If you’re preparing to sell your Fife property in the New Year, then you might be feeling a little overwhelmed at the amount of work your Fife home requires before taking it to market. But don’t fret; we’re here with a list of top tips to help get you ready to show off your Fife home.
UK minimum wage for people over 23 to increase from £9.50 to £10.42 an hour
Top 45% additional rate of income tax will be paid on earnings over £125,140, instead of £150,000
Income tax personal allowance and higher rate thresholds frozen for further two years, until April 2028
Main National Insurance and inheritance tax thresholds also frozen for further two years, until April 2028
Tax-free allowances for dividend reduced to £1,000 next year and £500 from April 2024. Capital gains tax reduced to £6,000 next year and £3,000 from April 2024
Looking at the newspapers with their doom and gloom headlines, you would think that the Fife property market (and the British property market) would be on its knees.
Scotland house prices increased by 9.9% (Fife 8.8%) in the year to July 2022, down from an increase of 11.4% (Fife 12.7%) in the year to June 2022. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, average house prices in Scotland increased by 0.6% between June and July 2022, compared with an increase of 1.9% during the same period a year earlier (June 2021 and July 2021). On a seasonally adjusted basis, average house prices in Scotland increased by 0.3% between June and July 2022.
Comparing the provisional volume estimate for May 2021 with the provisional estimate for May 2022, the volume of transactions decreased by 0.6% in Scotland (Fife increased 3.4%). The UK volume of transactions increased by 34.5% over the same period.
In Scotland, terraced houses showed the largest increase out of all property types, rising by 11.0% in the year to July 2022 to £164,000. The lowest annual change of all property types was in flats and maisonettes, which increased by 8.0% in the year to July 2022 to £132,000.
The largest growth was in East Ayrshire, where prices increased by 19.8% in the year to July 2022 to £129,000. The lowest annual growth for the year to July 2022 was in City of Aberdeen where average prices increased over the year by 0.8% to £149,000.
As with other indicators in the housing market, which typically fluctuate from month to month, it is important not to put too much weight on one month’s set of house price data. However the Scottish and Fife Housing Markets are holding up well.
Yet higher mortgage rates could see Fife buyers paying a lot more each month for the privilege
Being a Fife first-time buyer in the last 12 months has not been an easy thing. Just before lockdown there were 400 ‘5% deposit mortgage’ deals and first-time buyers were able shop around to get the best deal. When the first lockdown hit, 5% deposit mortgages disappeared, meaning that as many Fife would-be first-time buyers were about to buy their first Fife home in 2020, the rug was pulled from under their feet. Continue reading FP TV (EP 31) Fife First-Time Buyers Can Now Buy Using 5% Deposit Mortgages! (Watch/read/listen)