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UK housing market sales at their highest since 2007
Residential sales in the UK in the first 10 months of 2014 were 21% higher than in the same period in 2013 with over three quarters of a million property sales recorded, new research shows. This was the highest for this period since 2007 with the numbers of sales in England and Wales during January through to October 2014 totalling 760,000, according to the research by Lloyds Bank. It also shows that there has been a considerable improvement in sales since the market reached the depth of its recession in 2009. Sales in the first 10 months of 2014 were 60% higher than in the same period in 2009. However, sales remained 27% below the levels achieved at the height of the boom in 2007. Daventry in Northamptonshire experienced the biggest rise in home sales, up by 56%, but all regions saw a rise in sales in 2014. The biggest increases compared with 2013 was 26% in the East Midlands, 25% in the West Midlands and 25% in the North West. The smallest rise was 11% in Greater London. However, London recorded the biggest pick-up in sales over the past five years as a whole with a 74% gain between 2009 and 2014. All regions have seen rises of at least 50% over this period with the smallest rises in East Anglia at 51%, the North at 52% and the South West also at 52%. Sales in all regions, however, remain lower than 2007 levels with transactions in the northern regions furthest below. The North is down 41%, the North West down 37%, and Yorkshire and Humber down 35%. The strongest recoveries have been in southern England with the South West down 19%, East Anglia down 20% and the South East down 22%. The overwhelming majority of towns in this survey, some 97%, saw an increase in sales between 2013 and 2014. The majority of regions recorded an increase in all towns. London, however, experienced a decline in sales in a fifth of its boroughs. In contrast, all towns in the country saw a decline in sales in 2008. ‘The recovery in the housing market continued in 2014 with sales rising further in almost all areas of the country. Low interest rates, improvements in the UK economy and government schemes, such as Help to Buy, all appear to have contributed to the rise in home sales. Despite these improvements, sales both nationally and regionally are still significantly below their pre-recession levels,’ said Andy Hulme, mortgages director at Lloyds Bank. ‘There is a clear north versus south pattern to the housing market recovery with sales closer to their 2007 levels in the south. Indeed, a small number of towns recorded higher sales last year than seven years earlier, but sales remained much lower than 2007 levels in most areas,’ he added. A breakdown of the figures shows that four towns recorded a 50% or more increase in sales between 2013 and… Continue reading
Home sales in Canada fall to 2% below levels from a year ago
Residential property sales in Canada fell by 3.1% in January compared with the previous month and are 2% below levels recorded a year ago, according to the latest data from the Canadian Real Estate Association. The monthly CREA home index also shows that prices are 3.1% above a year ago. Price gains varied among housing markets tracked by the index with growth of 7.76% in Calgary, 7.47% in Greater Toronto and 5.53% in Greater Vancouver being the largest year on year increases. In other markets prices were up on a year on year in the Fraser Valley, Victoria, and Vancouver Island, while remaining stable in Saskatoon, Ottawa, and Greater Montreal. By contrast, prices declined year on year in Regina and Greater Moncton January sales were down from the previous month in about 60% of all local housing markets and on a provincial basis, the monthly decline largely reflected fewer sales in Alberta and Saskatchewan. ‘As expected, consumer confidence in the Prairies has declined and moved a number of potential home buyers to the side lines as a result. By contrast, housing market trends in the Maritimes are continuing to improve,’ said CREA president Beth Crosbie. Actual, not seasonally adjusted, activity in January stood 2% below levels reported in the same month last year, marking the first year on year decline since April 2014. ‘Comparing sales activity for January this year to sales one year earlier, there was a fairly even split between the number of markets where sales were up versus the number of markets where sales were down,’ said Gregory Klump, CREA’s chief economist. ‘The decline in national sales largely reflects weakened activity in Calgary and Edmonton. If these two markets are removed from national totals, combined sales activity remained 1.9% above year ago levels,’ he explained. The index data also shows that the number of newly listed homes rose 0.7% in January compared to December. New supply climbed higher in just over half of all local markets, led by Edmonton and Greater Toronto. By contrast, Greater Vancouver, Calgary, and Regina posted the largest monthly declines in new listings. The national sales to new listings ratio was 49.7% in January, marking the first time this measure of market balance has dipped below 50% since December 2012. A sales to new listings ratio between 40% and 60%n is generally consistent with balanced housing market conditions, with readings above and below this range indicating sellers’ and buyers’ markets, respectively. The ratio was within this range in more than half of all local markets in January. The number of months of inventory is another important measure of the balance between housing supply and demand. It represents the number of months it would take to completely liquidate current inventories at the current rate of sales activity. There were 6.5 months of inventory nationally at the end of January 2015, its highest reading since April 2013. As with the sales to new listings ratio, the reading for the number… Continue reading
Oxford prime property market outperforms rest of UK
Rising demand from international buyers and others from London relocating to Oxford has contributed to price growth in the city’s prime property market, new research shows. Oxford is a key city outside of London and attracts people because of its internationally renowned university and research from real estate firm Knight Frank shows that last year it outperformed both the wider prime property market in the UK and in the South East. Prices increased by 1.8% between October and December 2014, taking the annual rise in values in the city to 6.1%. Demand for homes valued between £1 million and £2 million was especially strong. Knight Frank says that a key driver of Oxford’s property market performance has been demand for homes from buyers from outside of the city. Indeed, the proportion of property buyers from outside Oxford more than doubled in 2014 compared to the previous year, accounting for 52% of all Knight Frank sales in the city last year, compared to just 24% in 2013. Demand from Londoners relocating to Oxford rose significantly year on year, from 3% to 18%, with many such buyers looking to take advantage of the relative price difference that currently exists between house prices in the capital and in Oxford. The proportion of international buyers in the city also rose to 17% in 2014, up from 11% the previous year. Access to top performing schools, strong local employment, as well as improving transport links into London, including a new rail line between Oxford and London Marylebone which is due to open this summer , have helped boost high levels of demand in Oxford, according to the report. The number of potential new buyers registering their interest in purchasing a new home was 18% higher last year than 2013 and the number of property viewings in the city was 8% higher over the same time. ‘All of this helped contribute to an increase in the number of sales completed by Knight Frank in Oxford in 2014, with the total number of transactions last year 22% higher than in 2013 and 41% higher than in 2012,’ said Oliver Knight of the firm’s residential research team. ‘The market for properties valued between £1 million and £2 million is especially strong and accounted for nearly 50% of all sales in 2014, compared to 41% in 2013,’ he added. Continue reading
