Tag Archives: real-estate
Property prices in England and Wales up for ninth month in a row
Property prices in England and Wales increased by 0.4% in September, the ninth month in a row when values have grown, taking the average price to £284,742, the latest index shows. Year on year prices increased by 4.2% and overall average house prices across England and Wales have risen £11,500 in the last year, after 42 months of annual growth, the LSL index also shows. The London housing market moved upwards after a period of decline with its biggest monthly price rise since June 2014 at xxx and the South Est saw the strongest year on year rise of any region. The growth is primarily being underpinned by sturdy demand and solid activity at the bottom of the property ladder, according to Richard Sexton, director of e.surv chartered surveyors. ‘The most frequently paid property price across England and Wales is just £125,000, mirroring the level at which stamp duty becomes payable, and reflecting the impetus that has been injected in the first-time buyer market recently,’ he said. ‘It is also the lower to mid-range properties priced between £180,000 and £360,000 which are seeing the fastest increases in value, while the shift in stamp duty bands continues to slow growth at the higher end of the market, and prices above £600,000 are largely stationary,’ he explained. He also pointed out that a price surge in London in September has halted its stalled market. ‘As in the rest of the country, it’s the more affordably priced London boroughs which are behind this renaissance, as the strengthening of sterling, rising stamp duty rates and moves against non-doms take their toll on the high end market,’ he said. The index shows that the 10 London boroughs with the lowest average house prices all set new record highs in August, and it is Barking and Dagenham, at the very bottom of the price rankings, that recorded the fastest year on year increase in property values at 15.7%. ‘While London is once again leading the pack in terms of monthly price growth, the South East region has soared two places in the rankings to top the charts with the highest annual increase in property values. Average house prices in the South East have grown 5.8% over the past twelve months,’ said Sexton. ‘Combined, these two regions are now having a much greater influence on national measures of price growth. Compared to July, when they were only pushing up the overall annual change by 0.1%, this has grown to 0.7%. As house price growth becomes more southern-centric again, the London commuter belt is spurring some of the fastest rates of change with Luton witnessing the steepest price rise compared to last year, jumping 14.9%,’ he added. Sexton also pointed that it has been the strongest September for home sales since 2007. Monthly sales totalled 84,000, an increase of 3% from August, and making September only the second month this year in which sales have overtaken 2014 levels. Meanwhile, the… Continue reading
British PM pledges 200,000 starter homes in next five years
British Prime Minister David Cameron has called for a national crusade to get homes built and promised to change planning rules to boost the number of affordable properties such as starter homes for first time buyers In a speech he said that there will be an overhaul of Whitehall and town hall planning rules which prevent house builders from offering low cost, affordable home ownership. Starter Homes will be sold at a 20% discount to first time buyers under the age of 40 and 200,000 will be delivered by 2020. ‘We need a national crusade to get homes built. That means banks lending, government releasing land, and planning being reformed,’ Cameron said, adding it will be part of a dramatic shift in housing policy. One of the problems, he claimed, has been that until now affordable homes have been for people to rent, not own and developers have been tied by rules regarding what kind of affordable homes can be built. ‘Those old rules which said to developers: you can build on this site, but only if you build affordable homes for rent, we're replacing them with new rules. You can build here and those affordable homes can be available to buy. Yes, from generation rent to generation buy,’ Cameron added. However, the British Property Federation (BPF) has urged the Government to focus on delivery of all housing tenures, not just homes to buy. The organisation has warned that, although initiatives to create more homes for sale are welcome, high house prices and the growing number of private renters in the UK means that more must be done to encourage the purpose built rental sector which it said has £30 billion ready to invest and the potential to deliver a significant number of new homes. ‘Politicians talk about Generation Rent as if it is something to be ashamed of, when this should not be the case. Countries such as Germany and the United States have thriving rental markets, where people happily live in institutionally backed, purpose built, high quality rented accommodation for many years,’ said Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation. ‘While we are not against owner occupation, and see Starter Homes as a welcome initiative, we are aware that such a policy is stoking demand for home ownership, rather than focusing on meeting supply. Build to rent has enormous potential to deliver additional homes to the UK, and government must not overlook this in blind pursuit of making us a nation of home owners,’ she added. According to Mark Hayward, managing director of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) 200,000 new homes is not enough. ‘We first heard this pledge in Cameron’s pre-election campaign, and we still support the sentiment. However, other initiatives such as the Help to Buy scheme still remains in place and it boils down to the fact that we are still waiting to see new homes being built; and whilst we wait capacity remains… Continue reading
Cooling house market growth in California affects US market as a whole
A California cooling effect could put a freeze on US property market growth with affordability in many of the state’s markets out of reach, says the latest analysis report. Since 2012 price growth in California has buoyed the West of the nation and helped support nationwide prices appreciation, according to the report from Clear Capital, but now there is evidence of cooling price appreciation across the state. It explains that typically, price increases are driven by increases in demand, however, a look at the San Francisco housing cycle shows that between 2011 and 2015 the spike in prices has not been the result of increases in overall transactions. Rather, the tight supply is pushing prices on an upward trajectory placing the market even further out of reach for new buyers. It also shows that in slower growth markets like Los Angeles, a mortgage payment requires upwards of 70% of a potential first time buyer’s income, certainly quelling demand. Even the San Jose MSA’s appreciation, which began experiencing dramatic bubble like growth in 2013, is beginning to slow down with quarterly growth of 2.5%, less than half of the 5.8% quarterly growth seen two years ago. While the West continues to lead in sustained gains, markets outside of California will need to work harder to defend the region’s top position, according to the report. Las Vegas and Portland have both seen boosts of 0.2% in quarterly growth since last month. Denver, Seattle and Sacramento continue to hold steady at 1.7%, 1.6% and 1.5% quarterly growth, the data also shows. The Midwest and South continue to ride the wave of the peak summer real estate season with quarterly growth rates at or above the national benchmark of 0.8%. The South ends the quarter at 0.8% growth, and the Midwest ahead at 0.9%. Subsiding losses in the Southern region is a good sign for a region that has exhibited volatility in price trends, the report points out. The Northeast continues to lag behind the rest of the nation in both quarterly and yearly growth at 0.2% and 2.1% respectively. While most of the MSAs in the region are still experiencing positive quarterly growth, with the exception of Providence with a fall of 0.8%, the rate of growth in markets like Boston and New York are over double that for the rest of the region, driving down affordability. ‘The strong continued growth in the Midwest, South and West, in particular the California Bay Area, suggests strong consumer and investor confidence has been seemingly unaffected by talk of looming interest rate hikes,’ said Alex Villacorta, vice president of research and analytics at Clear Capital. ‘However, if and when interest rates do rise, likely occurring by the end of 2015, it will be timed with a decrease in real estate market activity typical through the fall and winter seasons,’ he explained. ‘Unfortunate pairing will most likely cause a slowdown in price growth for most markets,… Continue reading
