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Asking prices up across UK led by Scotland and East Anglia
Asking prices have risen across all regions in England, Scotland and Wales over the last month, reflecting widespread positive sentiment across the UK, the latest index suggests. However, higher prices are also tempting vendors to put their properties on the market and the supply of property for sale in London, for example, has overtaken demand, according to the latest index from Home.co.uk. This is shown by a steep rise in the typical time on market which is currently 71 days, some 24 days longer than in March 2014, the report points out, although supply rises in other regions are much more muted. Asking price rises are led by East Anglia and Scotland, both with a monthly rise of 1.4%, and annual rises of 6.2% and 8% respectively. The report also says that an optimism abounds as even in the least well performing areas of the North East and Wales, prices have risen 0.4% and 0.3% respectively since February. A breakdown of the figures show that asking prices in London prices increased a further 2.1% despite rising supply and are up 31% year on year. While asking prices have increased by 1.1% overall in England and Wales during the last month but the average annual appreciation has fallen to 6.8%. Overall, the current mix-adjusted average asking price for England and Wales shows that properties on the market are valued 6.8% higher than they were in March 2014. The typical time on market for England and Wales is now 119 days, which is eight days less than this time last year, and shows that the market continues to gain momentum overall. ‘House prices are surging again, over and above seasonal expectations. The key market drivers of low mortgage interest rates and low supply remain very much in place,’ said Doug Shephard, Home.co.uk director. He pointed out that so far, the market correction in prime central London has not affected sentiment elsewhere in the country, and the flow of mortgage credit to homebuyers and property investors alike continues unabated. ‘We maintain that the best prospects for stable growth this year and next probably lie in regions such as East Anglia, East Midlands, the South West, West Midlands and perhaps Yorkshire. It may be argued that these regions are still in the throes of the recovery phase, as supply remains low and prices have not yet risen out of reach,’ he explained. ‘There are also further indicators that the recovery will, at last, lift the northern regions out of the misery of price stagnation. Those markets are gaining momentum and above inflation price rises look highly likely over the coming months,’ he added. He also pointed out that while prospects for price growth are poor for prime central London this year as an abundance of unsold stock has been whittling away at property values, for the time being, prices do appear to be stabilising. ‘The investment outlook for Greater London remains mixed but will slowly turn… Continue reading
Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms to be legal requirement in rental properties
Landlords in the UK will be required by law to install working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in their properties from October 2015, it has been announced. According to Housing Minister Brandon Lewis the move will help prevent up to 36 deaths and 1,375 injuries a year after a consultation showed strong support for the measure. Fire and rescue authorities are expected to support private landlords in their own areas to meet their new responsibilities with the provision of free alarms, with grant funding from the government. Lewis explained that it is part of wider government moves to ensure there are sufficient measures in place to protect public safety, while at the same time avoiding regulation which would push up rents and restrict the supply of homes, limiting choice for tenants. ‘In 1988 just 8% of homes had a smoke alarm installed but now it’s over 90%. The vast majority of landlords offer a good service and have installed smoke alarms in their homes, but I’m changing the law to ensure every tenant can be given this important protection,’ said Lewis. ‘But with working smoke alarms providing the vital seconds needed to escape a fire, I urge all tenants to make sure they regularly test their alarms to ensure they work when it counts. Testing regularly remains the tenant’s responsibility,’ he added. According to Communities Minister Stephen Williams it will help to create a bigger, better and safer private rented sector. ‘A key part of that is to ensure the safety of tenants with fire prevention and carbon monoxide warning. People are at least four times more likely to die in a fire in the home if there’s no working smoke alarm,’ he said. ‘That’s why we are proposing changes to the law that would require landlords to install working smoke alarms in their properties so tenants can give their families and those they care about a better chance of escaping a fire,’ he added. The proposed changes to the law would require landlords to install smoke alarms on every floor of their property, and test them at the start of every tenancy. Landlords would also need to install carbon monoxide alarms in high risk rooms such as those where a solid fuel heating system is installed. Those who fail to install smoke and carbon monoxide alarms would face sanctions and could face up to a £5,000 civil penalty. This would bring private rented properties into line with existing building regulations that already require newly built homes to have hard wired smoke alarms installed. New regulations will be laid in Parliament to require landlords to install smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in their properties, and are expected to come into force, subject to Parliamentary approval, on 10 October 2015. The allocation of funding to fire and rescue authorities to offer free smoke and carbon monoxide alarms to local landlords will be announced shortly. The British Property Federation said the crackdown was necessary to force the small number… Continue reading
Property prices still falling in London, but five year outlook suggests rise of 30%
Residential property prices are continuing to fall in London while Scotland and Northern Ireland outperform the rest of the UK, according to the latest monthly survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). Some 28% of surveyors in London reported falling prices in February, the sixth monthly decline in a row. But RICS members are positive about the outlook for prices and believe that they will rise by 30% in the next five years. Values increased across the rest of the country due to the demand supply imbalance, the report shows. There was also price growth across the South West and the South East. The upward shift in prices is in part being driven by a decline in the number of houses coming onto the market in most parts of the UK and 8% more surveyors saw declines in new supply in February and new instructions have now fallen in six out of the last seven months. Price expectations over the next three months increased from a net balance of 3% to 10% and despite anecdotal evidence suggesting that political uncertainty may be leading to the election effect of vendors sitting on the fence, RICS member forecast for house price growth over the next 12 months stand at 2.4%, up from 1.8% in January. Notable exceptions to the trend however were London, the North of England and the East Midlands, which may indicate that political uncertainty may be weighing more heavily on specific markets, the report suggests. It points out that as supply dips, the national picture of demand appears to be stabilising after seven consecutive months in which the headline reading for new buyer enquiries was negative and a slightly more upbeat trend is also emerging in more parts of the country than previously was the case. In the lettings market, demand continues to rise, while instructions to let remained unchanged following 10 months of steady declines. This is being reflected in the medium term view for rents with respondents, on average, envisaging an increase of 2.6% over the coming year. ‘It is encouraging that that the negative trend in buyer enquiries appears to be dissipating, perhaps in part because of growing confidence that the cost of borrowing will stay lower for longer, but more worrying that instructions to sell property continue to drop,’ said Simon Rubinsohn, RICS chief economist. ‘This very modest reversal in the demand picture is already being felt in the key measures of price expectations highlighting the extent of the challenge policy makers will face in addressing the housing crisis in the aftermath of the coming general election,’ he explained. ‘Even in London, where the key RICS indicators remain in negative territory, there is a strong view in the survey that property will become even more unaffordable over the medium term. Respondents suggests, on average, that house prices will rise by a further 30% in the capital over the next five years,’ he added. Continue reading
