Tag Archives: london
Councils must provide plan for new home building in UK, says landmark housing bill
Councils in the UK must produce local plans for new homes in their area by 2017 or the government will ensure, in consultation with local people, that plans are produced for them. Under a new Housing and Planning Bill the government sets out its ambition that one million homes will be delivered by 2020, including starter homes for first time buyers. However, while 82% of councils have published local plans which should set out how many homes they plan to deliver over a set period only 65% have fully adopted them, and there are still almost 20% of councils that do not have an up to date plan at all. The Prime Minister David Cameron has now made it clear that he expects all councils to create and deliver local plans by the deadline. The Bill also spells out a series of further proposals to boost home building and home ownership. This includes a new legal duty on councils to guarantee the delivery of Starter Homes on all reasonably sized new development sites, and to promote the scheme to first time buyers in their area. The government also announced that local authorities will be able to bid for a share of a £10 million Starter Homes fund, part of a £36 million package to accelerate the delivery of starter homes by helping councils prepare brownfield sites that would otherwise not be built for starter homes. Under the new legislation there will be automatic planning permission in principle on brownfield sites to build as many homes as possible while protecting the green belt and other planning reforms to support small builders such as placing a new duty on councils to help allocate land to people who want to build their own home. In other boosts for house building, Cameron also announced that a temporary rule introduced in May 2013 allowing people to convert disused offices into homes without applying for planning permission will be made a permanent change after almost 4,000 conversions were given the go ahead between April 2014 to June this year. A new website has just been launched which allows prospective home owners to go online to www.ownyourhome.gov.uk to see what government schemes are available to open doors for them. ‘The government will do everything it can to help people buy a place of their own and at the heart of this is our ambition to build one million new homes by 2020. Many areas are doing this already but we need a national crusade to get homes built and everyone must play their part,’ said Cameron. He explained that councils have a key role to play in this by drawing up their own local plans for new homes by 2017. ‘If they fail to act, we’ll work with local people to produce a plan for them,’ he added. Officials pointed out that the latest announcement builds on the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which was introduced in 2012 as a… Continue reading
Australian capital city rents see slowest annual growth ever
Weekly rental rates in Australian capital cities were unchanged in September but in the last three months have risen at their slowest annual pace ever. Indeed, the latest CoreLogic RP data report shows that the annual pace of rental growth across all capital cities is at a new record low of 0.5% in the year to September. Despite recording the strongest growth, Melbourne rents rose just 2.1% over the year and rents have fallen over the year in Perth and Darwin. They have increased by just 0.3% over the first three quarter of the year. Overall the combined capital city rental rates are recorded at $487 per week for houses and $462 per week for apartment units and the firm says that it is anticipated that the rate of rental growth will continue to slow over the coming months due to increased supply of housing and rental stock and slower migration rates. The report points to an ongoing softening of rental growth and explains that the construction boom across the capital cities coupled with slowing population growth, low mortgage rates and the heightened level of activity from investors are the major contributing factors to the slowing rental growth. Three of the cities which have seen the largest growth in new housing supply and investor activity over recent years; Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, have continued to record rental rises over the past year however, each city is seeing a slowing in the pace of rental growth. ‘It is clear that the increase in investment stock is providing landlords with little scope to lift rental rates while the low mortgage rate environment provides little incentive to push yields higher,’ the report says. Looking across the individual capital cities, over the past year, Sydney and Melbourne have recorded the greatest increases in weekly rents however, their rates of growth have slowed relative to a year ago. Over the past month, weekly rents have moved lower across every capital city except Sydney where they were unchanged and in Melbourne and Hobart where they rose. Continue reading
Market town home owners pay a premium of £24,000
People buying a home in a market town in England face a premium of £24,000 with one in ten such towns having a price premium of at least £100,000, new research shows. Overall house prices in market towns have increased by an average of £460 per month since 2005 and the average house price in an English market town, at £250,686, is 7.2 times average gross earnings of all full time workers. The research from Lloyds Bank shows that prices in market towns across England are on average £23,938 or 11% higher than their county average. However, with its location close to the Chiltern Hills and within a 40 minute commute to London Beaconsfield in South Buckinghamshire has the largest house price premium across England, with homes selling at 189% or £652,178 above the county average. Bakewell in the Derbyshire Dales, close to the famous Chatsworth House, and Wetherby in West Yorkshire both have an average house price that is double their county average; in cash terms the premiums are £175,327 and £162,995 respectively. In fact, one in 10 of the market towns in the survey have a house price premium of at least £100,000. They include Southwell in Nottinghamshire with an average premium of £131,419), Keswick in Cumbria at £130,100, Cheltenham in Gloucestershire at £128,591 and Ringwood in Hampshire at £125,175. Southern England dominates the top 10 most expensive market towns. With Beaconsfield top with an average house price of £997,222, next is Lewes at £408,641 and Midhurst at £403,893, both in Sussex. Outside southern England, Bakewell is the most expensive market town with an average property value of £351,092, the research also shows. The average house price in market towns across England has risen by £55,179 or 28% from £195,507 in 2005 to £250,686 in 2015. This is equivalent to an average rise of £460 per month over the past decade. The biggest increase in prices over the past decade was in Beaconsfield where the average price rose by 71% or £414,126 followed by Didcot in Oxfordshire at 52% or £101,374, Lewes on the south coast at 51% or £138,733, Yateley at 45% or £105,262, then Thame, Petersfield, Ferryhill, and Cirencester all at 43%. ‘Homes in market towns typically command a significant premium over their neighbouring towns. The quality of life benefits often associated with living in such locations are still proving popular among home buyers,’ said Andy Mason, mortgages director at Lloyds Bank. ‘Market towns are often particularly attractive for those looking to move into more idyllic surroundings without sacrificing many of the important amenities they currently enjoy,’ he added. Continue reading
