Tag Archives: real estate
Property prices in England and Wales down 0.8%, latest official figures show
Property prices in England and Wales fell by 0.8% in March, taking the average house price to £178,007, according to the latest data from the Land Registry. It means that the annual price change now stands at 5.3% and the data also shows that sales have fallen. From October 2013 to January 2014 there was an average of 76,056 sales per month. In the same months a year later, the figure was 71,090. But in London property prices are still going up with a monthly increase of 0.2%. At 11.3% the annual change for London is considerably higher than most other regions. The average price of property in the capital is £462,799 in comparison with the average for England and Wales of £178,007. The London borough with the highest annual price rise is Newham, with a rise of 19.8% and Hackney experienced the highest monthly increase, up 1.6%. Kensington and Chelsea saw the lowest annual growth of 5.2% also experienced the greatest monthly fall with a drop of 1.6%. On a regional basis the North East saw the only annual price fall with a drop of 2.9%, the South East experienced the greatest monthly price rise of 0.8% and the North East also saw the largest monthly decrease with a fall of 4%. Bracknell Forest and Hertfordshire experienced the greatest annual price increase in March with a rise of 13.6% and Darlington saw the greatest annual price fall with a drop of 6.2%. The index report shows that price index volatility is greater in areas where recorded sales volumes are low. Index volatility leads to erratic and high changes in reported price. Some of the areas that typically have very low transaction volumes include, but are not limited to, the City of London, Rutland, the Isle of Anglesey, Merthyr , Blaenau Gwent, Ceredigion and Torfaen. The number of properties sold in England and Wales for over £1 million in January 2015 decreased by 19% to 851 from 1,049 in January 2014 while the number of properties sold in London for over £1 million in January 2015 decreased by 23% to 571 from 746 in January 2014. However, Edward Heaton, of Heaton and Partners search agency, pointed out that the headline figures only tell part of the story. ‘In London, for example, there may indeed have been an 11.3% increase in greater London over the last year, but in prime central London prices have actually dropped,’ he said. ‘The biggest increases have been in second tier areas such as Wandsworth, Battersea, Clapham and some of the up and coming areas to the East of London. In the South East, most of the activity and increases in price have been in the mainstream market below £1 million,’ he explained. ‘Certainly above £2 million prices have remained pretty stable, although there is an expectation that prices will start rising rapidly after the election, almost regardless of its result,’ he added. Nicholas Leeming, chairman of national estate agents Jackson-Stops &… Continue reading
UK agency predicts a million tenants could lose out under rental plans
A million tenants in the UK could lose their rental properties as a result of one of the major party's policies on the private rented sector, it is claimed. Belvoir, one of the UK’s largest property management agencies, predicts that Labour’s pledge to introduce new anti-landlord rental policies could result in landlords leaving the sector. ‘I am shocked at Ed Miliband’s proposals and his decision to ignore industry experts who have issued dire warnings about the unprecedented suffering that his party’s policies are likely to cause to tenants,’ said Dorian Gonsalves, Belvoir’s director of commercial and franchising. ‘Under a Labour Government, landlords will be forced to commit to three-year tenancies and banned from raising rents above inflation. You don’t have to be a mathematician or property expert to work out how deeply flawed these policies are,’ he explained. He pointed out that there are currently 11 million people renting property in the UK, which amounts to about 20% of the population and includes 1.5 million families with children. ‘There are around four million rental properties available and if just 10 to 15% of landlords decide to withdraw from the rental market because they are uncomfortable with Labour’s proposals and feel unable to manage their risks, particularly when mortgage rates rise, these homes will no longer be available,’ he said. ‘These tenants will either become homeless or face the appalling consequences of having to move in with family and friends on a long term basis,’ he added. Gonsalves also pointed out that when you look at the promises made on new homes from all the main parties, the most that any party has pledged is 300,000 properties in the next five years. ‘Clearly this figure will not even begin to satisfy current demand, which is the reason that we’re facing a housing shortage,’ he said. ‘We should not forget that it was the Labour Government’s incompetence that contributed to the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, which resulted in a credit crunch that has left millions of people unable to obtain mortgages or save for a deposit to buy their own home. It is therefore very short sighted and totally irresponsible of Labour to introduce policies that will drastically reduce the number of available rental properties,’ he commented. ‘Landlords are very tired of being made to look like criminals who are constantly looking to rip off tenants and provide low quality housing. In our experience, 99.9% of landlords are decent people that provide decent housing for tenants on a long term basis,’ he added. The Belvoir rental index shows that in most parts of the country there has not been the major rental increases that Ed Miliband speaks of. ‘However, if we look back over the past five to 10 years and apply Labour’s proposed inflation rule for rental increases to many parts of the… Continue reading
Buy to let lending outpacing residential loans, new analysis suggests
Buy to let lending in the UK increased by 20% year on year in the first three months of 2015, outpacing residential lending which was up by just 1.6%, a new analysis shows. Total lending for the quarter stood at £36.2 billion, a year on year increase of 5.4%, according to an analysis report from Equifax Touchstone which covers 92% in the intermediated lending market. The data also shows that the average value of each mortgage was £177,060 for residential compared to £170,730 in the final quarter of 2014, and £151,033 for buy to let compared to £145,017 in the previous quarter. March was the top sales month for mortgage brokers in eight years. Lending was up 24.3% on February 2015, reaching £15 billion. The market saw UK wide improvement with only two postcode areas, Perth and the Western Isles, reporting negative growth during the period. However, despite growing lending levels, the number of active brokers in the market has fallen in the last 12 months, down from 8,288 in the first quarter of 2014 to 8,028 in the first quarter of 2015. The firm says that this market consolidation makes it even more important for mortgage providers to identify which networks and firms are leading the charge and successfully responding to the rapidly changing mortgage landscape and the requirements of the Mortgage Market Review. ‘In March we saw lending power ahead and the sluggish trend witnessed at the end of last year has been reversed. There have been lingering doubts over the market recovery and it is encouraging to see such positive growth,’ said Iain Hill, Equifax Touchstone relationship manager. ‘While traditional savings accounts continue to offer low returns, savers are looking for alternative ways to invest their money, prompting substantial growth in the buy to let market. An oversupply of people and an undersupply of homes makes buy to let an attractive proposition and we expect this trend to continue to gather pace over the coming months,’ he added. Separate research by Paragon Mortgages has revealed that intermediaries are writing more mortgage business with longer term initial rates. The results from the specialist lender’s quarterly intermediary tracking survey for the first quarter of 2015 shows 30% of cases were for terms of five years or more trackers and fixed rates, up from 26% in the previous quarter. At the same time, there was a reduction in two and three year terms, dropping from 71% to 66% and intermediaries have reported a decline in popularity of tracker rate products since the middle of 2012. Survey results showed a continuous fall from the third quarter of 2012 to the second quarter of 2014. However, this trend appears to be shifting, with tracker products accounting for 18% of cases in the first quarter of 2015 compared to 15% in the previous quarter. Despite the modest improvement in the sale of tracker products, fixed rates continue to be the most popular with intermediaries recommending a… Continue reading
