Tag Archives: real estate
Commuters an hour from London pay 60% less for a home, new research shows
Average house prices drop from £722,000 in central London to £272,000 in commuter towns an hour outside of London, new research has found. It means that people living up to an hour’s rail journey and commuting to London for work save on average £450,000, or 60%, when it comes to buying a home, according to the analysis from Lloyds Bank. Wellingborough tops the list of the most affordable commuter towns but people that work in Birmingham and Manchester can be better off living in the city centre, rather than commuting, the research also found. Towns that are an hour’s commute from central London include Crawley, Newbury, Colchester and Chatham have an average property price of £272,000 and although commuters face paying an average of £4,944 in travelling costs, a commuter would need to travel for 91 years for the total rail costs to wipe out the difference in average house prices. Buying a home closer to central London saves travel time but not money. Indeed, 20 minutes closer and house prices begin to rise. Commuters from towns approximately 40 minutes away from central London, including Reading, Stevenage, Sidcup and Billericay will have to pay an average house price of £349,000, still some £373,000 or 52% lower than in central London and with a less significant average annual rail travel cost at £3,499. Even at up to 20 minutes distance away from the heart of the capital, commuters from towns such as Ilford, St. Albans and East Croydon benefit from an average house price that is nearly £321,000 lower than in central London. Though examples are rare, some commuters to central London do live in areas that command higher average house prices. For example, commuters to London from Beaconsfield pay a higher average house price at £921,516 than central London while also having to cover the cost of an annual rail cost of £3,788. Nearby, Gerrards Cross also has an average house price that is £32,525 higher. ‘It's no surprise, for London at least, that the further you commute the larger the difference in house prices although, of course, the journey also gets longer and more expensive,’ said Andrew Mason, mortgages director at Lloyds Bank, ‘The decision to commute is not simply a trade-off between financial costs and journey times. Quality of life is an important consideration and in nearly all towns in this survey housing affordability is significantly better with a London salary compared to what can be earned locally,’ he pointed out. ‘For commuters with up to an hour's journey to central London, the reward is an annual salary that is, on average, 22%, or £8,500, higher than what they could earn in their place of residence which is close to £38,500. In the 10 most affordable commuter towns the uplift in annual earnings by working in London is nearly £13,000,’ he explained. One of the key factors for most commuters is the significantly higher annual salaries that can be earned from working in… Continue reading
Annual house price growth in England and Wales past peak of 2007
Annual house price growth in England and Wales was 5.4% in June, taking values to a new high of £181,619, according to the latest official property data from the Land Registry. This surpasses the previous peak of £180,983 in November 2007 and month on month prices increased by 1.1%, the data also shows. A regional breakdown of the data shows that the largest annual price growth was in London where prices were up 9.2% and the North East experienced the greatest monthly rise with a rise of 3%. Yorkshire and The Humber saw the lowest annual price increase of 1.4% and also saw the largest price fall month on month with values down 0.9%. Sales and repossessions during April 2015, the most up to date figures available, show that the number of completed house sales in England and Wales decreased by 19% to 57,180 compared with 70,244 in April 2014 The data also shows that the number of properties sold in England and Wales for over £1 million decreased by 22% to 874 from 1,114 a year earlier and repossessions in England and Wales decreased by 48% to 505 compared with 974 in April 2014. In the North East prices were up 3% month on month and 2.4% year on year to an average of £102,064 and in the North West they were up 0.2% month on month and 3.6% year on year to £114,754. In Wales prices increased 1.7% month on month and 2.7% year on year to an average of £181,619 while in the East Midlands the rise was 0.7% and 5% to £134,965 and in the West Midlands prices fell 0.2% but are still up 2.1% year on year to £137,209. The South West saw a month on month rise of 0.8% and an annual rise of 5.2% to an average of £189,850, the South East saw prices rise 0.4% month on month and 8.4% year on year to £247,375 and in London there was a 1.8% monthly rise and an annual increase of 9.2%, taking the average price of a home in the capital city to £481,820. In the East of England prices fell 0.8% month on month but are still up 7.8% compared with June 2014, taking the average property price in the region to £203,428 while Yorkshire and Humber also saw prices fall month on month by 0.9% but up 1.4% year on year to £121,070. A breakdown of the figures by property type shows that detached house have increased by 5.4% year on year to £284,478, semi-detached by 5% to £171,154, terraced homes by 5.4% to £137,123 and flats by 5.6% to £174,523. Adrian Gill, director of Your Move and Reeds Rains estate agents, described then figures as ‘healthy’. ‘Confidence at the bottom of the market is particularly strong and it is the region with the lowest average house price, the North East, that has seen the biggest monthly improvement in prices, as cheaper mortgage finance and government support… Continue reading
UK landlords prefer intermediaries and brokers for buy to let finance
UK landlords tend to use an intermediary or broker when it comes to arranging buy to let mortgages, new research has found. Some 69% chose this route while 13% arranged their most recent loan directly with a lender face to face, 12 with a lender over the telephone and 5% with a lender online, according to the report from the National Landlords Association (NLA). The research found the main reason given by 51% of landlords for using a broker was that they felt they were better placed to review products in the marketplace while 42% said that they had established a longstanding relationship with their broker. Of those who arranged their buy to let mortgage directly through a lender, 35% did so because they had an existing loan with them, and 27% did so because they already bank with them. ‘Brokers will be please to know that a large proportion of landlords chose to use them when arranging a buy to let mortgage and it shows that a good relationship goes a long way in business,’ said NLA chairman Carolyn Uphill. ‘These findings are interesting because, unlike most other products and services, completing transactions online is becoming more and more common. However, the variety of avenues to take when getting a buy to let mortgage can be time consuming and overwhelming and it’s difficult to know whether or not you have covered all bases, especially for those landlords that are new to the market,’ she explained. ‘This is why many put their faith in a broker and it reinforces that they are happy with the service they get,’ she added. Continue reading
