Tag Archives: london
First time buyers and renters in UK underestimate their outgoings, research finds
The majority of first time buyers and renters in the UK underestimate their monthly outgoing by almost £200 a month, suggesting they could have problems if their income reduced. Only 14% of first time buyers and renters are able to accurately calculate how much their outgoings will be from the outset, according to ongoing research from discount online firm VoucherCodesPro. It polled 1,673 people aged 18 to 30 from around the UK, each of whom had either bought their first home or rented a property for the first time in the last six months. Respondents were asked about their bills in the early stages of living in their property. Everyone taking part was asked ‘When taking into account the first month after you’d moved in to your current property, did you underestimate, overestimate or accurately calculate what your monthly outgoings would be for bills?’ The majority of respondents, 63%, said they underestimate how much their first round of monthly bills would be. When these people were asked how much they’d underestimated the amount by, the average answer was £198. When asked what bills they’d underestimated, specifically, the most popular answer was 42% gas and electricity, 27% water and 21% entertainment and television. Some 23% of the total respondents said they had overestimated how much their monthly outgoings would be in the initial stages of living in their home, with the average overestimation figure being stated as £167. Just 14% of the respondents said they accurately calculated how much their bills would cost them from the outset. When told to take into account their financial situation at the time of the poll, respondents were asked if they ‘lived comfortably’, ‘just managed to make ends meet’ or ‘struggled’. The majority, 54%, said they ‘just managed to make ends meet’, whilst 31% said they ‘struggled’ with the cost of living and 15% said they ‘lived comfortably’. ‘Moving out of home into your own place for the first time can be a bit of a learning curve, especially when it comes to bills,’ said Nick Swan, the firm’s chief executive officer. ‘Managing your money correctly and making sure you’ve accurately worked out how much everything is going to cost you is really important. When setting budgets and working out the cost of bills, it’s always best to overestimate and then you can put an excess into savings,’ he added. Continue reading
Home price growth in the US continues to moderate
National home price gains in the United States fell to 6.7% year on year and 1% quarter on quarter in November, according to the latest index from Clear Capital. National trends were echoed at the regional level, with the West seeing the strongest moderation across the country and overall growth has slowed now for 11 months in a row. In fact, for the first time since the start of the recovery three years ago, the West’s yearly rates of growth fell below 10%, a sure sign of more moderation to come over the next several months for the nation, according to the firm. At the height of the recovery in 2013, national prices including distressed sales outperformed the performing only sale segment of the market by 4.2%. Now the all sale segment is outperforming the performing only sale segment by 3%. These segments’ rates of growth will likely continue to fall in line with each other as investor engagement dwindles, a result of fewer distressed sale opportunities. As this occurs, markets will be more reliant on performing only sale demand and price growth,’ the index report explains. It also points out that improvements in the broader economic landscape have not instilled confidence in traditional home buyers and the general lack of demand in the performing only segment, coupled with a dwindling supply of distressed inventory, leaves the future of home prices squarely in the hands of traditional home buyers, who have yet to show any signs of re-engaging. It says that performing only sales are not yet strong enough to support recovery sized market growth without distressed sales. The data also shows that it has been a steady descent for national yearly rates of growth. They have dropped 5% from a high of 11.7% in December 2013. This is due in part to the market’s natural normalisation as the correction to the correction subsides and distressed sale inventory dries up. While this is healthy for markets overall, the weakness of price growth in the performing only segment is further cause for concern. Excluding distressed sales, performing only national home price growth over the last year was just 4.4%, down from a recovery high of 7.2%. Even more concerning is the performing only segment’s drop in quarterly growth to 0.6%, nearly cut in half over the last rolling quarter which saw quarterly rates of growth at 1.1%. ‘Reduced reliance on distressed sales and diminishing gains in the performing only sale segment could be too much for the recovery to overcome as we enter winter. The recovery is at a tipping point. Markets need non investor demand to ramp up, and home buyer confidence restored,’ said Alex Villacorta, vice president of research and analytics at Clear Capital. ‘Should this turn into a negative feedback loop, the likelihood for quarterly price declines at the national level could turn into yearly price declines by the end of 2015. Performing only sale trends are a bellwether for what’s to come next year,’ he explained. ‘Think of… Continue reading
Call for empty UK homes to be used to help young onto the housing ladder
More than three quarters of British adults believe the government should prioritise the issue of empty homes, according to a new poll. Some 36% said that empty homes are a blight on their local area and 74% believe their local authority should place a higher priority on tackling empty homes, according to the research from the Halifax and the Empty Home Agency, a national charity. The research, published to mark national empty homes week, also highlighted that those people surveyed severely underestimated the number of empty homes in England, with 80% of English adults believing there were fewer empty properties in England than there actually are. The survey found people on average thought there were around 377,000 empty homes in England, whereas statistics from the Empty Homes Agency show the figure is over 610,000. Young first time buyers are clearly a concern for the British public, as two thirds of respondents said that empty homes should be used to help young people get on the housing ladder. Just a third of respondents, 34%, believe that turning empty homes into usable homes is not going to help solve the housing crisis. ‘Halifax has adapted its lending policy to allow greater flexibility around uninhabited, mortgaged properties. In order to assist with returning empty homes to a habitable condition, requests for consent to enter into Private Sector Leasing arrangements are now considered once eligibility has been confirmed by the local authority,’ said Craig McKinlay, Halifax mortgages director. ‘With over 610,000 empty properties in England alone there is a real opportunity to introduce a range of incentives for owners to bring these properties back into use. A lot has been achieved over the last few years, but there is a need for all affected parties to continue to work together to address the issue of empty homes,’ he added. Helen Williams, chief executive of the Empty Homes Agency, wants all political parties to pledge that if they form the next government they will adopt a plan to tackle empty homes within their first year as part of a wider approach to tackling housing need. ‘There appears to be widespread recognition amongst political parties of the need to build more homes. However, we now need political parties to catch up with public opinion and also give a priority in the future to bringing empty homes back into use to help young people and others access the housing they need, at a price they can afford,’ she said. Continue reading
