Tag Archives: real-estate
Number of London homes worth over a million set to rise by 47% by 2018
The number of London house sales breaking the £1 million price barrier is expected to rise by 47% by 2018, according to new analysis from international property adviser, Savills. It means a further expansion of a market that has grown by 165% in the past five years. In 2003, just 1,825 £1 million plus sales were recorded by the Land Registry, a figure that rose to 7,529 last year. By 2018, the annual total is expected to exceed 11,000, in response to forecast price rises and means that more locations in the Greater London area will qualify as prime property area. According to calculations from Savills, annual turnover in London’s £1 million plus market has risen by 312% over the past decade and is forecast to record a 505% increase in the 15 years from 2003 to 2018. During the same period, prime London house prices are expected to have risen by 160%, evidence both of the rising prosperity in the capital and the geographical expansion of the prime market. A decade ago just over half of sales worth £1 million or more were concentrated in just two central boroughs, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster, with 569 and 370 sales respectively. Last year, while these two central boroughs still accounted for a third of this high value market place, four other boroughs of Wandsworth, Hammersmith and Fulham, Camden and Richmond upon Thames, each saw more than 500 £1 million plus sales recorded by the Land Registry. Only two of London’s 33 boroughs, Barking and Dagenham and Newham, did not see any £1 million plus sales recorded by the Land Registry in 2013. Three other boroughs, Croydon, Waltham Forest and Bexley, recorded fewer than 10 such sales at nine, three and two respectively. But even in the highest value areas of these five boroughs average values were between £275,000 and £390,000. ‘In the past five years, we have seen £1 million sales increasingly extend into areas such as Acton, Dalston, Herne Hill, Tooting Bec and Blackheath. In the next five years such sales are expected to become significantly more concentrated in emerging locations such as Streatham, Kingston, Borough and Northwood,’ said Lucian Cook, head of UK residential research at Savills. ‘The majority of locations where we expect to see the emergence of £1 million-plus sales in the next five years neighbour existing prime areas. Areas such as Earlsfield, Brixton and Wanstead should see a greater proliferation of the £1 million price tag, which is also expected to begin to appear in such locations as Crystal Palace to the south, Southgate to the north and Isleworth and Osterley to the west,’ he added. The Savills research also identifies the emergence of a third ‘wealth corridor’, running south east via Dulwich and Bromley, as wealth flows out from more central locations, boosting house prices along its route. ‘Much of the growth in £1 million-plus sales will be organic, driven… Continue reading
UK home rental price growth eases, latest index shows
Rental price growth across the UK eased in August, with every region seeing smaller rent increases than in previous months, according to the latest index. The average rent in the UK now stands at £921 a month, compared to £851 a year ago, according to the data from the August HomeLet Rental Index, the largest monthly survey of private tenants in the UK. The average monthly private rent in London stood at £1,464 and in the rest of the country £729 although some regions that were previously showing high growth month on month have fallen and in total the average monthly variation in rent across the UK was 2.3%. Only London at 2.4% and the South East at 3%, registered increases of more than 2%. East Anglia and the South West, both of which have been recording strong growth in recent months, have seen a slowdown in August with rents in East Anglia increasing by just 1% and the South West recording a drop in rental prices by 0.9%. Rents were also lower in Scotland, Wales, the North West and North East of England as well as the East Midlands. The biggest fall in rental prices is in the North West where rents paid for new tenancies last month were, on average, 3.5% lower than those paid on new tenancies in July. Elsewhere, rents were up by 1.9% in the West Midlands, and by 1% in the East Midlands and Northern Ireland. ‘August can traditionally be a slower month for the rental market and similar dips have been seen in rental prices in previous years,’ said Martin Totty, chief executive of the Barbon Insurance Group which owns HomeLet ‘Nevertheless, the cooling in the rental sector may prove to represent the beginning of a trend towards a more settled market after several months of much more significant growth. A similar cooling has been seen in the wider housing market, with house price indices recording an easing of house price growth,’ he added. On an annualised basis rental growth continues to show strength, with only the North East and the East Midlands reporting lower rents for new tenancies in August than in the same month of last year. Across the UK, the average private home rent rose by 8.2% over the year to August 2014. In London, rents were up by 11.4% on a year ago, while East Anglia saw annual growth of 8.4% and the South East 5.3%. ‘While a calmer period for the rental sector is likely to be welcomed by landlords and tenants alike, with affordability concerns having increased in some parts of the country in recent months, demand for rental property is set to remain strong,’ said Totty. Continue reading
London and South East skewing average house price figures, latest index shows
The average property price in England and Wales has reached £274,302 but this drops to £185,496 if London and the South East are removed, the latest monthly index shows. This means that these two regions are skewing average house prices by a record £89,000, the biggest disparity since 1995, according to data from the LSL Property Services index. It is due to cooling house prices in some regions and the figures shows that the slowdown outside of London and the South East on an annual basis has dropped to 4.3%. This contrasts with average house price growth of 10.7% in the past year across all of England. On a monthly basis prices have increased by 0.9%, according to the data from the August index report. According to Richard Sexton, director of e.surv chartered surveyors, part of LSL Property Services, a game of two halves is being played out in the UK property market. ‘In terms of average house price growth, a gap has developed between the South East corner and the rest of the country. If we exclude the key players of London and the South East from the game, a whole different playing field is revealed,’ he said. ‘House prices across the remaining parts of England and Wales have only increased 4.3% in the past year, or less than half of the overall measure of 10.7% when we include London and the South East. In absolute terms the difference would seem to add £88,806 to the average price tag for a home across England and Wales, the highest absolute difference since 1995,’ he explained. ‘This obscures cooler prices in much of the country. Further afield, it is critical that support mechanisms like Help to Buy aren’t dismantled. In July, house price growth slowed across all regions except for London, the South East and East Anglia. While these three regions continue to set new house price highs, the rest of the country is nowhere near these levels of growth,’ he added. Sexton also pointed out that compared to the nadir of 2008/2012, activity in the housing market has improved, but is not completely out of the woods yet, and still needs to recapture some of the vitality of its pre-recession health. ‘There is also much more to be said beyond the headlines for London. The annual rate of growth in London house prices is the fastest witnessed since 2000. Most recently we’re seeing asking prices in the capital start to be reined in, which will apply the brakes on annual house price inflation as the market steadies,’ said Sexton. ‘What’s happening in London may be eye-catching, but it is akin to looking through a kaleidoscope and skews any view of the current total housing landscape. Peeling back the regional layers gives a much more informed view of the core reality of the current housing market,’ he added. ‘With evidence of London starting to cool off after strong growth earlier in the year, it is critical that the underlying momentum… Continue reading
