The Oracle Group is a multi-service creative communications agency, providing expertise in five core areas: PR, Marketing, Social Media, Events and Digital. This means we can tailor our approach to each project.
It’s time to think about what you aren’t doing online and what you could be doing to reach your target audiences. Here are some ideas and tips on a variety of digital marketing methods that can help you drive new leads and sales.
A daily roundup of all the key property news. Even though planning approval was awarded for 382,997 homes in England last year after pressure on councils to allow more housing, developers completed only 195,294 new homes, leading to accusations that they are holding back to wait for land values to increase. Analysis by the charity Shelter shows that while housebuilding has increased, it is at only half the rate of the rise in planning permission approvals,
A daily roundup of all the key property news.The housing market is "pretty much flatlining" amid growing concerns about Brexit and political uncertainty, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' said in its report for July. Some 69% of property professionals said that sales prices were coming in below asking prices for homes marketed at more than £1m.
A daily roundup of all the key property news. Scotland has overtaken London as the fastest place for a seller to find a buyer for their home. In 2014, it took 36 days in London on average to secure a buyer, but this rose to 60 days by last year, according to new figures compiled for the BBC by Rightmove. In contrast, the average time to secure a buyer fell from 66 days to 41 days over the same period in Scotland.
A daily roundup of all the key property news.Prices in London’s prime property areas are now 3.1% higher than they were at the end of 2018, according to the latest London Prime Property Index by private bank Coutts, which indicates that though sales activity picked up 21.4% on the previous quarter - the number of prime properties on the open market is down 12.5% on last year.
A daily roundup of all the key property news. A report from the Resolution Foundation has warned that growing numbers of families on low and middle incomes will be less able to weather possible economic shocks than they were before the 2008 financial crisis. A decade of weak income growth has left more families with savings to draw on in an emergency,
A daily roundup of all the key property news.Semi-detached properties have proven to be the most profitable homes to own in the UK since before the credit crunch 10 years ago, according to Springbok Properties. These homes have soared in value from the average house price of £162,201 following the financial crash to £291,087 today.
A daily roundup of all the key property news. UK house price growth fell to 0.3% annually in July, remaining below 1% for the eighth consecutive month, according to Nationwide’s latest data, leaving the average UK house price at £217,663. Jeremy Leaf, north London estate agent and a former Rics residential chairman, warned that favourable conditions are being curtailed by the continuing Brexit uncertainty.
A daily roundup of all the key property news.The number of UK mortgage approvals hit 66,400 in June, up from 65,650 in May, according to the Bank of England's latest data, above economists’ expectations and the highest number since January. In addition to a small boost from dodging a no-deal Brexit in March, record employment, sustained wage growth and low interest rates have boosted demand.
A daily roundup of all the key property news and views. The number of homes being bought, renovated and sold on for profit has dropped 70% over the last 15 years as the property market cools.A report fromHamptons International has found that 18,630 homes were “flipped” across England and Wales last year, against 60,340 in 2004.
A daily roundup of all the key property news. House values in the UK have grown by an average £11 a day since January, according to analysis by property website Zoopla. An average of £2,046 was added to each home in six months.
A daily roundup of all the key property news. High street banks agreed more than £50bn of mortgages to homebuyers in the first half of the year, up 10% on the first six months of 2018 and setting up lenders for their biggest year since 2007, according to data from UK Finance. The loans were offered to almost a quarter of a million homebuyers in the first six months, up 6% on the first half of 2018.
A daily roundup of all the key property news. Monthly HMRC statistics have shown that British residential property sales fell to 84,490 in June, over one-sixth down on the same period last year and a 9.6% monthly drop between May and June this year. With the property market apparently taking a “wait-and-see” attitude as Brexit-related uncertainty continues,
A daily roundup of all the key property news.The next prime minister has been urged to extend the government’s Help to Buy scheme, following fears that its end will cause a slowdown in the housing market in parts of the country. The scheme has accounted for more than 80% of home sales in the past 18 months in 22 local authorities, according to Cushman & Wakefield,
A daily roundup of all the key property news.The number of mortgages with a term of more than 40 years rocketed in 2018, rising over 20-fold to 3,483 from just 162 in 2017, according to analysis of Financial Conduct Authority figures by Ludlow Thompson. It said high levels of competition in the mortgage business had pushed firms to react “to the demand for lower monthly outlays by providing increasingly long-term mortgage products”.
