Tag Archives: real estate
Total value of housing in Britain moves past £6 trillion for first time
The total value of Britain’s housing stock has passed the £6 trillion mark for the first time after gains of £385 billion in 2015, according to new research. Housing wealth stands at £4.84 trillion, net of mortgage debt, or 2.7 times GDP and for owner occupiers with no mortgage total property wealth exceeded £2 trillion for the first time, the analysis from real estate adviser Savills shows. It also reveals that the private rented sector’s total value is now £1.29 trillion, up 55% in five years with number of homes in the sector up 28%. Net wealth passed £1 trillion in 2015, overtaking that held by mortgaged owner occupiers for the first time. The total value of homes in London exceeded £1.5 trillion for the first time at £1.612 trillion, accounting for more than a quarter of the total value of housing stock in the UK and having risen by £589 billion in five years. The South of England saw total value growth of £179 billion, exceeding London growth for the first time in five years while Bristol saw the biggest increase in total housing stock value outside of London, up £4.5 billion to £44 billion. The report points out that residential property has become an increasingly important store of wealth. Total equity now stands at around £4.8 trillion net of borrowing, equivalent to over 2.7 times the GDP of the UK. Over the past 10 years the total value of the UK’s homes has risen by over £1.6 trillion, but the biggest growth, almost £1.2 trillion, was seen in the past three years. This means the UK’s 28.2 million homes of all tenure now have an average value of £218,474, up 18.9% in five years. ‘Value and gains vary sharply according to location and ownership. Gains have been concentrated in equity rich markets, notably London and the south east, particularly benefitting those who own their homes outright. In 2015, for the first time, the total value of owner occupied homes without a mortgage exceeded the total value of those with a mortgage,’ said Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills. ‘While the difficulties faced in getting on and trading up the housing ladder and the consequential rise in private renting is well documented, these figures show the scale of the change and challenges faced by Government,’ he added. London and the South East accounted for 57% of total value gains at £218 billion in 2015 and now have a total value of almost £2.8 trillion. This means that 26% of the UK’s homes now account for 45% of the total value, and takes the average value of a home in London to £430,436 and £284,805 in the South East. At the other end of the spectrum, the total value of homes in the North East equates to less than a tenth of London’s value, having risen just 2.2% in 2015. At a total of £135 billion, the region’s… Continue reading
Home sales fell in Canada in December, latest index data shows
Home sales in Canada fell slightly month on month in December but are still above where they were a year ago, according to the latest data from the Canadian Real Estate Association. Transactions were down 0.6% overall and fell in slightly more than half of all local markets, led by declines in Calgary, Edmonton, the York Region of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Hamilton Burlington which offset monthly activity gains recorded elsewhere. Year on year price growth continued to range widely among housing markets tracked by the index. The actual, not seasonally adjusted, national average price for homes sold in December 2015 was $454,342, up 12% year on year, but it continues to be pulled upward by sales activity in Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto, which are among Canada’s most active and expensive housing markets. If these two housing markets are excluded from calculations, the average is a more modest $336,994 and the year on year gain is reduced to 5.4%. Even then, the gain reflects a tug of war between strong average price gains in housing markets around the GTA and the Lower Mainland of British Columbia versus flat or declining average prices elsewhere in Canada, the report points out. It adds that if British Columbia and Ontario are excluded from calculations, the average price slips even lower to $294,363, representing a year in year decline of 2.2%. Greater Vancouver with a rise of 18.87% and the Fraser Valley up 14.35% posted the largest gains, followed closely by Greater Toronto up 10.01%. Victoria and Vancouver Island prices increased between 6% and 8% and prices were up by 0.62% in Ottawa, by 1.81% in Greater Montreal and by 3.88% in Greater Moncton. Prices fell by 2% in Calgary and Saskatoon and by 4% in Regina. While the home price declines in Calgary and Saskatoon are a fairly recent trend, prices in Regina have been trending lower since early 2014, the index report points out. An increasingly short supply of listings in Vancouver and Toronto blunted the impact of changes to mortgage regulations announced in December that were aimed at cooling these housing markets, according to CREA president Pauline Aunger. ‘Buyers there had been expected to bring forward their purchase decisions before new regulations take effect in February 2016, but they faced a growing shortage of supply. Meanwhile, supply is ample in many other major urban markets, particularly those where buyers have become cautious amid economic uncertainty,’ she explained. Indeed, December mirrored the main themes of 2015, with strong sales activity and price growth across much of British Columbia and Ontario offsetting declines in activity among oil producing regions, said Gregory Klump, CREA’s chief economist. ‘The recent decline and uncertain outlook for oil prices means that housing market prospects are unlikely to improve in the near term in regions where job market prospects are tied to oil production,’ he added. A breakdown of the figures show that actual, not seasonally adjusted,… Continue reading
Dubai rents expected to remain stable in 2016
Dubai is set to see a more stable real estate market in 2016 with prices expected to rise slightly and rents remain stable in the coming 12 months. New growth is likely to centre on affordable homes with several developers already announcing a foray into this sector of the real estate market. International City, IMPZ, Dubailand, Sports City, JVC and Silicon Oasis already have a number of lower cost options for buyers. The latest data from the Real Estate Regulatory Authority shows that rents for one and two bedroom apartments fell in 2015 across much of Dubai. Rents for one bedroom flats fell by between 4.55% and 11% depending on location. Two bed rents in Downtown Dubai are down by between 5.26% and 5.88% while in Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) they fell by between 8.33% and 10%. In International City, rents of two bedroom apartments are down by 7.69% to 10%, in Dubai Marina they are down 5.26%, in Palm Jumeirah they dropped by u to 5.55% and in Discovery Gardens they fell by 5.8%. However rents in this sector were stable in many other locations including the Greens, Silicon Oasis, Jumeirah Village Circle, Arjan, Dubai Sports City, Dubailand and the International Media Production Zone. The arbitrary nature of rent prices is also shown in the latest data from real estate portal Bayut. It shows that average rents at the end of 2015 were AED 137,000, up 2.14% from AED 134,000 at the end of December 2014. A breakdown of the figures show that for studio apartments average rents were unchanged year on year but those for one bedroom flats increased 6.6% while two and three bedroom apartment rents fell by 4% and 2% respectively. Four bedroom rents fell by 12%. The firm believes that more affordable property will prove popular and is expecting 2016 to be a busy year in the residential real estate market as the population continues to increase and the economy continues to diversify. ‘Business and job growth will drive demand for residential and commercial spaces and ultimately help push property prices upwards,’ the firm added. Continue reading
