David Byers

‘Criminals stole my flat and identity to run a brothel’ Organised gangs are scamming the owners of rental properties in London so they can more easily engage in activities such as fraud and prostitution

Terrific investigation by @manumidolo.bsky.social.

How gangs are renting out properties before stealing landlords' identities, using the homes as brothels and then using weak tenancy laws (and lax policing) to prove impossible to evict - often for years.

www.thetimes.com/article/513a...

Country house prices plummet as property market slows down Rural areas are a happy hunting ground for bargain-hunting buyers. Plus, search to see how far prices have fallen where you live

Stamp duty rises for second-home buyers, a doubling of council tax for existing second-home owners, a hike in mortgage rates and a dramatic reversal of the Covid-era work-from-home ethos have created an unprecedented slowdown in rural areas.

www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...

‘Portakabin villages’ plan to solve emergency housing crisis The prefab manufacturer will build homes for the first time in a deal with 11 councils — and is open to providing accommodation for asylum seekers too

Exclusive: Portakabin is to strike deals with several British urban councils to build emergency prefab housing - its first ever homes - amid a sharp rise in homelessness. It has also offered its services to the Home Office for asylum-seeker housing.

www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...

Millennial investors lead surge in buy-to-let property market Younger generations now dominate property investment: those born between 1981 and 1996 will account for half of new buy-to-let companies this year

Millennial investors will account for half of the new buy-to-let limited companies to be set up this year — the first time this generation has ever reached this threshold — as older landlords cool on property investment.

www.thetimes.com/article/c005...

Toilet roll tycoon’s green-belt mansion plan thrown out The Hussain family, who made their fortune from Accrol Papers, wanted to create a neo-classical family pile in Lancashire

He made his fortune from a toilet roll empire, but multimillionaire Majid Hussain’s attempts to build his own castle unravelled when plans for a mock-Georgian mansion in the middle of the green belt were defeated in court.

www.thetimes.com/article/c88a...

Should England and Wales adopt Scottish system to speed up homebuying? Scotland’s structure leads to much quicker completions on average, so it’s no wonder Keir Starmer’s government is looking north of the border

This week the government announced significant changes to the way people in England and Wales will buy and sell homes, shifting the system towards Scotland.

Will this be a silver bullet for our housing market or bring about its own problems?

www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...

I asked a simple question at a pro-Palestine protest and it turned ugly At an otherwise peaceful demonstration in Trafalgar Square I encountered abuse, swearing, ignorance and, underpinning it all, virulent, unthinking antisemitism

Required reading

www.thetimes.com/article/650a...

New town plan ignores flooding, as villagers voice alarm In Tempsford, there is anger as residents say government’s plans ignore years of flooding, while villagers in Adlington are stunned and unprepared for sudden announcement

Residents of one of the government's proposed new-towns are somewhat incredulous at the plans... because they have been inundated for years by appalling floods...

www.thetimes.com/article/166b...

Housing policy in crisis as building costs doom 1.5m homes pledge A damning report reveals building costs soared 17 per cent between 2022 and 2024. This makes new homes a loss-maker for builders in nearly half the country

The government’s pledge to build 1.5 million homes in five years is doomed to failure because construction costs are too expensive for builders in half of the country, a damning report revealed.

www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...

The MP and the viscountess: 30 years on, scandal-hit pair sell up David Mellor and Lady Cobham (the ‘quango queen’) are selling their hidden London love nest. Bought for £1.5m, it is now listed for £16m

Former Tory minister David Mellor and Lady Cobham are selling their extraordinary London mansion for £16 million - 30 years after the Westminster affair that brought them together.

www.thetimes.com/article/2c8d...

If the over-60s are to downsize, Britain needs bungalows They’re stair-free, almost always more energy-efficient and they provide garden space for the older people who still crave it

In praise of the humble bungalow. Naff, perhaps, but a key solution to our housing crisis

www.thetimes.com/article/8a93...

First-time buyers going straight to ‘forever home’ says Barclays Semi-detached properties made up a third of first-time buyer purchases in August while flats declined in popularity

First-time buyers are knocking a rung off the housing ladder and going straight for their “forever home”, according to Barclays data.

The buyers now can't buy until they are older (average age 34), so they frequently have families and need bigger homes.

www.thetimes.com/business-mon...

Landlords selling up before renters’ rights bill reforms bite Labour’s plans will cause rents to rise, property experts have warned

Landlords are selling off more properties while an ever-diminishing number invest in the sector amid suggestions of tax rises in the autumn budget. Data shows property investors’ appetite has waned after years of costs imposed by consecutive governments.

www.thetimes.com/business-mon...

The property revolution is here: could slow conveyancing finally be over? A charter is promising to slash house transactions to 28 days. We look at whether its bold claims could overhaul an industry in crisis

A coalition of powerful firms - including our biggest banks, legal firms and brokerages - have signed a striking pledge to reduce the process of buying or selling a property to 28 days.

Is this property revolution for the masses - or pie-in-the-sky?

www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...

Property market freezes as tax rises spook buyers Only one in ten homes are under offer in some affluent areas. Experts blame stamp duty, expensive mortgages and fear of more to come in Rachel Reeves’s budget

Fewer than 1 in 10 properties up for sale are under offer in the most affluent areas, as tax changes bite. Analysts worry that pre-Budget kite-flying will worsen the situation.

www.thetimes.com/article/ea05...

