What Does a Surveyor Check Before You Buy a House With an Open-Plan Ground Floor?
Open-plan ground floors now appear in roughly one in three UK homes listed for sale, yet fewer than half of buyers commission a survey that
October 2, 2026
Open-plan ground floors now appear in roughly one in three UK homes listed for sale, yet fewer than half of buyers commission a survey that
A property can lose tens of thousands of pounds in market value because of building defects, yet the repair bill and the value loss are
Roughly one in five UK homes sold each year has had some form of extension or alteration, and a significant proportion of those lack complete
More than a decade. That is how long it has been since the national house price to earnings ratio was this low, and yet, on
Basement conversions in London and other dense UK cities now account for a significant share of planning applications, yet the party wall process for below-ground
A 0.4% monthly uptick in advertised asking prices makes for a reassuring headline. It does not fix a cracked lintel, a failing damp-proof course, or
Deposit disputes cost UK landlords and tenants millions of pounds each year, and the single most common reason adjudicators find against landlords is the absence
Fewer mortgages were approved in Britain last month than in any month since December 2023. Just 54,900 house purchase mortgages got the green light in
One in four homes relisted for sale in September had already failed to sell once. Of those, six in ten came back at a lower
Fewer than 1 in 100 UK insurance claims each year relate to earthquake damage, yet ground movement of one kind or another contributes to thousands
Roughly half of all UK homes built before 2000 contain at least one asbestos-containing material (ACM), yet the majority of buyers who commission a RICS
Around 20% of England's housing stock was built before 1919, according to the Office for National Statistics. That is roughly five million homes constructed using
Roughly 790 UK property sales collapsed every day during Q2 2026. Nearly 72,000 transactions fell through between April and June, each one leaving a trail
Three days. That is how long it took for a headline government housing announcement to arrive with more questions than answers. On Saturday 26 September
Last updated: September 28, 2026 Quick Answer The Bank of England held its base rate at 3.75% on 17 September 2026, the sixth consecutive hold,
Last updated: September 27, 2026 A £2,441 jump in the average asking price sounds like good news until you notice that homes are still sitting
Last updated: September 26, 2026 Quick Answer Headlines earlier in 2026 pointed to UK mortgage approvals reaching their highest level in four years, fuelling talk
Last updated: September 25, 2026 Quick Answer Rightmove's House Price Index, published 21 September 2026, recorded a 0.7% monthly rise in average new-seller asking prices
Last updated: September 17, 2026 Quick Answer The Bank of England held Bank Rate at 4% on 17 September 2026, with the best five-year fixed
Nearly one in five UK property transactions involves a buyer who later discovers a significant defect that a proper survey would have flagged, yet thousands
Nearly half of all UK remortgage cases in 2026 are processed without a surveyor ever setting foot in the property. That figure would have seemed
Over 200,000 households in England currently live in shared ownership properties, yet fewer than one in five fully understands how the price of buying additional
London homeowners spend an estimated £700 to £2,500 or more on party wall surveying for a typical extension or loft conversion, yet many receive their
Dilapidations claims against commercial tenants in England and Wales regularly run into tens of thousands of pounds, sometimes hundreds of thousands for larger London offices
A net balance of −4% on construction workloads in Q2 2026, up from −12% just three months earlier, tells a precise story: the UK construction
A reported 40% surge in party wall disputes in 2026 has pushed the issue firmly onto the radar of homeowners, developers, and property professionals across
Nearly one in three UK property transactions collapses after an offer is accepted, and hidden structural defects are among the most cited reasons. Yet thousands
Roughly one in five UK homes sits on shrink-swell clay soil, making seasonal ground movement one of the most common, and most misread, property concerns
A single rule change introduced on 6 August 2026 made biodiversity a hard cost line in every UK development appraisal, not an aspiration, not a
