Tag Archives: london
Residential sales fall in Hong Kong but prices holding up, latest research shows
Residential sales in Hong Kong fell almost 30% in one month as weak demand hit the property market but prices are still going up, the latest data shows. Figures from the Land Registry shows a 27.8% drop in transactions in August from the previous month and according to international real estate firm Knight Frank this was due to weakened demand caused by the slump in both the Mainland and local stock markets. However, home prices still recorded minor growth, due to strong end user demand and Knight Frank expects prices to remain firm for the rest of the year. Indeed the firm is predicting that at the top end luxury property prices are likely to grow between 2% and 5% this year while the rest of the market could see price growth of 5% to 8%. Residential land prices also remained firm, with the asking land premium for Lohas Park phase eight in Tseung Kwan O hitting a record high for a residential project in the area at HK$2.955 billion, or an accommodation value of HK$2,830 per square foot. The latest analysis report from Knight Frank suggest that the primary sector remained the market focus, with developers active in launching new flats and offering beneficial packages, including discounts and second mortgages. For example, discounts of 10% to 20% were offered for the latest batch of units at High Park Grand in Mong Kok. In Aspen Crest in Diamond Hill, meanwhile, second mortgages worth 30% of the total purchase price were offered, meaning homebuyers only needed to pay a 10% down payment. A breakdown of the figures in the Knight Frank report show that in the prime property market prices have held up but rents have fallen in some locations. In The Peak district prices were flat month on month but are 5.2% higher than August 2014. Prices were also flat in Island South month on month but up 2.6% year on year. Mid-Levels saw month on month price growth of 0.3% and year on year of 8.1%, Jardine’s Lookout/Happy Valley also saw month on month growth of 0.3% and annual growth of 9.8% while Pokfulam recorded monthly price growth of 0.1% and year on year growth of 9.5%. In the prime rental market there has been little growth. In The Peak rents fell 0.2% compared to July and are flat compared to August 2014, while in Island South rents are also flat compared to a year ago and down 0.3% month on month. Mid-Levels has seen growth of 0.5% year on year but rental prices were flat month on month, Jardine’s Lookout/Happy Valley has seen rents fall 0.2% month on month but up 0.2% year on year and in Pokfulam rents are flat month on month and up 0.5% year on year. Continue reading
Cheaper to buy than rent in over a third of cities in the UK
It is cheaper to buy than rent in more than a third of cities in the UK with buying most effective in the north of the country, new research shows. Mortgage payments are less expensive than monthly rent in 36% of British cities and home owners in Glasgow are more than £100 per month better off than their renting counterparts. However, in the south renting still beats buying, with buyers in London, Reading and Cambridge forking out hundreds more to own property there, according to the research from property search firm Zoopla. But overall the analysis of the cost of renting a two bedroom home compared to servicing a mortgage shows that nationwide, renters still pay £58 less per month than buyers. Buyers did particularly well compared to their renting counterparts in Scotland and the North of England. In Glasgow, rental payments amount to an average of £596 per month, whereas monthly mortgage payments only totaled £447. This means Glaswegian buyers are paying 25% or £149 a month less to own property than rent it. The research also shows that in Hull, buyers who pay on average £397 a month are £55 better off than renters in the city who pay an average of £452 per month to rent. Conversely, the south eastern corner of the UK represents the best value for money for renters. The average London tenant pays rent of £2,218 per month, whereas the capital’s home owners pay an average of £3,302 on servicing their mortgages, meaning buyers there are paying 49% or £1,084 a month more than the city’s renters. Buyers in Reading and Cambridge can also expect to pay more. On average, owners in Reading typically pay £3,600 a year more than tenants, while servicing a mortgage in Cambridge costs £3,700 more a year on average. Nationwide, the current average asking rent for a two bedroom home is £666 per month, compared to an average asking price of £145,840. As a result, servicing a 90% LTV mortgage typically costs £58 more per month than the average tenant would pay for renting such a property. Aside from the initial deposit, and all the fees associated with the actual house purchase, the financial strain of buying can be overstated. In addition to the peace of mind that home buying brings, many owners enjoy more disposable income at the end of every month than their renting counterparts, said Lawrence Hall of Zoopla. ‘If they can make the leap, and are willing to relinquish the flexibility that comes with renting, tenants up north in particular would be much better off buying and paying off a mortgage every month,’ he explained. He pointed out that Scotland and the North of England are cementing their standing as international university hubs with top universities in York, Edinburgh and Durham. ‘This means increasingly high numbers of students are flock to these areas, all looking for places to stay and… Continue reading
Average rent of newly let home in UK now close to £1,000 per month
The average rent of a newly let home in the UK has increased by 3.6% year on year to £941 per month, according to the latest rental market index. The gap between the places where people can afford to rent and where they can afford to buy has widened in every year since the market downturn in 2008, the data from Countrywide plc also shows. People are also moving further away if they buy a home. The index report says that 51% who took their first steps on the housing ladder in 2015 bought outside the town or city where they had been renting, up from 39% in 2008. With house prices rising faster than rents, an increasing number of households find themselves renting in places where they couldn’t afford to buy and tenants in the South of England tend to move furthest to get on the housing ladder. This is where the gap between where people can afford to rent and buy is largest and has widened the most since 2012. Across London and the South East house prices have increased 42% since 2012, rising from £218,000 to £375,000. Over the same period rents have only increased 19% from £1,000 to reach £1,234 a month. The growing number of tenants moving further to buy is both a product of stretched affordability and first time buyers getting older, the report suggests, adding that tenants are increasingly choosing to compromise on location in in order to own their first home. Those renters who bought a home in the last year, bought in a place where the average house price was £35,000 lower than where they were renting. Across the UK as a whole, two thirds of tenants bought in a cheaper area but there were even more in the most expensive housing markets. In London some three quarters of tenants who bought in the last year, ended up living somewhere cheaper than where they had been renting with an average price gap between the two places of £93,000. Further north, however, a rather different picture starts to emerge. In some of the less expensive areas of the country, tenants tend to be less constrained by affordability when making the move into home ownership. Tenants buying in the North East, North West and Yorkshire, tend to buy in similarly priced areas to where they are renting. The average difference in price between where they were renting and where they bought is just £8,000. In a number of the cheapest northern cities such as Newcastle, the average tenant buying their first home actually moves from a cheaper area to a more expensive one. In addition to affordability, space is a deciding factor of where tenants choose to purchase, according to the report. Irrespective of location, those tenants making the move further afield also tend to buy the largest homes. Nationally, 32% of… Continue reading
