Tag Archives: real estate
Residential property sales reach a seven year high in Scotland
Home sales reach in Scotland reached a seven year high in July and prices increased by 0.4% compared to the previous month, the latest index data shows. Overall sales were up 6% but annual price growth slipped 0.1%, taking the average house price to £165,162, according to the Your Move index. The report says that the jump in sales is due to buyers capitalising on lower stamp duty under the new Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) which was introduced in April of this year. Activity is growing at a time when the supply of new build housing in Scotland reached its highest level since 2010/2011 but there is some hesitation at the higher end of the market which the report says is the reason why prices are now overall 0.1% lower than a year ago. ‘Activity has been picking up speed in recent months. Lower stamp duty for purchases below £325,000 under the (LBTT) first got the ball moving in April. Since then, the conclusion of the general election, supply of new build homes and the favourable mortgage rate environment have only added to this momentum,’ said Christine Campbell, Your Move managing director in Scotland. ‘After a slightly sluggish start to 2015, sales in the first seven months are exceeding those in 2014. It’s the middle and lower end of the housing market where the tempo is really quickening,’ she added. Indeed, the data shows that Stirling saw the biggest leap in property sales month on month in July, up 49%, with the most commonly sold properties flats. ‘Across Scotland overall we’re witnessing fewer top end home sales in 2015 than in 2014, due to the steeper transaction costs now incurred. The proportion of homes in Scotland sold for more than £325,000 has fallen from 9.2% of all property sales in July 2014, to just 7.8% a year later under the revised taxation system,’ said Campbell. ‘At the same time, there’s been a lot of propulsion emanating from the first time buyer market, feeding off a flurry of new build housing. Our analysis shows that the average price of a first-time buyer property has risen 6% from the second quarter of 2014 to the second quarter of 2015 as a result of this burgeoning demand,’ she explained. The data also show that total supply of new build housing in Scotland has reached its highest level since 2010/2011. Glasgow saw the biggest rise in new homes built in the past year followed by Aberdeenshire and Edinburgh, helping these areas become the first port of call for many new buyers looking to climb onto the property ladder. ‘With housing market activity mostly concentrated at the lower rungs of the property ladder, and a dearth of top end property purchases, overall Scottish house prices have dropped marginally year on year. As of July 2015, average house prices in Scotland are down 0.1% annually, equivalent to falling £176 in 12… Continue reading
US home owners wary as housing market slows
Home owners in the United States are wary of where the housing market is going, while rising prices in some markets are driving renters away from home ownership aspirations, a new report has found. Overall, home owners are confident about the current state of the housing market, but they are less exuberant about future market performance, according to the mid-year results of the Zillow Housing Confidence Index (ZHCI). Millennials are ready to buy in slowing housing markets, but they are dialling back their plans to buy in red hot tech markets like Denver, Seattle, and San Francisco, the index report points out. Also, some 4.9 million renters say they plan to buy in the next year, down from 5.2 million in January, the survey of 10,000 renters and home owners also shows. That is down from 12.1% to 11.4% in the first six months of this year. A smaller percentage of those surveyed said it was a good time to buy. The percentage of those surveyed who believe people who have recently bought a home will be better off in 10 years fell from 61% to 59%, the data also shows. ‘The housing market is slowing down, and Americans' confidence in the future of the market is understandably fading a bit, too. Despite remaining quite confident overall, homeowners are less confident about the future than they are about the present,’ said Zillow chief economist Svenja Gudell. ‘Seeing still stronger than normal home value appreciation in markets like San Francisco and Seattle might remind them of the last housing bubble. But the good news is things are levelling off with no crash in sight. If incomes rise to keep up with home values people can count on home ownership in their future, even in hot markets,’ added Gudell. The report says that home value growth has slowed in almost all housing markets this year, giving homebuyers some breathing room. In those markets with marked slowdowns, many more buyers are looking to buy their first home. For example, 8% of Philadelphia renters said they planned to buy within a year in the January survey, when home values were rising at a 3.1%. In July, when Philadelphia home values were flat, 18% said they planned to buy within a year. And many of those new potential buyers are millennials. Just 1% of 18 to 34 year old Philadelphia renters surveyed in January planned to buy within a year, but that had increased to 23% in the July survey. The opposite occurred in markets where home value growth, despite having slowed overall, is still well above national norms. Here, renters are less optimistic about their buying prospects. In San Francisco some 18% of 18 to 34 year old renters planned to buy a home within a year when asked in January. At that point, San Francisco home values were rising at a 7.9% annual rate. In July, home values were up 11% year on year, and only 5%… Continue reading
Charity calls for new UK garden cities to remain affordable
Homes in existing and proposed garden cities in the UK should be exempt from the proposed extension of the Right to Buy scheme, it is claimed. According to the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA), a housing and planning charity, this would ensure that garden cities remain socially mixed and affordable places to live. ‘Garden cities built today must have a primary focus on providing homes for everyone in society and in particular those most in need in the current housing crisis,’ Kate Henderson, TCPA chief executive told the charity’s Planning Research Convention. ‘That means that garden cities must include genuinely affordable housing for essential low paid workers whose employment underpins an economy on which we all depend. Garden Cities must also deliver intermediate forms of tenure for people on average incomes trying to get onto the housing ladder,’ she added. The extension of the Right to Buy to housing association tenants, a measure proposed in the forthcoming Housing Bill, has potentially significant implications for the housing offer in both existing and new garden cities according to the TCPA. ‘While the implication of the proposed extension to the Right to Buy in garden cities is not yet known, if there is a genuine commitment to new garden cities by Government then they will have to include a mix of housing types and tenures, as well as providing social and affordable housing in perpetuity,’ Henderson explained. ‘That is why we are calling on Government to provide clarity about whether existing and proposed new garden cities can be exempt from the extension of the Right to Buy,’ she added. She pointed out that in Letchworth Garden City today around 30% of homes are socially rented which is part of the town's success. ‘We believe there is a strong case for existing and new garden cities to be exempt from the proposed extension of the Right to Buy to ensure they are, and in the case of Letchworth remain , vibrant, socially mixed and affordable places to live,’ Henderson concluded. This autumn the TCPA will produce a series of guides designed to provide more detailed information and best practice examples to support those engaged in delivering visionary new garden cities. The guides are intended to be an important resource for a wide range of public and private sector practitioners engaged in the creation of new communities. Continue reading