A daily roundup of all the key property news. The formation of a new regulator that would oversee a new regime for all property agents has been suggested by the Regulation of Property Agents working party, which will be held responsible for a statutory code of practice, and to devise a syllabus for a modular approach to the qualifications which will be required for letting and estate agents
A daily roundup of all the key property news.Detached homes in London fell in value by more than £50,000 in a year, according to official figures, driving the slowdown in UK house price growth. Typically, this type of property cost £903,088 in May last year, but fell by 6.1% to £847,998 by this May, Land Registry figures show.
A daily roundup of all the key property news. A group of MPs have warned that hundreds of thousands of pensioners could be forced out of their homes in the future due to soaring rents. The all-party parliamentary group on housing and care for older people said there could be 1.5m pensioners in the private rented sector in the next two decades, many of whom will struggle to pay rising costs.
A daily roundup of all the key property news.The Regulation of Property Agents working party (ROPA) has recommended that property agency representatives should hold a formal qualification to do the job. ROPA advised Housing Minister Heather Wheeler that qualified agents would then be licenced as the only people able to conduct core selling or letting activities
A daily roundup of all the key property news.The average house price in the UK was just over £650 less this month compared with June - the first fall this year. The figure now stands at £308,692, according to Rightmove.
A daily roundup of all the key property news.The UK holiday home market is enjoying a boom, as property owners are again investing in a second home. While Cumbria, Cornwall and Dorset are the most profitable places to own a holiday let, according to the Staycation Index from Sykes Holiday Cottages, city locations such as Bath, Oxford and Cambridge are also in demand.
A daily roundup of all the key property news. A monthly survey of estate agents by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reveals the number of newly agreed residential sales has increased for the first time since February 2017. The survey polled more than 300 estate agents in more than 600 branches last month.
A daily roundup of all the key property news. Despite the continuing Brexit uncertainty, Bovis Homes is anticipating a marked improvement in profit for the first six months of the year. The housebuilder delivered 1,647 house completions in the six months to the end of June, up 4% from 1,580 during the same period in the year prior.
Bristol City Council has approved plans for the new Avonmouth Fire Station, replacing the previous fire station with a modern and responsive building that will advance Avon Fire & Rescue Service’s (AF&RS) ability to serve the local area.
A daily roundup of all the key property news. A report by the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission claims that ugly and abandoned retail parks and large supermarkets should be redeveloped into communities that include homes, shops and businesses.
A daily roundup of all the key property news.A Labour government would restrict property ground rent for all leaseholders, in proposals going further than the current Government's plans that focus on new leaseholders and houses, and not on existing residents and flats. Labour will suggest capping ground rents for existing houses and flats at 0.1% of a property’s value,
A daily roundup of all the key property news.The government’s target for new home construction looks to be in jeopardy as housebuilding in England has continued to slow amid political uncertainty and skills shortages. In the first three months of 2019, the number of new builds starts declined by 9% compared to the previous three months, and dropped 9% annually,
A daily roundup of all the key property news.A new working paper from the Bank of England hints that strict affordability tests could be relaxed, but only if house prices start to rise. The “Modelling the distribution of mortgage debt” paper addresses a number of factors,
A daily roundup of all the key property news.UK house price growth slowed to 0.5% year-on-year in June, according to Nationwide’s latest house price index, lower than May’s 0.6% growth and the worst since February’s 0.4% increase
A daily roundup of all the key property news and views.New figures from Moneyfacts reveal that the number of mortgage deals available to first-time landlords has reached a record high. The number of buy-to-let products on offer for landlords seeking to buy their first investment property has more than doubled deals in 2014 from 645 to 1,405 in 2019.
A daily roundup of all the key property news.The government is offering discounted mortgage rates to homeowners who make their properties more eco-friendly, as part of a plan to improve the energy efficiency of homes.
