Tag Archives: middle-east
Lending across all housing sectors in UK up in October, latest data shows
House purchase lending increased in the UK by 8% in October with all sectors, including first time buyers seeing a rise, according to the latest data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). A breakdown of the figures show that first time buyers borrowed £4.6 billion for house purchases, up 10% on September and October last year. This totalled 29,900 loans, up 8% month on month and 3% year on year. First time buyer lending grew for the second month in a row, to be the joint highest monthly lending level, alongside July 2015, by volume and by value since August 2007. Competitive mortgage rates mean first time buyers continue to pay low levels of their monthly household income to service the capital and interest rate payments of their mortgage at 18.4% in October. Home movers took out 35,400 loans, up 9% month on month and 3% compared to October 2014. In total, this was £7.1 billion borrowed, up 8% on September and 13% year on year. The October figure was only behind July this year for the highest amount borrowed since 2007. Home movers spent 18.2% of their monthly gross household income to pay capital and interest repayments, slightly more than last month but a decrease compared to September 2014. Home owner remortgage activity also increased, up 6% by volume and 10% by value compared to September. Compared to October 2014, remortgage lending was up 19% by volume and 34% by value. This is the most amount of remortgage loans in a month since January 2009, and the most amount borrowed for remortgage since June 2008. Gross buy to let saw month on month increases up 4% by volume and 3% by value, but more substantial growth year on year to the highest monthly gross buy to let lending level by value and by volume since the CML began tracking buy to let data on a monthly basis in January 2013. Buy to let remortgage is currently driving this with larger year on year growth compared to October 2014. ‘Home owner and buy to let activity have both continued the upward trend seen last month, and the market looks set to finish the year strong, despite taking time to gain momentum after a slow start to 2015,’ said Paul Smee, director general of the CML. ‘With increasing employment and the current absence of inflationary pressures in the UK, conditions for continuing demand in the housing market seem likely going into the new year. How supply will respond to this challenge going forward is a crucial question for 2016,’ he added. The data also shows that house purchase lending in the UK in October saw an increase by volume and by value of mortgages advanced compared to September and October last year. This was the second highest monthly house purchase levels, after July 2015, since 2007. As previously reported, UK gross lending overall in October totalled £21.9 billion, up 9%… Continue reading
Investigation reveals alarming flood risk for new homes in UK
Floods have already hit thousands of homes in the UK this winter and now an investigation has found that many more homes being built under the government’s new home building drive are also at risk. Nearly half the areas earmarked for fast tracked housing development by a flagship government scheme are at significant risk of flooding, making thousands of new homes potentially uninsurable, according to a Greenpeace investigation. The sites targeted by a recent house building drive unveiled by Chancellor George Osborne include two areas threatened by the latest floods and others which were inundated during previous emergencies, the Greenpeace report says. It claims that the findings raise more questions about the government’s approach to flood risk management amidst growing controversy over delays in the construction of flood defences for existing homes in areas hit by flooding in Cumbria and Lancashire in recent days. Earlier this year, the Chancellor announced a flagship housing scheme which saw 20 brownfield sites around the country designated as new housing zones, with local councils given access to money and experts to expedite the building process. Greenpeace UK researchers used details obtained through Freedom of Information requests to plot the location of these housing zones, and cross referenced this with flood risk maps from the Environment Agency. They found around nine of the 20 zones, comprising a total of 9,000 planned new homes, are in areas now identified as being partially or fully at risk from flooding. Under the terms of a new government flood insurance scheme soon to be implemented, these properties would be excluded from cover. The report claims that this would leave home owners reliant on commercial insurers who may choose not to insure homes built in flood zones, or do so at prohibitively expensive rates. A spokesperson for Flood Re confirmed to Greenpeace that ‘properties built from 2009 onwards’ in flood risk areas are still excluded from the government scheme. ‘It would be irresponsible to incentivise developers to build in such areas simply because those properties could have their insured flood risk ceded to Flood Re,’ the spokesperson added. Greenpeace UK also obtained new figures showing that the number of people employed by the Environment Agency to work on Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management fell by 230, a 5% cut, in the last three years. The agency plays a key role advising councils on flood risk. ‘The current flood emergency isn’t even over yet, and the government is already storing up the next one. Rushing to build thousands of new homes in flood risk areas whilst at the same time cutting flood protection staff is a recipe for disaster,’ said Greenpeace UK chief scientist Dr Doug Parr. ‘When it comes to energy, flood defences, and other big infrastructure projects, we need the government's hands to start following what the government's mouth is saying rather than acting of their own accord,’ he added. The details in the report indicate that in Yorkshire there are flood warnings… Continue reading
UK buyer deposit now at lowest level for six years
Raising a deposit, which has been the single biggest barrier to home ownership in the UK since 2010, is now at its lowest level for six years, new research shows. However, it still presents a barrier to over half of consumers with 52% saying it is a hurdle to overcome, according to the latest Property Tracker report from the Building Societies Association (BSA). But it points out that this figure is down from 59% in September 2015 and lower than the high of 69% recorded in September 2011. From September to December 2015, access to mortgage finance as a barrier to home ownership dropped from 41% to 38%. The affordability of monthly mortgage repayments fell from 35% to 33% and lack of job security is now at 26%, down from 28%. The BSA says that results indicate that people are feeling reasonably confident about home ownership as an option for them. This could partially be as a result of the focus on housing in the Autumn Statement in November and is evidenced by the strong lending by building societies and other lenders across the market this year. ‘This snapshot of sentiment in the housing market shows that consumers are feeling reasonably optimistic about getting on or moving up the property ladder,’ said Paul Broadhead, BSA head of Mortgage Policy. ‘Awareness of Government schemes, such as Help to Buy and the new Help to Buy, London plus the availability of higher loan to value mortgages helps to bring choice and competition to the market. Housing generally needs to remain a top priority for the Government,’ he pointed out. ‘Now is the time to focus on building more homes, supported by appropriate investment in infrastructure, in order to begin to address the long term imbalance of housing supply with demand,’ he explained. ‘Innovative mortgage products and intermediate forms of tenure must also be championed, not just by building societies, but by all lenders, the regulators and government. This will go some way to delivering a sustainable housing market which caters to the needs of a wide range of credit worthy consumers, not just those with ‘vanilla’ borrowing requirements,’ he added. Continue reading
