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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
Straw houses go onto UK general sales market
Houses made of straw are on sale on the open market for the first time in the UK after becoming eligible for standard mortgages. Until now the eco-homes have been the preserve of bespoke building projects and financed through specialist lenders but now a row of seven straw houses in Bristol have now become the first to secure building certification which makes them eligible for a standard mortgage. The two and three bedroom properties will each use more than seven tonnes of straw and reduce heating costs by 90% compared to the average brick house, according to Professor Pete Walker from the University of Bath who led a project to develop and test the construction method. They homes are due to be completed in April and are on sale priced between £220,000 and £240,000. ‘I think there's a lot of misconception about using straw, especially about fire resistance. As a construction material straw is a low cost and widely available product that offers real potential for ultra low carbon housing throughout the UK,’ said Walker. ‘Building with straw could be a critical point in our trajectory towards a low carbon future. The great thing about the houses is that they are affordable and in addition the energy costs will be extremely low, under £100 a year,’ he explained. The houses are currently undergoing a 10 week construction programme by developers Connolly and Callaghan in Shirehampton, Bristol. Each wall is the same thickness as a normal bale of straw, framed in timber and encased in wooden boards. In addition compressed straw board will line the walls throughout the house as a replacement for plaster board and once built, the terraced houses will be clad in brick so they will be indistinguishable from the other properties in the street. The only hint of their remarkable construction method will be a 'truth window' in each property where a section of straw wall will be visible through a window. Although these are not the first houses in the UK to be built using straw bales, they are the first to be built for any buyer on the open market. The straw design has received BM Trada's Q mark certification, meaning developers and house buyers can now insure and secure mortgages against the homes. ‘First and foremost the work has demonstrated that straw bales create safe, durable and affordable houses. They make contributions to reducing fuel poverty and make significant contributions to reducing energy bills of building occupants,’ Walker pointed out. He added that there are also wider benefits. ‘Buildings contribute around 50% of the carbon emissions in this country. Producing lower… Continue reading
