Tag Archives: shows
UK house prices up 5.7% year on year, slight annual rise, ONS data shows
UK house prices increased by 5.7% in the year to May 2015, up from 5.5% in the year to April 2015, the latest official property market data shows. House price annual inflation was 5.8% in England, 2.5% in Wales, 2.9% in Scotland and 10.5% in Northern Ireland, according to the index from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The pace of annual house price growth increased slightly across the majority of the UK in May 2015 taking he average mix-adjusted house price to £274,000 and was driven by an annual increase of 9.3% in the East of England and 8.2% in the South East. Excluding London and the South East, UK house prices increased by 5.2% in the 12 months to May 2015 and on a seasonally adjusted basis, average house prices increased by 0.9% between April and May 2015. In May 2015, prices paid by first time buyers were 5.1% higher on average than in May 2014 and for existing owners prices increased by 5.9% for the same period. The data shows that the regional disparities of the property market are steadily shrinking as price growth becomes more broad based, according to Jonathan Hopper, managing director of Garrington Property Finders. ‘London and South East England remain strong hotspots, but as the rates of price rises there return to more sober levels, five of the nine English regions saw their rate of price growth rise and the East of England, powered in part by an extraordinary surge in activity in Cambridge, has the fastest growing property values,’ he said. ‘Even North East England, which was hit hardest by the slump, is now seeing price growth of nearly 2% a year. Demand exceeds supply for all but the most expensive prime property, and this is steadily forcing prices up across the board,’ he explained. ‘Despite mortgages being at their cheapest level for years, buyers are still intensely value sensitive and in some regions seller expectations have been outstripping what buyers are willing to pay. Though confidence among both buyers and sellers remains high, as the summer slowdown begins, sellers must be wary of letting their pricing ambitions run away from what the market will tolerate,’ he added. Alex Gosling, chief executive officer of online estate agents HouseSimple, pointed out that despite the rate of price growth slightly decelerating, demand has remained constant. ‘A shortage of stock during the pre-election uncertainty stilted the market, however the flurry of properties which have come on since the election's clear result have coincided with a strong return to confidence,’ he said. ‘Both sellers and buyers are trusting the market more, prompted by steady economic growth, better employment prospects and a boost in earnings. But it is worth noting that vendors may consider it to be a sellers' market, but buyers are not making the same mistakes of the last boom, as they remain sensitive to both price and affordability,’ he added. With house price growth… Continue reading
More than half a million British properties now worth over £1 million
The number of home owners in Britain whose property is worth £1 million or more has exceeded half a million for the first time, according to new research. The number of so called property millionaires now stands at 524,306, an increase of 8.3% on last year’s figure and almost 11,000 streets now have an average property value above £1 million, the data from Zoopla shows. Of the 10,958 streets with average property prices over £1 million some 43% are located in London. Areas outside the capital with the highest proportion of £1 million plus streets are all in Surrey, with Guildford, Leatherhead and Richmond housing 158, 154 and 144 respectively. At the very top end of the market, the data shows there are now 13 streets in Britain where the average house price is over £10 million, all of which are in London. Kensington Palace Gardens in W8 ranked as the country’s most expensive street overall, with homes there worth £42,591,972 on average, over 150 times the average national property value. The Boltons in SW10, where a nine bedroom detached house sold for £51 million in April, takes second place, with average property values standing at £30,288,586. Grosvenor Crescent in the exclusive suburb of SW1 rounds out the top three, with an average property price of £22,752,425. While exclusive London boroughs boast most of Britain’s priciest properties, certain areas of Surrey and Buckinghamshire have also acquired a reputation for very high property values. Virginia Water and Cobham, both in Surrey, top the towns table, with average property prices of £1,208,638 and £1,037,825 respectively. Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, where the average property value amounts to £982,660, comes in third. In terms of postcodes, W8 in Kensington, remains top of the heap, boasting average property prices of £2.77 million. Neighbouring SW7 in Knightsbridge is the next most expensive area in the capital with average values of £2.43 million, while property values in third placed SW3 in Chelsea stand at £2.24 million. ‘London continues to be the epicentre of the million pound property market in Britain but there are a number of high value property areas outside the capital, particularly in Surrey and Buckinghamshire, that are very attractive to professionals seeking to live outside yet within easy reach of the city and enjoy low crime rates coupled with good schools,’ said Lawrence Hall of Zoopla. Continue reading
Over 36% of UK home sales fall through before completion, new research shows
More than one in three house sales in the second quarter of 2015 in the UK failed to reach completion, according to new data, with the most common reason a change of mind. Figures indicate a house sale fall through rate of 36.34%, a rise of over 13.5% from the reported 22.76% rate in the first quarter of the year, according to research from Quick Move Now. The figures over a six month period show it was 24.77% at the end of the first quarter but increased to 28.44% at the end of the second quarter of 2015. ‘As the property market becomes more buoyant and an increasing number of properties become available, both sides of a property sale feel they have options if the sale is not progressing as quickly or as well as they had hoped,’ said Danny Luke, business manager at Quick Move Now. ‘Buyers are less likely to move forward with a purchase if the survey brings up surprises, and sellers are less willing to drop the price in a renegotiation, confident that they'll be able to find another buyer fairly easily,’ he added. The firm looked at the reasoning behind the fall through rate and found that across the last six months some 22% of home sales that fell through did so as a result of the buyer changing their mind, 16% as a result of the buyer being refused lending, 13% due to slow sale progress and a further 13 % due to a higher offer coming in. Some 8.7% of the house sales that failed to reach completion did so after the buyer attempted to renegotiate, 6 % fell foul to issues that were highlighted during a survey, 5.8% failed to successfully complete due to a change in the buyer's circumstances, and a further 5.8% fell through due to a chain breakdown. It also found that 4% failed to complete because the buyer decided to buy a different property, 3% broke down due to lease issues and the remaining 3% failed to complete as a result of legal complications. Quick Move Now buys and sells hundreds of properties each year and the fall through statistics are calculated monthly, quarterly and using a six month average. Continue reading
