How to deter burglars from your home – by an ex-housebreaker
What locks should I use?For a traditional front door to a house, Lloyd Morgan, a master locksmith at London Locks...
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Why Hunt’s holiday home tax raid could leave tourist hotspots in ruins
David Barnes, from Kent, owns a five-bedroom holiday let in Porthcothan Bay, Cornwall. He renovated the property in 2017, taking...
How to avoid ever-changing planning permission red tape
For everyone else there is greater freedom thanks to the system of permitted development, which allows homeowners to build without...
Meet the ‘homeless’ house-sitters – who are saving thousands on rent
Last autumn, Samantha Lassen and her boyfriend Tom Monti lived in a 10-bedroom mansion in Oxford, complete with a swimming...
House prices rise for the first time in a year as interest rates fall
Nathan Emerson, of estate agent body Propertymark, said the rise in house prices would encourage previously reluctant homeowners to sell...
what you can and can’t do
A couple’s attempt to rent a room in their family home – on the condition the prospective tenant babysits their...
How to get around England’s council tax crackdown on second homes
In Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset alone, 13,085 new properties have started claiming 100pc business rates relief over the past...
Gove urged to close ‘loophole’ in leasehold crackdown
Michael Gove has been urged to close a “loophole” that allows building companies to sell freeholds to private companies without...
Where baby boomers are refusing to downsize – fuelling the housing crisis
Part of the problem is the fact that downsizing often does not make financial sense for older homeowners. Lucian Cook,...
House prices – the definitive guide: Our calculator shows if they are rising or falling near you
So much of a person's wealth is often wrapped up in the home they live in that it's not surprising...
