Tag Archives: real-estate
Residential property prices in Portugal set for moderate growth
Residential property prices in Portugal are expected to rise modestly over the first few months of 2015 after eight months of stability as housing market activity levels continue to rise. There is a strengthening in sales market confidence, with forward looking indicators showing rising optimism, according to the latest RICS/Ci Portuguese Housing Market Survey. In the lettings sector, sustained growth in occupier demand, coupled with a contraction in new landlord instructions, is helping to stabilise rents and rent expectations, it also shows. In the sales market, new buyer enquiries continued to rise, extending the run of uninterrupted demand growth stretching back almost a year and a half. Meanwhile agreed sales increased for the 12 month in a row in December. ‘Significantly, sales expectations are the most buoyant in four years and this sustained recovery in activity appears to have stabilised house prices, which have now remained more or less unchanged for the past eight months,’ the index report shows. ‘Crucially, prices are now expected to rise marginally. Although this is a positive development, we would warn against reading too much into this at the current juncture, given the still challenging economic backdrop,’ it adds. As a result of this improvement in sentiment, the national confidence index, a composite indicator of price and sales expectations, increased to +27, a new high for the series. In the lettings sector, occupier demand continues to rise at a steady pace and this is being accompanied by a significant fall in new landlord instructions. As a result, although still in decline, rents are falling at the slowest pace on record. Furthermore, rent expectations are pointing to a relatively stable trend over the next three months. According to CI spokesman, Ricardo Guimaraes, it is interesting to note that in some markets several real estate agents mention that there is a relative lack of housing available for sale. ‘At the same time, there has been a clear increase in demand. Naturally, this demand is oriented towards the most central locations and main cities,’ he explained. RICS senior economist, Josh Miller, believes that the bottom of the home price market has been reached and the lettings sector is not far behind. ‘Whether the market can transition from a broadly stable picture, to a genuine recovery very much depends on if the economic recovery can be sustained. On this front, things look promising but we are not out of the woods just yet,’ he said. Continue reading
Average rental deposits up in the UK but surprising fall in London
London was among the many areas of England and Wales to see quarterly drops in the average deposit amounts needed by tenants at the end of 2014. The average deposit amount protected by mydeposits saw a 1.4% rise between the third and fourth quarter of 2014 but London saw a 2.6% drop equalling to a fall of £49 to a total of £1,811. It means that the average tenancy deposit protected by mydeposits now stands at £1,226, up £52 over the last year. The figures also show a difference of £1,244 between the average cost of deposits in the most expensive and cheapest regions in England and Wales. London stays at the top of the most expensive average deposit paid by tenants around the U.K with £1,811 on average being spent in the capital, which year on year is an increase of £79 or 4.6%. The quarterly contrasts between the north and west in the Midlands and up in the North makes for interesting reading. The East Midlands saw an 11% increase while the West Midlands saw a 5.3% fall. Meanwhile, in the North West there was a 3.9%) increase to £650 compared to the largest monetary drop in value in the North East who saw a fall of 31.6% to £567, the lowest overall across England and Wales. Wales also saw a big drop of 23% in deposit values taking their average total to £657. Deposits in the East of England dropped at the same pace as London at 2.6% for the quarter but saw the biggest increase across the UK throughout the year with a 6.2% rise to £1,021, the third highest behind the South East at £1,203 and London. ‘This the first cycle in which we’ve seen a steady quarter on quarter reduction to average deposit values in many parts of England and Wales. While it’s difficult to pinpoint an exact reason for this, it is most likely to be attributable to rental demand tailing off throughout December,’ said Eddie Hooker, chief executive officer of mydeposits. ‘This is because deposits are commonly set at between four to six week’s rents and landlords and agents are more likely to accept lower than advertised rents in December in order to avoid having vacant properties over the Christmas and New Year period and experiencing a void,’ he explained. ‘Whilst this is good news, 2015 is going to be a big year for housing with the General Election some five months away. We’ve already seen government wide support for the new deposits loan scheme that is set to benefit thousands of tenants and go a long way to creating a better private rented sector for all,’ he added. Continue reading
UK buy to let sector surging ahead, it is claimed
The UK’s buy to let sector surged ahead of other areas of the housing market in January, according to the latest research from Connells Survey and Valuation. While most of the housing market began the year with a subdued outlook, buy to let bucked this trend and was the strongest performing sector with 37% growth in activity since the previous month, and on an annual basis the smallest dip of just 4%. It means that the sector has bounced back from a disappointing performance in December 2014 when it recorded one of the biggest monthly falls, according to John Bagshaw, corporate services director of Connells Survey & Valuation. He believes that as landlords are now ‘spoilt for choice’ with a record number of mortgage products to choose from, they are beginning to invest more. Low mortgage rates have also continued, posing even more attractive deals for potential landlords or those expanding portfolios. The first time buyer sector of the housing market was the only other sector which saw a monthly increase in valuations activity. On a month on month basis, activity for first time buyers increased by 3% though on an annual basis it saw one of the biggest falls of 28% compared to January 2014. ‘First time buyer activity increased on a monthly basis despite a stark contrast in performance with January 2014 when this sector had dominated the housing market. This was largely due to the flurry of activity as customers rushed to secure deals before the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) stopped mortgage funding at the end of January 2014. At the time the policy had boosted the housing market, particularly first time buyers by lowering mortgage rates,’ said Bagshaw. ‘Since then however, a series of policies have been introduced that have restricted lending criteria which have affected first time buyers more than other sectors and consequently had a major impact on demand. However, this month on month growth is encouraging and indicates that as the sector stabilises and adjusts to the new regulatory landscape, it should continue improving in the coming months,’ he explained. By contrast, activity for those already on the property ladder has been subdued. On a monthly basis activity dipped by 4%, though compared with January last year, valuations activity fell by a steeper 23%. Similarly, remortgaging saw one of the biggest falls in activity both on a monthly and annual basis. Since December, recent activity fell by 25%, while compared with January 2014 it decreased by 28%. ‘The current economic outlook indicates that low inflation and therefore the low Bank rate will continue for some time. As a result it appears that this is giving rise to optimism as more borrowers anticipate that lenders will be able to lower their mortgage rates even further. They are now waiting before securing a deal,’ said Bagshaw. ‘However, it is… Continue reading
