What House?

What House? news editor Marc Da Silva has been shortlisted as a finalist for the LSL Property Press Awards, which is designed specifically to acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding achievements of property journalists from across the UK.

Marc has been nominated as one of five candidates for the International Property Journalist of the Year 2011 award, sponsored by Aviva.

Whathouse.co.uk has introduced a new free property valuation service to provide housebuyers with an up-to-date value for their existing home. With a few basic details, visitors to the website can quickly find out how much their home might currently fetch on the open market, and even print out a report providing further insight into the amenities in the local area and how to increase the value of their property - all free of charge.

You can stay in touch with the latest new and affordable housing news by following What house? on Twitter.

New home hunters, property investors, property agents, new home developers, along with anyone else interest in the latest activities in the UK housing market can follow on Twitter the latest news from What House?, the oldest and most established editorial brand in the new homes sector.

Fewer new build homes in London were constructed in 2009 than at any time in the last 20 years, according to statistics released by the government.

Mortgage lending remained disappointingly low in July, preventing many prospective property purchasers from buying a new home, according to fresh data released by the British Bankers' Association (BBA).

Just £1.95bn in mortgage lending, excluding redemptions and repayments, was issued by the major banks - the second lowest level since February 2001.

The volume of mortgages approved in July also dropped for the second month in succession - down 2.5% month-on-month to 33,698. This represents a significant fall on the 45,415 mortgage loans issued in December.

The volume of new homes coming onto the market could fall further, despite the fact that housing supply is at an 80-year low, according to a report.

Sentiment in the building sector began to decline again in the second quarter of the year, as fears over the scale of public spending cuts and ongoing uncertainty about prospects for the economy hit the construction industry, says the latest RICS Construction Market Survey.

Unlike calamity goalkeeper Robert Green's blunder spill goal versus the USA last week, the gong for Designer House of the Year at the 2010 Scottish Home Awards was in ‘safe hands'.

What House? editorial director Rupert Bates presented the award statue to this year's winner Studio Dub for a home in Craiglockhart, Edinburgh, at a sold out glitzy award ceremony in Edinburgh last Thursday night.

Studio Dub beat fellow shortlisted firms Red Door Cottages & McEachern MacDuff Architects and West Residential Ltd to win the accolade.

Up and down the country new home developers are working hard to increase the supply of new build houses and flats, including more affordable homes, in an attempt to meet the unabated demand for housing in Britain. What House? takes a look at who is building what and where? Here is a round-up of what has happened in the new homes sector in the past few days:

David Cameron, the man hoping to become the next Prime Minister, is calling on the Liberal Democrats to make a final decision over which party they will back to govern this country.

Yesterday, the Liberal Democrats opened formal talks with Labour, after Gordon Brown announced that he would resign as leader.

However, the Tories remain confident of gaining Liberal Democrat support to form a government, after they won the most seats at last week's general election but were short of an overall majority.

Forgive the personal indulgence, but my wife Kelly gave birth to Jemima yesterday morning - the day of the General Election.

We joked about calling her Tory after 13 hours of labour; or rather I joked, being a bloke who only had to put up with the politics of Labour, not go through it.

The whole of poor Jemima's life to date has been taken up with watching the General Election. She largely kept her counsel, apart from being sick when Harriet Harman opened her mouth. It would not surprise me if her first word is 'coalition' rather than 'Peppa Pig.'