Christmas is nearly upon us, one by one houses are lighting up and trees are taking pride of place in our windows!

2014 has been a good year for property aided by a positive press and media through the year combined with the Chancellor spreading more good news for the regional market with changes in Stamp Duty.

Our region has seen steady volumes and steady prices through the year, the main area for growth in prices has been at the entry level buy to let market where demand has and continues to exceed supply. This trend is likely to continue in the New Year as the changes in pension regulations begin to take effect.

Our last few Auctions have been standing room only; our November Auction was unique in our room reaching capacity for the first time and a record number of lots being sold.

New and existing landlords will be following with interest the licensing proposals being submitted by Liverpool City Council, currently this is sitting at an upfront fee of £500 for a five year period with a view to improving the city’s housing stock. As a regulated agent most of the checks the council are carrying out are already completed by any regulated agency. Wirral MBC are rumored to be planning to follow suit. We have formed a partnership with our major competitors to contest this and have a provisional agreement that the charge will be significantly lower if the properties are managed by us and we have an audit process agreed with LCC. We will keep you posted however the new regulation is due to take effect in April 2015.

I hope you enjoy the rest of our Newsletter and if you have any comments to make, please do send us an email and we'll ensure we get back to you.

We wish all our clients and readers Season's Greetings and look forward to a continuing improving market in 2015.

Rob Farnham Chief Executive, The Venmore Group