London
The value of housing stock in the UK reaches over five trillion
The value of UK's private housing stock in August 2015 reached an estimated at £5.1 trillion, a rise of 53% over the last decade, with London doubling since 2005. The increase of £1.8 trillion since 2005 is equivalent to £76,316 per household in the owner occupied and private rented sectors and means that the value of the UK private residential housing stock has grown at a faster rate than consumer prices, with the retail price index up by 35% in the past decade. In the past year, the value of private housing stock grew by £262 billion, mainly reflecting average house price growth of 4% in the year to August, according to the research from the Halifax. The research also shows that the value of mortgage debt has also grown, up by 35% since 2005 from £942 billion to £1.28 trillion. Nonetheless, the value of the private housing stock has grown by over five times as much as outstanding mortgage debt at £1.8 trillion compared with £334 billion. As a result, housing equity has increased by £1.4 trillion or 60% over the decade from £2.4 trillion in 2005 to £3.8 trillion. Regionally, there is a wide variation in the level of housing equity, with a higher balance in the south compared to northern areas. The highest is in London where housing equity is estimated at £798 billion, which is equivalent to £305,749 per household. The next largest is South East at £722 billion or £223,197 per household, and the East at £461 billion or £212,263 per household. Outside southern England, the highest equity levels are in the North West at £283 billion or £109,043 per household, the West Midlands at £251 billion or £128,703 per household and Scotland at £241 billion or £124,679 per household. ‘The combined value of all privately owned houses in the UK is estimated at close to £5.1 trillion in 2015. The increase in total housing value over the past decade is equivalent to over £76,000 per privately owned property,’ said Martin Ellis, housing economist at the Halifax. ‘Aggregate net housing equity held by UK households is in a healthy state with total housing assets worth nearly £4 trillion more than the total value of mortgage debt. Despite the rapid rise in mortgage debt over the past 10 years, net housing equity has grown by £1.4 trillion since 2005,’ he added. The research shows that there has be a strong rise in the value of the private housing stock across all regions, with values more than doubling in London at 105% from £552 billion to £1.1 trillion over the decade. The next largest increases were in Scotland at 72% or £136 billion, the South East at 55%, the East at 54% and the South West at 36%. The value of housing in the north increased by 36% compared to 66% in the south during the last ten years. As a result, the South's share of total UK housing assets rose… Continue reading
Call for UK property sales to be more transparent to get rid of dodge foreign investors
The UK Government is being urged to launch a promised policy to make ownership of property in the UK fully transparent and deliver on its plan to make sure there is no laundered money going into the real estate market. With more buyers from countries like Russia, China and the Middle East looking to invest in property in London there have been concerns that unscrupulous buyers could be using property to hide their wealth and assets. In July the Government committed to tackling corrupt money in UK property, but so far it has not published plans or a timeline for their consultation on providing more transparency over foreign and offshore ownership of UK property. Now the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) and Transparency International are calling for the consultation to get underway as quickly as possible. Mark Hayward, NAEA managing director, said that a recent documentary From Russia with Cash demonstrated that there is still not absolute clarity in relation to anti-money laundering among those in the property sector, despite the very clear legislation in place and regular training and updates from within the industry. ‘It is now time to step up the level of scrutiny that the sector comes under to ensure that a small minority of agents do not support criminal activity and those that do are appropriately sanctioned,’ he added. Continue reading
Overall UK property market sees rise in new listings
There may be hope the UK’s property supply crisis is starting to ease, as the number of new properties coming onto the market across the UK in October increased for the second consecutive month. September saw new property listings up 9.1%, following several months where new supply had dried up. In October, supply continued to rise, albeit at a gentler rate, with new property listings up 2.8% in October and up 3.8% in London. The data from online estate agents HouseSimple also shows that Bottle in Merseyside saw the biggest increase with listings up by 47.4% followed by Truro with growth of 46.8% while in London the borough of Newham saw the biggest rise in new supply with an increase of 40.5% month on month. Sunderland saw the steepest decline in the number of new listings with a fall of 20.5% and in Guildford, where new property stock grew by over a third last month, new property listings fell by 19.4%. The borough of Camden in London has also seen a big change with new listing falling 15.8% in October compared with September when supply almost doubled. ‘Average property prices in the UK hit a record high in October, reaching almost £200,000 according to the latest Nationwide’s house price index. Lack of supply has contributed to this, but there is a glimmer of hope the UK’s supply crisis may be starting to ease,’ said Alex Gosling, the firm’s chief executive officer. ‘We are starting to see more new properties coming to the market, but levels are still well down on what would be considered healthy levels. There is still a massive demand supply imbalance, and in many towns and cities the numbers of new property listings fluctuates dramatically from month to month,’ he explained. ‘Until we start to see consistent and stable increases in supply, the market is likely to see upward pressure on prices continue,’ he added. Continue reading