Why London’s rich are renting, not buying — at £325,000 a month Stamp duty and non-dom tax changes mean the wealthy are ditching buying for high-end rentals — and reshaping the luxury property market

Research carried out for The Times shows that, while few high-end homes are selling, the market in ultra-high-end rentals has more than doubled in size in the space of a year as multimillionaires make London a temporary base instead of a permanent home.

www.thetimes.com/article/d83b...

Cotswolds crimewave: the dark side of a chocolate-box village Kingham has seen a surge in burglaries this summer, as intruders seek high-performance cars and a gang stalks the streets. Residents fear for their safety

The Cotswolds has made headlines as a magnet for A-list celebrities, royalty and tourists. But thieves are staging a wave of break-ins, hunting high performance cars. Residents say police seem powerless to stop them.

www.thetimes.com/article/7af2...

‘I wish I had never bought my Help to Buy flat — it’s lost £40k’ The scheme was meant to be a leg up onto the property ladder, but more than a third of those who used it to buy a flat could be worse off than when they started

Terrific illustration of the failings of the Help to Buy scheme by @georgenixon97.bsky.social

It was meant to be a leg up onto the property ladder, but more than a third of those who used it to buy a flat could now be worse off than when they started.

www.thetimes.com/article/f3c3...

What's that you say? You want to read about how Britain's Grand Designs self-build dream died in a section illustrated by sad-looking Lego men? Of course you do @thetimes.com

Is London’s housing market on the edge of freefall? The super-rich and middle-class homeowners alike are fleeing the capital’s prime postcodes, partly due to Rachel Reeves’s punishing tax changes

Tax is driving swathes of London's property market towards the cliff-edge. Our exclusive analysis

www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...

How a wealth tax on £2m-plus houses could hit 150,000 homeowners As Rachel Reeves tries to resist backbench pressure for new taxes on the rich, we crunch the numbers on a potential levy that would sting owners of pricey houses

Almost 150,000 homeowners would have to pay billions of pounds more tax if the government bows to pressure from backbenchers and introduces a wealth tax on homes worth £2 million or more, an analysis for @thetimes.com has shown.

www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...

What a great splash in today’s @thetimes.com by @davidbyers26.bsky.social celebrating the importance of SAVE’s work safeguarding historic buildings - from castles to cotton mills, dept stores to stations - for future generations ♻️

#SAVEcampaigns #SAVE50 #reuse 🏫

www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...

The fight to save Britain’s estates — and Europe’s coldest house As soaring costs and inheritance tax threaten 1,257 historic buildings, the owners of Cluny Castle and Kemerton Court share the difficulties they face

An analysis for The Sunday Times by the charity Save Britain’s Heritage has revealed that 1,257 historic buildings of all types — a record — are now on its carefully curated “at risk” register, with 50 new ones added this week alone.

www.thetimes.com/article/c945...

‘Letting agents charged me £6,156 for next to nothing’ Landlords in London alone pay £1 billion a year in unfair renewal fees, it is estimated. Our writer was charged seven years’ worth of agency fees for one simple tenancy contract — how can this be fair...

This excellent piece by Jane Mulkerrins about systemic poor practice among rip-off lettings agencies needed to be written. Such behaviour ultimately drives up rents for tenants.

www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...

I spent a day thatching a 350-year-old roof — it nearly broke me The ancient craft, essential to Britain’s chocolate-box homes, faces a crisis. Can this unique skill survive shortages of materials and makers?

A shortage of thatchers and terrible harvests have left desperate owners of Britain's 60,000 thatched cottages waiting for five years for repairs to be done.

Enter your intrepid reporter.

www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...

Heatwaves are hell in my new-build flat Highly insulated modern apartments save their owners a fortune in energy bills but when the temperature rises, the downside becomes clear. Here’s how to cope

This is a v funny piece by colleague @melyorktt.bsky.social, but there is a serious point behind it - a huge number of newbuilds simply aren't built for our changing climate and, pretty soon, may be unlivable.

www.thetimes.com/article/49fb...

The coastal owners stranded with unsellable homes Stamp duty and council tax changes have sent demand for holiday homes off a cliff — also trapping downsizers or movers desperate to sell

Demand for homes in coastal areas has fallen off a cliff in recent months thanks to steep tax changes for second home-owners — but it has also trapped downsizers or movers who live there and are desperate to sell. We tell their story.

www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...

Will the spending review 2025 mean more new affordable housing? Will Rachel Reeves’s £39 billion plan truly solve Britain’s housing crisis or is it merely a temporary fix? We analyse the chancellor’s pledges

An excellent analysis of today's housing policy announcements by my colleague @melyorktt.bsky.social

www.thetimes.com/article/faf7...

‘Our only daughter died aged nine — we moved but didn’t run away’ After Lizzie Bramall died from a rare brain tumour, grief led her parents, Mark and Sally, to a new healing home, five doors from their old one

This is an extraordinary little piece about utterly extraordinary parents. It reminds me not to sweat the small stuff, but concentrate on what's truly important in life.

www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...

Are Labour’s VAT changes sparking a mass sale of private schools? We talk to staff at Padworth College in Berkshire, a fee-paying school which is closing and already on the market. Many more could follow suit, its director says

Padworth College, established in 1963, is one of 20 private schools closing this year. Its owner cites Labour's decision to impose 20% VAT from last January as the final straw, as pupil numbers sank. So what lies ahead for Britain's small private schools?

www.thetimes.com/article/e100...