R e a d i – M o v e . c o m

There has been a surge in the number of properties put up for sale since the scrapping of the controversial Home Information Packs.

Estate agents have seen a leap of 35.4 per cent in new listings.

The rush to sell is also being fuelled by concerns the coalition Government plans to target buy-to-let investors by raising capital gains tax. 

The decision to suspend the packs, which cost hundreds of pounds, means sellers can once more list their home with an estate agent ‘on spec’.

Property website Rightmove and Countrywide, the UK’s largest chain of estate agents, have seen a 34 per cent increase in listings for the week after the announcement that HIPs were to be scrapped.

Rightmove’s commercial director, Miles Shipside, said: ‘We would expect to see a post-election pick-up as people have been put off by the uncertainty of the election recently.

‘However 35 per cent is a significant increase in new listings and indicates many more speculative sellers have been encouraged to bring their properties to market since HIPs were scrapped.

‘It seems the additional cost and red tape were putting sellers off.’

Meanwhile, the Government is understood to be planning to increase CGT from 18 to 40 per cent, however any change is unlikely to come into effect until next April

Looking at this house you could be forgiven for thinking the world had turned upside down.

Standing on a pointed roof and supported by steel beams in the attic, the house amazes neighbours  and passers-by alike.

And inside the front door things are even weirder – everything from the bathroom to the fruit bowl on the kitchen table are hanging over head.

The 23ft-tall house has an upside-down kitchen, bathroom, living room and bedroom.  It was also built on a slight incline to challenge the viewer’s perspective still further.

This bizarre upside down house was created on the grounds of a German zoo. The roof is reinforced with steel girders

Thankfully the topsy-turvy building was not designed to be lived in. Instead it was created for a local zoo in Gettorf, Germany.

Local carpenter Gerhard Mordhorst and his colleagues Gesellse Splettstößer and Manfred Kolax put the unusual building together.

‘It was a challenge for us,’ Mr Mordhorst said.

‘You had to constantly think of the mirror image.’

They described the job as the ‘craziest’ one they had been asked to do and found the bathroom the trickiest to put together because of bulky items like the shower.

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A confused visitor checks out the kitchen and bathroom inside the unusual 40-tonne wooden house in Gettorf

In total they screwed 50 separate pieces into the floor-ceiling, including beds, tables, a microwave and pictures. The heaviest piece of furniture was a 100lb wardrobe with mirror.

The men spent months to perfect every little detail and even took to needle and thread to keep the bed linen in place. But Mr Splettstößer said their pains were worth it.

‘It’s a nice feeling, so to make something unique,’ he said.

The zoo owners hope the house will give visitors a ‘totally new perspective on a familiar view.’

A meal down under: All the dining room utensils had to be stuck on individually.

The ‘crazy house’ is reminiscent of a home described in Roald Dahl’s children’s book The Twits. In the children’s story a group of monkeys are forced to hang upside down by their owners. They have their revenge by sticking all of the couple’s furniture to the ceiling and convince them to stand on their heads.

The ‘crazy’ house was thought up by Hamburg investor Dirk Oster. He will open it to the public on March 30.

Buy-to-let mortgages are starting to return to borrowing limits last seen before the credit crunch.

Before the financial crisis, you could get a buy-to-let mortgage with a 10-15 per cent deposit. But once the credit clampdown started, lenders wanted at least a 25 per cent deposit, and some demanded far more.

While it’s still difficult to get a new buy-to-let mortgage, there are an increasing number of lenders willing to dip their toes into the buy-to-let remortgage market.

Fee-free mortgage broker London & Country is offering a three-year fixed rate of 6.49 per cent, with a fee of £995 on a maximum loan-to-value of 80 per cent. The mortgage deal, which is being funded by the Saffron Building Society, means monthly repayments of £1,012 on a £150,000 repayment loan or £811 on an interest-only basis. 

Other lenders are also becoming more welcoming towards buy-to-let borrowers. Nottingham Building Society has improved the loan-to-value up to 70 per cent on its buy-to-let mortgage for both remortgage and purchase.

It has also improved the rate – its three-year fixed rate is now 5.59 per cent compared with its previous rate of 5.89 per cent (which went to 65 per cent LTV). On a £150,000 home loan, that means monthly repayments of £699 interest-only or £929 repayment.

David Hollingsworth, of London & County, adds: ‘We are seeing the first concerted push to wake up the buy-to-let mortgage market – particularly on lending criteria.’

Platform, part of Co- Op/Britannia, sliced up to 0.3 per cent off its buy-to-let fixed rates this week.