Buying or selling a house is most stressful part of modern life

Plus London ripple, landlord expansion, and a private island in the Med

Buying or selling a house is more stressful than being made redundant, getting divorced or going bankrupt, according to a report from EstatesDirect.com

The study of 2,000 adults also showed that more than a quarter had suffered bad experiences with an estate agent and 45 per cent that their solicitor/conveyancer had dragged their heels, while people felt selling a property was far more stressful than buying one, partly due to keeping the house clean for viewings.

Overall the 20 most stressful aspects of selling a property were:

1. Slow solicitors

2. The risk of it falling through

3. The huge sums of money that are at stake

4. All the documentation to complete

5. Endless phone calls

6. The survey

7. Difficult vendors

8. Difficult estate agents

9. Being gazumped at the last minute

10. The disruption it causes to your working day

11. Communication problems

12. Difficulty with estate agent

13. Mortgage lenders incompetence

14. None/nothing was stressful

15. Local searches

16. Bank/finance problems

17. Land registry problems

18. Lost documents

19. Postal delays

20. Difficult buyers

London ripple

Prime country house prices rose by 1.1 per cent between April and June this year according to Knight Frank, making the annual increase 5.2 per cent.

Its figures shows the number of sales completed in the last three months was up 11 per cent compared to the same time last year, although the number ofprospective buyers registering their interest in buying a prime country home fell by two per cent.

"Prime country house prices rose for the sixth consecutive quarter between April and June," said Oliver Knight, Knight Frank Research. "Although still playing ‘catch-up’ with the prime market in London, where prices increased by 7.8 per cent over the year to May, this is the strongest rate of annual growth in the prime country market in four years."

Rupert Sweeting, Head of Knight Frank Country, added: "After little or no price growth for a couple of years, the increased activity in the country market is slowly filtering through to price growth. There are areas that are more active than others with counties like Hampshire seeing a significant increase in sales reflecting renewed confidence from London buyers. The ripples have not reached the far flung counties which are, as a general rule, more than two hours from London, unless the property is exceptional."

One in five amateur landlords plan to expand their portfolio this year

A fifth of all amateur landlords - those that consider their rental income to be an addition to their day job earnings - are hoping to add to their property portfolio in 2014.

Figures from the National Landlords Association (NLA) suggest that the number of these 'amateur' landlords has reached its highest ever level, making up more than 70 per cent of the sector. Each has on average four properties that generate an annual gross rental income of £31,000.

Landlords now spend an average of 26 per cent of their total rental income on maintenance costs, adds the report.

Private island in the Mediterranean for sale

Isola di Mal Ventre is the only private island available for sale in the Mediterranean, according to debutesq. Close to the north east coast of Sardinia, the 200 acre, 2km long island is uninhabited apart from the ruins of a shepherd's home, although it has been lived on since Roman times. On at €1.5 million.