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Housing lending falls overall in Australia but up slightly for new homes
The number of loans to owner occupiers, excluding refinancing, declined modestly in February in Australia, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. However, the number of loans to those purchasing and building new homes increased by 2% which the Housing Industry Association, the voice of the residential building industry, said is encouraging. ‘This is a relatively positive result against a backdrop where lending to households purchasing existing homes eased back modestly,’ said Geordan Murray, HIA economist. Overall the number of loans to owner occupiers buying established homes, excluding refinancing, fell by 0.9% in February to a level 4.9% weaker compared with the same time a year ago. ‘Lending figures indicate that the investor market eased by around 3.4% during February, but remained around 9.9% higher than the same period a year ago. The majority of the growth in investor lending has been to those purchasing existing homes. In February over 90% of lending to investors went into the existing home market,’ explained Murray. He pointed out that lending activity in the first home buyer market remained quite weak. The number of loans to first home buyers in the three months to February 2015 was around 8.2% lower than the corresponding period a year earlier,’ he added. A breakdown of the figures shows that the total number of owner occupier loans for new housing in February 2015 compared with February 2014 shows that only Victoria and Tasmania recorded growth at 3.2% and 71.7% respectively. Elsewhere, there were declines with a fall of 0.4% in New South Wales, Queensland down 1.7%, South Australia down 17.4% and Western Australia down 12.8%. Continue reading
Expansion of London cycle scheme could boost house prices, it is suggested
The continued expansion of London’s cycle hire scheme will benefit home sellers living near bike docking stations and attract potential buyers to living in previously less well connected areas, it is claimed. The ‘Boris Bike’ programme, named after the Mayor Boris Johnson who introduced the scheme, already offers Londoners the use of 11,500 bikes across more than 700 docking stations and with new sponsorship is set to expand even further. Transport for London has identified a further 1,000 potential docking stations that could be ready for use by early 2016. According to estate agent Marsh & Parsons, in much the same way that proximity to a tube station has long increased the attractiveness and saleability of properties in the capital, as well as the actual cash value, it has seen a rise in buyers enquiring about local bike docking points and expects this interest to continue to increase as the scheme achieves greater prominence. ‘South London has long had a core of cycling commuters. To date, this trend has primarily been people using their own bikes, so secure storage has long been a high priority for such individuals when house hunting,’ said Tom Crabtree, the firm’s Clapham office sales manager. ‘But with the cycle hire scheme continuing to grow and public awareness of the programme improving, proximity to a bike docking station is starting to feature on the wish lists of buyers. As with the tube network, where the vast majority of stations are north of the river, South London hasn’t been afforded anywhere near the same number of docking stations as the other side of the Thames,’ he explained. ‘But hopefully the expansion plans will restore some of this imbalance and help open up some relatively inaccessible areas south of the river which would benefit residents, aspiring homeowners and potential sellers who would have a more attractive asset on their hands,’ he added. There were more than 10 million separate journeys made in 2014 using the bike scheme according to Transport for London, a 25% increase from 2013. London’s love affair with cycling as a means of commuting is also confirmed by the Office of National Statistics which reported that the number of residents in the capital cycling to work had more than doubled from 2001 to 2011. As well as being located at popular tourist attractions and close to other transport hubs such as tube and train stations, bike scheme docking stations are primarily installed on residential streets and Marsh & Parsons’ research found that the most prestigious street in the capital to feature one is Grosvenor Crescent in Belgravia, where the average current property is worth £22,435,017. ‘London has long had a world class public transport system and the introduction of the cycle hire scheme five years ago has added to the attraction of areas such as Battersea and Fulham which, despite being £1… Continue reading
UK buy to let lenders adopt new practice statement
Buy to let lenders in the UK who are members of the Council of Mortgage Lenders are adopting a new statement of practice, designed to provide clarity about how responsible lenders operate. The statement reflects existing good practice and aims to ensure that there is a clear explanation of the obligations of buy to let borrowers on their mortgages and is a sign that buy to let lending is growing. It signposts additional information from other organisations about the responsibilities of being a landlord, and is endorsed by the Residential Landlords Association, the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA), the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries, the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association, and the British Bankers Association (BBA). Some 31 lenders representing an estimated 90% of the buy to let market have already adopted the statement of practice. All CML members who offer buy to let mortgages are expected to adopt it over the course of 2015. The statement sets out the overarching principles that individual lenders use in determining their own lending strategy and practice in relation to lending principles, information given to customers, customer responsibilities, lender responsibilities on affordability, handling financial difficulties, fraud prevention and complaint handling. Next year when the consumer buy to let lending framework is established under the Financial Conduct Authority, the UK’s financial watchdog, to comply with the Mortgage Credit Directive, buy to let lending will fall into one of three types. These are mortgages regulated by the FCA like residential mortgages when the property is either partly occupied by the borrower or let to an immediate family member; mortgages regulated by the FCA under the Mortgage Credit Directive Order 2015 defined as ‘consumer’; and mortgages not regulated by the FCA which are those predominantly for a business purpose. The statement of practice will cover any residential buy to let lending not otherwise covered by FCA regulation. ‘Lenders know how important it is to have a transparent mortgage market, in which borrowers can have confidence, and where lending policy is both responsible and clearly understood,’ said CML director general Paul Smee. ‘The new buy to let statement of practice reflects what responsible lenders already do and offers a clear explanation of how buy to let lenders operate. We hope it will make a valuable contribution to understanding the buy to let lending environment,’ he added. Continue reading
