Tag Archives: yahoo
Quarter of UK lettings agents report higher rents in first month of 2015
One in four letting agents in the UK have seen private sector rents rise at the beginning of 2015, according to the first of a new monthly report from the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA). The index tracks key market trends within the private rented sector and also found that London has the highest demand for rental property in the UK and on average it takes five viewings for a property to be let. The January report, which was conducted among ARLA members, reveals that on average 27% of licenced branches saw an increase in the cost of monthly rent for tenants from December 2014 to January 2015. The East of England, which includes Bedford, Cambridge and Norwich, saw the highest number of landlords increasing rent per calendar month, with 35% of ARLA letting agents reporting an increase in the New Year. Welsh agents on the other hand only saw 11% of landlords increasing monthly rent, leaving less tenants facing rising costs. ‘The new ARLA Private Rented Sector Report is designed to gain invaluable insight on the lettings market month to month from ARLA member agents,’ said David Cox, managing director of ARLA. ‘With house prices still high, along with stricter lending criteria for mortgages, the rental market is currently a much more accessible and affordable option to buying. Due to this, the demand for rental property is increasing, which impacts the cost of renting and people are willing to pay more to secure their desired property. If house prices continue to rise in 2015, we expect this trend to continue in the rental sector,’ he explained. Despite rising rent costs, on average, ARLA letting agents reported it takes around five viewings for a property to be taken off the market. Whilst rent increased the most in the East of England, ARLA letting agents revealed it also only takes an average of three viewings for a property to be let in the region. This is less than half the viewings it takes for properties in London, which take an average of seven viewings. ‘With rental properties in the East of England being quickly snapped up off the market, people don’t appear to be put off by the rising cost of rent in the region. Clearly property in the area is popular and this will be an interesting trend to watch,’ said Cox. ARLA licensed agents reported an average of 38 prospective tenants registered per branch in January. Unsurprisingly this was the highest in London, with an average 45 registered prospective tenants per branch. However, it seems that unlike the sales market, there is more supply in the rental market. The average number of managed rental properties per branch was 184. The highest was recorded in East Midlands at an average of 266 per branch, while the lowest was recorded in London at… Continue reading
Acute supply problems affecting residential building land in Australia
The residential land market in Australia is suffering for acute supply problems with prices rising and turnover falling, a new report reveals. Turnover in the national land market declined by 16.7% during the September 2014 quarter and at the same time, price growth accelerated to 3.3%, according to the latest report from the Housing Industry Association and CoreLogic RP Data. ‘There are clearly pressures building in terms of new residential land supply. During the September 2014 quarter, the number of land market transactions fell, while price growth accelerated which are classic hallmarks of a market which is fast running into supply problems,’ said Shane Garrett, chief economist of the HIA. ‘It is important that land supply policy across Australia is consistent with the goal of housing affordability. The process of delivering new land supply and the requisite infrastructure for new housing is currently too slow and too expensive,’ he explained. ‘It appears that shovel-ready residential land is starting to dry up against the backdrop of record new home building activity. Policymakers have to intervene in order to allow for Australia’s long term housing needs to be met,’ he added. During the September 2014 quarter the weighted median price of residential land rose by 3.3% to $212,727 per lot, an all-time high for land prices nationally. The data also shows that capital city land prices saw growth of 4.7% during the quarter, and were 10% higher than 12 months earlier, however some of this was due to an increase in the size of land lots transacted. In regional Australia, land prices rose by 0.7% during the quarter and were 3.5% higher compared with a year earlier. Land prices reached an all-time high in both the capital city and regional markets. According to RP Data research director, Tim Lawless the increase in land prices is a concerning development particularly given that dwelling approvals and construction are currently at record high levels. ‘Dwelling commencements are currently at a record high and the Reserve Bank has previously highlighted that their hope is to extend this current period of heightened construction over a number of years,’ he said. ‘Given that land sales have been trending lower since the June 2013 quarter, it does not bode well for this period of heightened construction to come to fruition. The vacant land which is being sold is selling for an increasingly expensive price, remember that it is the high cost of vacant land which significantly contributes to the increasing cost of housing,’ he explained. ‘Ideally we should be seeing more land bought to the market and sold during this period of low borrowing costs. This would help to curtail the increases in the cost of this vacant land,’ he added. Continue reading
Home sales in Canada fall to 2% below levels from a year ago
Residential property sales in Canada fell by 3.1% in January compared with the previous month and are 2% below levels recorded a year ago, according to the latest data from the Canadian Real Estate Association. The monthly CREA home index also shows that prices are 3.1% above a year ago. Price gains varied among housing markets tracked by the index with growth of 7.76% in Calgary, 7.47% in Greater Toronto and 5.53% in Greater Vancouver being the largest year on year increases. In other markets prices were up on a year on year in the Fraser Valley, Victoria, and Vancouver Island, while remaining stable in Saskatoon, Ottawa, and Greater Montreal. By contrast, prices declined year on year in Regina and Greater Moncton January sales were down from the previous month in about 60% of all local housing markets and on a provincial basis, the monthly decline largely reflected fewer sales in Alberta and Saskatchewan. ‘As expected, consumer confidence in the Prairies has declined and moved a number of potential home buyers to the side lines as a result. By contrast, housing market trends in the Maritimes are continuing to improve,’ said CREA president Beth Crosbie. Actual, not seasonally adjusted, activity in January stood 2% below levels reported in the same month last year, marking the first year on year decline since April 2014. ‘Comparing sales activity for January this year to sales one year earlier, there was a fairly even split between the number of markets where sales were up versus the number of markets where sales were down,’ said Gregory Klump, CREA’s chief economist. ‘The decline in national sales largely reflects weakened activity in Calgary and Edmonton. If these two markets are removed from national totals, combined sales activity remained 1.9% above year ago levels,’ he explained. The index data also shows that the number of newly listed homes rose 0.7% in January compared to December. New supply climbed higher in just over half of all local markets, led by Edmonton and Greater Toronto. By contrast, Greater Vancouver, Calgary, and Regina posted the largest monthly declines in new listings. The national sales to new listings ratio was 49.7% in January, marking the first time this measure of market balance has dipped below 50% since December 2012. A sales to new listings ratio between 40% and 60%n is generally consistent with balanced housing market conditions, with readings above and below this range indicating sellers’ and buyers’ markets, respectively. The ratio was within this range in more than half of all local markets in January. The number of months of inventory is another important measure of the balance between housing supply and demand. It represents the number of months it would take to completely liquidate current inventories at the current rate of sales activity. There were 6.5 months of inventory nationally at the end of January 2015, its highest reading since April 2013. As with the sales to new listings ratio, the reading for the number… Continue reading
