Welcome to Cockrams Surveying Blog

The southwest part of England has been a holiday spot for UK residents for years, and now many are purchasing instead of renting. Though letting a house or apartment is still a popular, and reasonably-priced, way to find a holiday home, owning a second home here and throughout the UK is becoming more and more … Read More »

The extraordinary story of a country manor near Okehampton in West Devon surfaced recently after its new owners discovered a secret wall to the side of its main hall. And it was no small affair; as you can see from the picture below, it’s basically a mammoth sash window-cum-partition that slides into the floor, in … Read More »

Cockrams Surveying is set to move to new offices at the end of the month! The location of the new premises will be on the brilliant Lemon Street in Truro set amid all of the major estate agents. Keep an eye out for us as we move in and put up our signs. Clients will … Read More »

Approvals for house purchases dropped by about 2,000 on the previous month to 45,166, the Bank of England reported, reversing much of the pick-up seen following December’s 20-month low as the snow hit. The level of loans tallies with falling house prices, said Nida Ali, economic adviser to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club. “A … Read More »

House Prices remained virtually static in May, rising by just 0.1%, according to figures released by the Halifax. The figures support those reported by the Nationwide building society last week, which announced a small rise of 0.3% in May. The 0.1% rise follows on from a 1.4% decrease in April, but the quarterly change – … Read More »

The average cost of a home dropped 1.4pc during the month to stand at £160,395, the lowest level since July 2009, according to the latest Halifax house price index. The latest slide led to property values being 3.7pc lower during the three months to the end of April than during the same three months of … Read More »

House prices in seaside towns in England and Wales have soared by 128% since 2001, with seven out of 10 towns seeing greater increases in property values than for the country as a whole, according to high street bank Halifax. Wadebridge in Cornwall has seen the biggest gains, with house prices more than tripling in … Read More »

The recent launch of what is being cheekily referred to as crimelocation.com, the new Police crime website, illustrates just how much information is now available online. Web sites like this show how the internet has levelled the playing field for buyers and tenants who are now able to peer into the murky world of property. … Read More »

If you are only buying your own home to “invest” in property you may find the next couple of years a little disappointing. Most predictions for house prices for 2011 are that they will be lower by the end of the year than the beginning. I do not see any sustained house price growth re-emerging … Read More »

The disposal of plasterboard first became an issue when the Environment Agency produced new landfill guidelines in April 2009 relating to material containing gypsum. The main issue with gypsum based plasterboard is that when mixed with biodegradable waste in landfills, the subsequent decomposition can result in the release of sulphide gas (H2S) which is both … Read More »