Tag Archives: news
Over a third of councils in England are boosting self build homes
More than 130 local councils in England, some 39%, are already taking action to help boost the opportunities available for people who want to build their own homes, new research shows. This first comprehensive survey of custom and self build activity across all local councils in England also shows that one in five councils have already set up a local custom and self build register or carried out assessments to measure local demand for people who want to build their own homes. On top of this 77 seven councils are already creating opportunities for private home builders through their Local Plans, the survey undertaken by the National Custom and Self Build Association (NaCSBA) found. These involve a range of initiatives from policies asking for a mix of homes on sites and promoting private home building as part of affordable housing initiatives, to requiring building plots on larger housing sites, supporting collective projects and commitments to work with industry and local communities to identify suitable opportunities and, in some cases, providing finance support. More than 30 councils are identifying suitable sites or locations where private home building is encouraged and in some cases are disposing of public land or buying land and a number of councils are also identifying more significant opportunities. Opportunities include the re-use of former public sector sites, proposals to include private home building opportunities as part of future urban and village extensions, and introducing new planning policies that encourage affordable self and custom build homes in rural areas. Councils in the North East are currently the most proactive where 70% of them are progressing initiatives to make it easier for people who want to build their own homes. Two other regions, the South West and the West Midlands, have half or more of all councils bringing forward initiatives. The least active region is currently London, where just 21% of councils have so far taken action. However, since 2012 the overall level of local authority activity across England has approximately trebled. The association says that if this level of activity continues then by the end of 2016, between 150 and 200 councils will have brought forward new planning policies and initiatives to support private homebuilders across England. By the end of 2018 the combined impact of all these initiatives will assist towards enabling up to 10,000 more self or custom build opportunities to come forward and if this happens the scale of the current self build sector will have doubled. The NaCSBA research and development team has already completed visits to several German regions, and locations across the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain and Scotland. In addition the team is examining the Irish, US and Australian markets, and is currently investigating how the Scandinavian and some Far Eastern sectors operate. ‘Our international work has focused on how local councils support people who want to build their own affordable homes. In most other countries a significantly higher proportion of all housing… Continue reading
Over 36% of UK home sales fall through before completion, new research shows
More than one in three house sales in the second quarter of 2015 in the UK failed to reach completion, according to new data, with the most common reason a change of mind. Figures indicate a house sale fall through rate of 36.34%, a rise of over 13.5% from the reported 22.76% rate in the first quarter of the year, according to research from Quick Move Now. The figures over a six month period show it was 24.77% at the end of the first quarter but increased to 28.44% at the end of the second quarter of 2015. ‘As the property market becomes more buoyant and an increasing number of properties become available, both sides of a property sale feel they have options if the sale is not progressing as quickly or as well as they had hoped,’ said Danny Luke, business manager at Quick Move Now. ‘Buyers are less likely to move forward with a purchase if the survey brings up surprises, and sellers are less willing to drop the price in a renegotiation, confident that they'll be able to find another buyer fairly easily,’ he added. The firm looked at the reasoning behind the fall through rate and found that across the last six months some 22% of home sales that fell through did so as a result of the buyer changing their mind, 16% as a result of the buyer being refused lending, 13% due to slow sale progress and a further 13 % due to a higher offer coming in. Some 8.7% of the house sales that failed to reach completion did so after the buyer attempted to renegotiate, 6 % fell foul to issues that were highlighted during a survey, 5.8% failed to successfully complete due to a change in the buyer's circumstances, and a further 5.8% fell through due to a chain breakdown. It also found that 4% failed to complete because the buyer decided to buy a different property, 3% broke down due to lease issues and the remaining 3% failed to complete as a result of legal complications. Quick Move Now buys and sells hundreds of properties each year and the fall through statistics are calculated monthly, quarterly and using a six month average. Continue reading
House prices up 2.5% in the European Union in first quarter of 2015
House prices increased by 0.9% in the euro area and by 2.5% in the European Union in the first quarter of 2015, according to the latest data to be published. The figures from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, also show that compared with the first quarter of 2014 prices increased by 0.3% in the euro area and 0.6% in the EU. But there is a huge difference between the fastest growing housing markets and those where prices are still falling. The highest annual increases in house prices in the first quarter of 2015 were recorded in Ireland with growth of 16.8%, followed by Sweden at 11.6%, Hungary at 9.7% and the UK at 8.5%. The largest annual fall in house prices was recorded in Latvia where prices are down 5.8%, followed by Italy down 3.3%, France down 1.6% and Slovenia down 1.4%. On a quarterly basis the biggest growth was seen in Romania where prices increased by 4.1% compared with the fourth quarter of 2014, followed by Sweden with quarterly growth of 3.9%, Hungary up 3.7% and Denmark up 3.5%. The largest quarterly house price falls were recorded in Belgium, Cyprus and Croatia with all three countries seeing growth down by 2.8%. There is no data available for Greece or Poland so it is not possible to see how their property markets have been fairing. An in depth look at some of the figures show how property markets, even in countries with strong price growth are wavering. Ireland may have the strongest annual growth but prices fell by 0.9% in the first quarter of 2015 compared with growth of 3.9% in the fourth quarter of 2014. In Spain the market has been pretty stable. Prices are up 1.6% year on year and have been increasing steadily each quarter but this steady growth was halted in the first quarter of 2015 when prices dipped 0.5%. A similar pattern can be seen in neighbouring Portugal. France has seen prices steadily falling and down 1.6% year on year in the first quarter of 2015, but this decline is down from the 2.2% annual fall recorded in the fourth quarter of 2014. Continue reading
