The taxman says three and a half million people are due a refund, but two million will have to fork out for underpaid tax.
Rightmove: property asking prices hit new high in June

Rightmove: property asking prices hit new high in June
Asking prices for homes in England and Wales have reached a new record high, according to property website rightmove’s June House Price Index.
However, inflation means this is actually 13% lower than August 2007’s house price peak, just prior to the run on Northern Rock.
Once again London is the only region to buck this trend, with prices 3% ahead of Retail Prices Index inflation since that high nearly five years ago.
Asking prices in Wales have fallen furthest over that period, down by 24% when adjusted for inflation.
Rightmove says the average asking price in England and Wales is now £246,235, up £2,476 or 1% on May. But this is almost entirely driven by London and the south of England.
Looking at the annual change, prices in London have leaped up by a huge 8.8%, but again this is the only area where prices are higher than inflation.
Region | Average asking price – June 2012 | Annual change in average asking price |
Greater London | £477,440 | 8.8% |
South West | £270,380 | 2.9% |
East Midlands | £167,660 | 1.7% |
South East | £318,717 | 1.4% |
Yorkshire and Humberside | £159,418 | 0.9% |
North West | £166,543 | 0.5% |
Wales | £167,875 | -0.6% |
North | £152,080 | -1.2% |
East Anglia | £227,555 | -1.8% |
West Midlands | £187,294 | -2.8% |
Rightmove says that with “a summer of sporting distraction” now underway, sellers need to price their properties realistically and promote their selling points better to have any hope of a quick sale.
There was an increase in new properties coming onto the market before the Diamond Jubilee holiday. However, rightmove believes asking prices have peaked for now, even in London and the south, with buyers likely to give house hunting a miss until September.
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The dramatic increases since the late 70's have been a result of small local agencies being gobbled up, and the coming of the banks with loan strategies etc, both hiding the real values behind hype which people have bought into.They needed price rises to cover bad debt and the initial costs of amalgamation etc. They, and the Government, needed the rise to continue to cover borrowing in financial markets.
We'd be more firmly "aginst the wall" as are other states in Europe if it hadn't been for this fixing of property values, that hid our need for more borrowing and also avoided the IMF questioning our credit worthyness
Abroad, most people do not own their house /flat, but are no worse off for it, and yet we pay extraavagent mortgages that will take a working life to repay, just so in old age we will be ineligible for the many benefits the work shy have access to.
No responsible person should risk their families future on a mix of crazy borrowing, plus other rising debt which the women in the family will largely be responsible for, and at a time of economic uncertainty. More so, as most jobs are closed to the over 40 somethings, so peak wages may come sooner, but not be sustained as direct and indirect tax rises...we can all see it coming, so why be so foolish?
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