England saw the strongest growth rate for Q1 of 2012, with prices up 0.6%. Properties in Wales fell by 3.1%.

Elsewhere in Europe, Paris is now seen as the number one city for property investment – overtaking London! Global property adviser, CBRE, have also stated that Moscow has overtaken Berlin as the number six city.

The French real estate investment market as a whole recorded €1.684 billion of activity in the fourth quarter of 2011. Together with Q2 of 2011 bringing in €1.790 billion, these were the highest quartely volumes seen in real estate before the financial crisis.

If you’re looking to invest in an idyllic property overseas, why not browse www.propertyline.co.uk today? With hundreds of properties listed, there will almost certainly be your dream place in the sun!

This mansion tax equates to a minimum contribution of £140,000 by someone buying a home costing £2,000,0000. This is forecasted to largely affect those buying in London and the South East where these properties are far more common.

According to Lloyds TSB, there are currently 45,000 homes in the UK estimated to be worth £2 million or more, compared to under 15,000 five years ago.

Lucian Cook, director of research for Savills, has calculated that the government will receive an extra £314 million in revenue from this increase.

For wealthy buyers, this increase will most likely be recieved as an irritation opposed to a deal breaker, however there will most certainly be transacations that see prices adjusted to try and beat the system.