A daily roundup of all the key property news and views.New regulations aimed at helping 'mortgage prisoners' – homeowners stuck on expensive mortgages from inactive or unregulated lenders – could be of little help. The Financial Conduct Authority has proposed introducing an exemption to full affordability tests.
In an in interview with the Times, Housing Secretary James Brokenshire reveals that the Government is introducing “codes of practice” or “quality requirements” that housebuilders would need to meet to access the revised Help to Buy scheme, which will begin in 2021.
A daily roundup of all the key property news and views.Demand from prospective house buyers in the UK climbed to its highest level in eight months during May, according to new property industry figures. The number of house hunters registered per estate agent branch across the country rose by 16% from 265 to 307 last month.
A daily roundup of all the key property news and views.The Government must increase spending to build 145,000 affordable homes every year as the only solution to the housing crisis, according to a new report. The National Housing Federation, Shelter, Crisis, the Campaign To Protect Rural England and the Chartered Institute of Housing have joined forces to issue the call.
A daily roundup of all the key property news and views.Labour has been criticised for considering plans to tax people on an increase in the value of their home. A report commissioned by the party says that applying Capital Gains Tax to main residences "would allow us to limit the wealth inequality arising from the housing boom". The report says that "a well-designed tax system would remove [the expectation of profits on resale]
A daily roundup of all the key property news and views. Seven of the top ten most expensive coastal towns are in the southwest of England, including Salcombe, Padstow and Dartmouth, making it the highest-priced region, according to analysis byZoopla for Jackson-Stops.
A daily roundup of all the key property news and views.London continues to drag on UK house prices, according to data by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), with the capital enduring the lowest annual growth out of any region with prices falling 1.2% over the year to April 2019.
A daily roundup of all the key property news and views.Canary Wharf Group is in talks to buy the majority of the Earls Court site from Capital & Counties. The group is eyeing Capco's 63% interest in the 70-acre west London regeneration project,, the value of which has fallen amid the downturn in prime residential property prices in the capital.
The national average price of a newly marketed property has been pushed up by 0.3%, thanks to buoyant property markets in the north according to Rightmove’s latest measure of online asking prices. Despite Brexit uncertainty weighing down house price growth over the past year, the average price of a property coming on to the market was £309,348, close to June 2018's record high of £309,439.
Key workers including nurses, teachers and emergency services personnel can only afford to own a home in 8% of UK towns, a report claims. A Halifax analysis of housing affordability for five public sector professions across 515 towns, including 31 London boroughs, shows just one in 12 of these areas were affordable - down from one in four (24%) in 2014.
The housing market in London has been boosted after sentiment rose to its highest level since April 2017, with negative trends in agreed sales, prices and new instructions all easing last month after the Brexit deadline was extended, according to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS) latest housing market survey.
More than half of people using the government's help-to-buy loan scheme did not actually require the assistance, as they were already in a position to have purchased a home without support from the state, the National Audit Office has revealed. Furthermore, 5% of the people who used the scheme last year had household incomes of more than £100,000.
The average price of a Scottish home rose by 2.2% to £178,991 in the 2018-19 financial year, according to official records. Overall the value of residential property sales reached £18.2bn, which was a year-on-year increase of 1.6%, Registers of Scotland data shows. Meanwhile, the volume of sales in Scotland was down slightly, at 101,628, in 2018-19. Of the residential sales in 2018-19, 28% were in Scotland’s seven cities with the most sales in Glasgow,
A report by the Centre for Cities has found strict regulations limiting house building in the UK’s most successful cities have exacerbated the wealth gap between north and south.Homeowners in the South East have made £80,000 more from their houses than those in the North,
New research indicates that new housing developments criticised by local residents for harming their house prices could actually be a boon for local property values. Online property lender Blend Network found that 17 of the top 20 areas for new homes built between 2011 and 2017 enjoyed house growth higher than the national average.
A daily roundup of all the key property news and views brought to you by Oracle Group.Labour is proposing housing and land reforms with tighter controls on mortgage lending and greater intervention from the Bank of England.
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