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Call for flood data to be included in UK home sales material
People looking to buy a home in the UK should be given more upfront information about the property’s flood risk, it is clamed, with a survey showing that the vast majority want it included on sales details. Some nine out of 10 people believe that flood risk information should be included on material about properties for sale, according to a study from the Association of British Insurers (ABI). At present no property search websites include flood risk information for the location of properties they list despite having data on anything from school catchment areas to most commonly read newspapers in the area, the ABI points out, adding that there is also a lack of flood risk information on brochures for new build properties. The association is calling for estate agents and property search websites to automatically provide traffic light style information indicating flood risk for the locations of the homes they list. This should be based on publicly available Environment Agency data. It says that all solicitors and conveyancers need to follow the Law Society’s guidance to conduct specific searches for flood risk, and to arrange for an in depth assessment by a technical expert if there is any flood risk to the property. These proposals are in line with a recommendation from the Pitt Review into the 2007 floods, that people buying a property should have access to upfront flood risk information. This information would not be a definitive guide to flood risk on an individual property but would be a very good indication of where further investigations could be necessary. The ABI is also publishing a new house hunters’ guide to advise people of the steps they should take in the meantime to stay informed about the flood risk of properties they are considering. ‘Flooding can ruin a home, destroying valuable possessions and often force you to move out while repairs are made. A higher risk of flooding also tends to mean higher insurance premiums,’ said ABI director general Huw Evans. ‘With one in six homes at risk of flooding, we need to make thinking about flood risk as much part of the home buying process as school catchment areas and transport links. At the moment, information on whether a property is at risk of flooding comes too late, often when people have already invested hundreds if not thousands of pounds in the conveyancing process,’ he pointed out. ‘That’s why we are calling for those who sell properties to include new traffic light warnings on flood risk in a property’s area. You can currently get more information about what paper your new neighbours might read than if a particular property might be at flood risk,’ he explained. ‘These simple warnings will help people go into the home buying process with their eyes open and knowing whether further investigations are necessary. We now want to work with estate agents, property websites and the Environment Agency to make this happen,’ he added. He also pointed… Continue reading
Property prices in Ireland growing faster outside of Dublin, latest index shows
Property prices in Ireland increased 1.3% nationwide in September and are 8.9% higher year on year, the latest official figures shows. But a breakdown of the data from the Central Statistics Office reveals that prices are now growing faster outside of Dublin than in the capital city which is no longer leading the nation. In Dublin residential property prices rose by 0.9% in September and they are now 6.5% higher than in September 2014. This was the lowest annual increase since June 2013 and contrasts with the 20% rise recorded in April. Dublin house prices rose by 1.1% in September while apartment prices decreased by 0.4%. Experts said that the decline is due to the introduction of lending restrictions by the Central Bank’s lending restrictions and the ending of the Capital Gains Tax (CGT) waiver for property purchases. Outside of Dublin residential property prices rose by 1.6% in September and they are now up 11.4% compared with September 2014. This means that across Ireland prices were 34.6% lower than their peak level in 2007 while in Dublin they were 35.6% lower. Excluding Dublin prices were 47.7% lower. Peter Stafford of Property Industry Ireland, which represents property sector firms, pointed out that the last few months have been relatively stable for house prices, with fairly consistent low level growth. He believes that the slowdown in house price growth in Dublin is largely driven by reduced borrowing capacity because of the new Central Bank mortgage rules and he also pointed out that sales are doing well. Between January and August 2015, there were 29,916 housing sales nationwide compared to 23,626 in the same period of 2014 and 16,462 in January to August 2013. But he warned that there is a severe shortage of affordable homes to buy in many urban areas. ‘Population growth, demographic trends, as well as internal migration, will lead to increased transactions into the future. So it is vital that people looking to move house have a genuine choice of affordable accommodation,’ he added. Stafford also explained that the Irish government missed an opportunity in the recent Budget to boost home building and address the shortage. While the government has pledged 20,000 new homes by 2020 it could do more to encourage private builders by reducing the cost of new housing through a fall in VAT and development levies, the organisation has said. He added that while the delayed revaluation of housing for Local Property Tax to 2019 will help home owners over the short term, more needs to be done as part of a wider overhaul of property tax to create a sustainable, predictable and fair property tax system. Continue reading
New home sales down month on month in Australia
New home sales in Australia fell by 4% month on month in September, with the level of activity down from the April peak by 5.2%, the latest new data shows. Detached house sales declined in four out of the five the mainland states with only Victoria seeing growth at 3.1%, according to the New Home Sales report from the Housing Industry Association (HIA). They fell by 19.8% in South Australia, by 8.6% in Western Australia, by 5.9% in Queensland and by 0.5% in New South Wales. In Victoria detached house sales increased by 3.1%. ‘Following the peak level of sales that occurred in April this year, sales activity has trended lower only very modestly. This augers well for actual new home building activity in 2015/2016,’ said HIA economist, Diwa Hopkins. ‘A fresh record level of building activity during this financial year could have been achieved and could have been of strong benefit to the broader domestic economy but increasingly restrictive credit conditions are likely to curtail the boom in new home building,’ she pointed out. ‘The deterioration in credit conditions is likely to weigh more heavily on new home building activity beyond 2015/2016. We have therefore pared back our forecasts for activity over our forecast horizon beyond the end of the current financial year,’ she added. Meanwhile, separate research shows that offshore investment into Australia's commercial property market shows no signs of abating this year. Foreign investors accounted for 28% of transaction volumes by value in 2014 and already in the first half of 2015 the level is 27%. The Australian market is remaining attractive to offshore buyers, as commercial real estate assets continue to provide relatively high income returns in global context, according to the report from real estate firm JLL. It points out that Australian office assets are attractively priced for investors seeking high yielding, stabilised assets in a mature market, comparing well against major cities in Europe, Asia, and America. And even taking into account localised differences such as higher rent free incentive levels in Australia, yield spreads still favour the Australian market. ‘In Australia, yield compression has continued unabated, especially for prime grade assets, across all sectors and many markets. The weight of capital remains significant and the global portfolio tilt toward real estate continues,’ said Simon Storry, JLL's head of International Investments Australia. While 2014 was a record level of foreign investment into Australia, at the half year mark, 2015 levels are close to the record 28% of transaction volumes recorded in 2014. Storry said that the depreciation of the Australian Dollar has allowed offshore investors to be far more competitive and they seem to have a much greater desire to deploy substantial pools of capital in what they see as an undervalued market globally. Continue reading
