Shares in Countryside Properties and Taylor Wimpey edged down today after the UK’s competition watchdog told the housebuilders to remove “unacceptable” ground rent charges from their contracts.
The Competition and Markets Authority said today that ground rent contract terms for leaseholders from the two companies may break consumer protection law, and that it was singling out the companies’ use of terms that “double the ground rent every 10 or 15 years”.
The watchdog has demanded the removal of such terms from contracts issued by both companies and said they “must also agree not to use the terms again in any future leasehold contracts”.
Shares in Countryside ended the day down by 2.9% at 509.5p, while Taylor Wimpey was down by 2.6% at 180p.
The most notable real estate rises for the day were from BMO Real Estate Investments, up by 4%, and Yew Grove REIT, which gained 3.4%.
The FTSE 100 ended the day at 6,708, down by around 1%, and the FTSE 250 finished at 21,420, down by 0.7%.
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