Tag Archives: real-estate
Political uncertainty over 2015 election hits central London prime property market
Demand in the prime central London residential property market has become more restrained against a backdrop of heightened uncertainty due to next year’s general election, according to a new analysis. Prices in this sector fell by 0.2% in November, which was the first drop since October 2010 and meant annual growth eased to 6.1%, the report from real estate firm Knight Frank shows. Discounting a minor dip in the second half of 2010 due to concerns over the euro zone, November marked the end of a run of growth that lasted five and a half years, during which time prices have increased by 73%. According to Tom Bill, Knight Frank’s head of London residential research, it is difficult to rank individual reasons for the decline in order of importance, but anecdotally they appear to include the looming UK general election, the proposals for a mansion tax and the impact of capital gains tax reform for non-residents. ‘The conclusion must be that prices have softened in prime central London due to the magnitude of the cumulative uncertainty rather than the quantifiable extent of the risks. However, short term or domestic risks don’t obscure London’s wider appeal,’ he said. ‘Whatever happens in 2015, for example, London will retain a competitive advantage versus New York, where residents are taxed on their global income. Neither should buyers overlook the long-term potential for price performance of prime central London property which, as the graph above shows, has been exceptionally strong through past elections,’ he added. The report also shows that price declines in November included a 2.3% fall in Notting Hill, due to weaker demand in the £5 million to £10 million price bracket, a family house market that is more reliant on domestic demand than other areas of central London. Elsewhere, prices in South Kensington fell 1.2%. Bill explained that although more buyers are adopting a wait and see approach to pricing, the most in-demand and well-priced properties are selling quickly. There were declines of less than 1% in Kensington, Islington and Marylebone, while prices were flat in the three golden postcodes of Belgravia, Knightsbridge and Mayfair. Continue reading
New home sales in Australia on the up again, latest HIA data shows
New home sales in Australia experienced a modest rise in October after remaining flat the month before, according to the latest report from the Housing Industry Association (HIA). Total seasonally adjusted new home sales increased by 3% and growth was driven by a growth in the sale of detached houses in Victoria and Western Australia. HIA chief economist Harley Dale pointed out that after a relatively sharp decline of 5.7% in July, driven by both detached houses and multi-units, total new home sales have mounted a modest recovery ‘Sales are still off their cyclical peak reached back in April this year, but the overall volume of new home sales is still at an elevated level. That augurs well for healthy new home construction activity persisting into 2015,’ he explained. ‘Australia is on track to commence a record number of homes this year. While undesirable lags in the availability of Australian Bureau of Statistics data prevent confirmation of this outcome until well into next year, the fact is that 2014 is drawing to a close,’ he said. ‘We now want to be seeing evidence pointing to a healthy prognosis for new home building activity in 2015. In this regard we have positive signals coming from three key leading indicators. HIA new home sales and ABS building approvals are past their peaks but remain at elevated levels. Lending for new housing is still trending higher and doesn’t appear to have peaked yet,’ he added. A breakdown of the figures show that detached house sales increased by 4.7% in Victoria and by 24.8% in Western Australia but fell by 3% in New South Wales and were down by 7.8% in Queensland and 1.7% in South Australia. Over the three months to October 2014 detached house sales increased by 3.7% in New South Wales, by 1.2% in Queensland and by 1.7% in Western Australia. They fell by 13.4% in Victoria and by 6.3% in South Australia. Continue reading
US homes market experiencing a shortage of properties for sale at lower end
More higher priced homes in the US are being put up for sale but there is still a shortage of lower priced homes on the market, new research suggests. Buyers searching for homes will find more homes for sale overall, but supply of lower priced homes is growing more slowly than high priced homes in most of the country, according to the latest home value index from Zillow. Overall, median home values rose 6.4% from October 2013 and 0.4% from September. Both monthly and annual home value gains were well below the faster paces recorded earlier in the year. Rising inventory and slowing home value growth are two signs that the housing market is beginning to level off across the nation. As the market has cooled, buyers looking for less expensive homes did find some relief in the hottest metro areas, including San Diego, Los Angeles and the Bay Area. In San Francisco, the number of low priced homes on the market rose by 39% but there were fewer high priced homes on the market. While inventory was still tight there in October, the homes that were available spread evenly across the price spectrum. National rents were up 3.5% in October from a year ago. Month on month national rents were flat compared with September. Inventory of all homes nationwide rose by 15.8% year on year. A breakdown of the figures shows that in the bottom home price market it increased by 68.3% while in the top home price tier it rose 82.2%. In Denver, there were almost four times as many homes available for sale in the upper price tier, that is homes priced at $357,900 or more, than there were homes priced in the lowest price tier at less than $219,000. The same was true in many other markets. Dallas, Atlanta, Phoenix and Nashville had at least two times more homes for sale in the top tier than the bottom tier. In 25 of the 35 largest metros analysed there were more homes for sale this October than last October in all three price tiers. In 14 of those metros, the increase in number of homes for sale was in the double digits in all price tiers. ‘Depending on their finances, it's likely that individual buyers in the same market might be having completely different home buying experiences. Even as conditions improve for buyers overall, it remains a tough row to hoe for first time buyers and lower income buyers, especially compared to their more well off contemporaries,’ said Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries. Continue reading
