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Less than one in five house sales fell through in UK in third quarter
Less than one in five house sales fell through between July and September in the UK, taking the house sale fall through rate to its lowest level since late 2012, new research shows. The figures from home buyer Quick Move Now indicate a house sale fall through rate of 19.62% in the third quarter of the year, down from 36.34% in the second quarter of 2015. The six month average fall through, which offers a greater overview of how the property market is performing generally, shows that at the end of the second quarter it was 28.44% but this fell to 27.99% in the third quarter. ‘As the property market becomes more competitive, buyers are coming to the market better prepared in order to make themselves more attractive to vendors when competing for property,’ said Danny Luke, business manager at Quick Move Now. ‘Often, buyers will already have sought financial advice, have mortgage offers in place, and taken time to really consider affordability so they know what they can afford and they know what they're looking for, so when they find a good property they want to snap it up as quickly as possible and not risk losing out to another buyer,’ he added. He also believes that due to continued market buoyancy and predicted interest rate rises, buyers are keen to secure properties quickly before they're priced out of the market. Meanwhile, separate research shows that demand for London property at below £2 million is set to remain strong, with the city’s population forecast to grow by more than 100,000 every year for the next decade. As house prices grow across London, it will create new markets where properties cross the £1 million threshold, according to the latest London Residential Review from real estate firm Knight Frank. The analysis is based on postcode districts where at least 20% of sales have been above £1 million in at least one quarter since the start of 2014. The minimum threshold was five sales and no postcode district was allowed to have more than one quarter with 20% of sales above £1 million before 2014. The data shows that Hammersmith (W6) had five such quarters since 2014, making it the area that has undergone the biggest transformation in terms of £1 million plus sales. Other areas include Maida Vale (W9), Queen’s Park (NW6), East Finchley (N2) and Muswell Hill (N10). Further south, Battersea (SW11) and Vauxhall (SW8) have consolidated their positions as £1 million markets. Continue reading
Rents in England and Wales reach new record level
Rents across England and Wales reached the highest level on record between August and September in a trend increasingly divergent from the wider rate of consumer price inflation, new data shows. Average rents now stand at a new record of £816 per month, after rising by 1.6% month on month and 6.3% year on year, according to the latest buy to let index from Your Move and Reeds Rains. Trends in the private rented sector are increasingly divergent from the official measure of wider inflation. According to the Office for National Statistics consumer prices are by contrast now 0.1% lower than in September 2014. On a cumulative basis the difference with inflation is starker, the index report shows. Rents are now 24.4% higher than in January 2010, while the index of CPI inflation is just 14.1% higher over the same period. This means rents have risen by 10.3% in real terms since the start of the decade. ‘Rents are rising strongly in real terms due to the recent acceleration in wages, and the much deeper and longer term shortage of available properties across the UK of all tenures,’ said Adrian Gill, director of estate agents Reeds Rains and Your Move. ‘Meanwhile, as the price of everyday essentials plateaus and even falls, rents are no longer following the same broad trends. The cost of a place to live has now uncoupled from the cost of living. As long as this supply and demand imbalance keeps up, it is hard to see any reversal in the speed of rent rises,’ he explained. ‘In many ways housing is more essential than other expenses, so this also raises important questions about the nature of inflation. In this case, reform of the UK housing market and planning system is the only serious way to maintain steadier rental inflation,’ he added. The data also shows that five out of 10 regions of England and Wales have also seen individual rent records in September. Rents in London are rising most rapidly, up 11.6% on an annual basis to a new record of £1,301 per month. The annual change in London has also overtaken the East of England, where rents are now rising marginally more slowly, yet are still up 8.8% over the last 12 months. Record rents in the East Midlands are now 6.7% higher than a year ago, at £603 per month, while the West Midlands has seen its own record of £592 per month, or 5.2% higher than in September 2014. Meanwhile, South Western rents have risen at a comparable annual rate of 5.5% to stand at a fresh local record of £691 per month. The final region to see a local record, rents in the South East now average £831 per month, but have risen more slowly, by 3.6% since September 2014. ‘We are in the middle of… Continue reading
Skills crisis threatens ambitious UK home building programme
A growing skills crisis in the UK building industry threatens the Prime Minister’s ambition to increase home ownership and will undermine wider economic growth, it is claimed. The Prime Minister stated last week that he wants his legacy to be defined by increasing home ownership, but this won’t be possible without an ample supply of skilled construction workers, according to the Federation of Master Builders (FMB). The organisation’s latest survey covering the third quarter of 2015 suggests that a skills time bomb is in danger of exploding with 60% of small construction firms struggling to hire bricklayers, up from 49%three months ago. The research also shows that 54% of firms are struggling to hire carpenters and joiners, up from 47% in the previous quarter. ‘If the skilled labour isn’t available, the Government’s ambitions for home ownership won’t be realised,’ said Brian Berry, FMB chief executive. ‘It’s not just house building and home ownership that are being hampered by the skills shortage. The future economic growth of our country relies on major infrastructure projects, such as HS2 and Hinkley Point, being built,’ Berry pointed out. ‘We urgently need to boost our workforce by convincing people, in their thousands, to return to our industry or join us for the first time. Key to this is the need to address the severe shortfall in apprenticeships,’ he explained. Continue reading
