Tag Archives: real estate
UK property market sees lowest annual price growth since 2013
Annual UK property price growth was 3.7% in April, taking the average price of a home to £208,717, the lowest level of annual growth since July 2013, the latest index shows. Month on month prices were up 0.5%, according to the latest monitor report from haart estate agents. In London prices were up 1.9% month on month and 6.8% year on year to an average of £513,154. The data also shows that in April new buyer registrations fell by 1.6% compared with March, the first monthly fall this year, as buyers adopted a pre-election ‘wait and see’ attitude. Seller activity also slowed in April with new property instructions up just 1.5% month on month. The report also shows that house sales were up 3.3% in April compared to March but down 17.1% from April 2014. But there has been a post-election pick up in seller activity with the weekend after polling day seeing a 34% surge in new property instructions compared with the previous weekend. The average price of a first time buyer home increased 3.5% annually and 0.8% on the month. The report says that the new Help to Buy ISA, when the product is designed and implemented, will provide further assistance to first time buyers seeking to buy a home. First time buyers now make up 42.9% of all mortgages written, which is up slightly on March but still falls below 46.1% in April 2014. The average mortgage granted to first-time buyers is up 1.2% on the month in April and 2.5% annually. ‘The pre-election property market held its breath in April but the election uncertainty did not have an overall stifling effect on the market average property price growth for the UK slowed but did not come off the boil,’ said Paul Smith, chief executive officer haart, which has a network of over 200 branches across the country. ‘However, there was a drop in activity from sellers and prospective buyers in the run up as a wait and see attitude took hold of the market. We are already seeing the reversal of this with a flurry of activity from prospective sellers in the weekend immediately following the election,’ he explained. ‘Continuity of government, no mansion tax and supportive policies like the Help to Buy ISA should keep the property market on its upward trajectory for the rest of 2015,’ he added. Continue reading
Research finds UK first time buyers support Help to Buy schemes
The housing policies from the Conservative Party seem to be most in-tune with the needs of first time buyers in the UK, particularly Help to Buy according to new research. In particular getting empty homes back in to the market has strong support but this was planned by the Liberal Democrats who are no longer in coalition with the Conservatives, says the Halifax Generation Rent report that provides ongoing insight into the attitudes and behaviour of young people towards home ownership. However, while five of the top nine policies were from the Conservative party, the top rated policy was put forward by the Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrat policy proposed increasing supply by giving greater powers to local authorities to tackle empty homes in the form of renovation and subsequent return of the property to the rental or sales markets. Increasing the supply of housing was the overall mandate given to the incoming Government by Generation Rent participants. All pledges to build more homes and to either reserve a proportion of these homes or offer them all to first time buyers were welcomed by the majority of respondents. Other popular policies included the Conservative proposals to launch a new Rent to Buy scheme and a new Right to Buy scheme. As a demand side policy the new Right to Buy scheme has received a mixed reception to date, but 54% of the young people surveyed in the Generation Rent Report thought it would be of benefit to getting more people on the housing ladder. ‘Housing was a major issue during the general election campaign and political parties of all hues acknowledged that more needs to be done to help first time buyers. However, this now needs to translate into concrete plans during the next Parliament,’ said Craig McKinlay, mortgages director at the Halifax. He pointed out that by taking the most beneficial cross party policy positions according to 20 to 45 year olds, the Generation Rent report has created the ‘ideal’ policy package. ‘Earlier this year the independent Commission on Housing identified that we need to deliver at least 2 million homes by 2025 to meet demand. Getting empty homes back on the market and tackling the shortfall in housebuilding needs to be a political priority and requires a long-term commitment if it’s to address the shortage of supply,’ he added. In the first two years of the Help to Buy Equity Loan Scheme to 31 March 2015 some 47,018 properties were bought with an equity loan. Taking this into account the report found 53% of 20 to 45 year olds think the current Help to Buy schemes have had a positive impact, compared with 8% who think it has had a negative effect, and 39% who don’t know or are undecided. As such , the Conservative party proposal to extend the Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme for new build homes until at least 2020 was popular among first time buyers with 56% expressing… Continue reading
Property sales in Canada up for third month in a row, latest data shows
Home sales across Canada increased in April month on month for the third time a row, according to the latest data from the Canadian Real Estate Association. Sales were up 2.3% from March to April but actual, not seasonally adjusted activity was 10% above levels a year ago while the CREA home price index increased 4.97% year on year. The data also shows that the national average sale price rose 9.5% on a year on year basis in April but excluding Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto, it increased by 3.4%. April sales were up from the previous month in two thirds of all local markets, led by the Greater Toronto Area, the surrounding Golden Horseshoe region, and Montreal. ‘As expected, low mortgage interest rates and the onset of spring ushered many home buyers off the sidelines, particularly in regions where winter was long and bitter,’ said CREA president Pauline Aunger. Gregory Klump, CREA chief economist, pointed out that in recent years, the seasonal pattern for home sales and listings has become amplified in places where listings are in short supply relative to demand. ‘This particularly stands out in and around Toronto. Sellers there have increasingly delayed listing their home until spring. Once listed, it sells fairly quickly. Sales over the year as a whole in Southern Ontario are likely being constrained to some degree by a short supply of single family homes,’ he said. ‘However, the busy spring home buying and selling season has become that much busier as a result of sellers waiting until winter has faded before listing,’ he added. A breakdown of the figures shows that sales were up on a year on year basis in about 70% of all local markets, led by activity in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Greater Toronto, and Montreal. Of the 18 local markets that set new records for the month of April, all but two are in Southern Ontario. The number of newly listed homes was virtually unchanged, up 0.1% in April compared to March. Below the surface, new supply rose in almost two thirds of all local markets, led by a big rebound in Halifax-Dartmouth following a sharp drop in March. This was offset by declines in Greater Vancouver, Victoria, and the Okanagan Region, as well as by a continuing pullback in new supply in Calgary. New listings in Calgary have dropped by a third from their multiyear high at the end of last year to their current multi-year low. The national sales to new listings ratio was 55.3% in April, up from 50.4% three months earlier as the ratio has steadily risen along with sales so far this year. A sales to new listings ratio between 40% and 60% is generally consistent with balanced housing market conditions, with readings above and below this range indicating sellers’ and buyers’ markets respectively. The ratio was within this range in the majority of local housing markets in April. The number of months of inventory… Continue reading
