Diesel drivers may have to pay up to £20 per day to travel through urban centres under government plans.
Diesel cars, coaches, trucks and vans could reportedly face additional charges of up to £20 to travel through town and city centres across England under new air pollution measures drawn up by the government. Now one property expert thinks air quality could soon have an impact on local property markets.
Founder of LettingFocus.com, David Lawrenson, is an experienced landlord and author. He says adverts for properties to buy or rent in low pollution areas will increasingly promote that fact.
“Look at any property advert – whether for rent or sale – and there is plenty of useful information there for potential buyers to read, at least there ought to be.
“One of the bits of information that you get, tells you all about the energy efficiency of the property and how well insulated it is, so you get some idea how much it will cost to heat and light. Every property for sale or rent has to have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) attached.
“All well and good for your bank balance, but have you ever thought that the home you are living in could be bad for your health, indeed it could be killing you?
“Increasingly, we are hearing about air pollution, especially that which is caused by diesel fumes, and the effect that is having on people’s health. In London alone, tens of thousands of people die each year, before their time, because of the effects of air pollution. And the closer you live to the centre of a big city or town, the closer you are to an airport, the closer you are to a main road and the busier that road is, the worse the impacts are.
“As the demand for action on air pollution grows and the awareness that being within 50 or 100 metres of a busy road or junction can be especially injurious to health, I predict that within a few years, folks advertising properties for rent or to buy will start to show if their property is a safe distance, (at least 200 metres) from a main road). Relative safety in pollution terms will become a selling point.
“In due course, there may even be legislation to force vendors and landlords to show local average air quality information, though don’t bank on it, because there are too many parties with too much to lose.”
Meanwhile, the accessibility of mortgages in the UK has hit a three-year high, reveal new figures.
The latest report from the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) shows that brokers are encountering fewer difficulties when sourcing mortgages for clients than at any point since the introduction of the Mortgage Market Review in 2014.
Happy Article-50-Day: Will Brexit put a dent in planned property purchases?
The MMR was designed to crack down on any unreliable lending in the UK, securing and stabilising the market by ensuring that buyers could afford their mortgage repayments. While that was expected to make it harder for buyers to get on the housing ladder, though, the IMLA’s findings highlight how favourable conditions have become, thanks to low mortgage rates.
3 in 10 mortgage brokers reported that they had no problem sourcing a mortgage for any client in the second half of 2016, up from 26 per cent in the first half of 2016 and double the rate recorded a year earlier. Just 16 per cent said they were unable to source a mortgage for first-time buyers, down from 29 per cent in the first half of 2016.
