TSI
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
Property prices down in Cyprus, but decline is slowing
The residential property market in Cyprus is still struggling despite the island’s economy showing signs of stability in the third quarter of 2015, with sales volumes low. Across Cyprus house prices fell by 0.5% and apartment prices by 0.4%, according to the latest index from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). The biggest drop was in Famagusta where apartment prices fell by 1.2% and in Limassol where house prices fell by 3.2% while house prices were down 0.3% in Nicosia. However, the RICS index report points out that the rate at which prices are falling has slowed in most cities across Cyprus and there were few sales overall due to the prevailing economic conditions although the volume was higher year on year. In addition certain locations such as Paphos, Larnaca and Famagusta are showing signs of stability where the housing markets are progressively bottoming out. The RICS index also shows that on a quarterly basis rental values increased by 0.3% for apartments, 1.5% for houses and 2.6% for offices while retail units saw a fall of 1.1% and warehouses a fall of 0.1%. Compared to the third quarter of 2014, rents dropped by 1.5% for flats, 0.5% for houses, 4% for retail, 2.5% for warehouses, and 0.2% for offices. Areas that had dropped the most early on in the property cycle now nearing or at the trough and Paphos and Famagusta are showing some signs of price stability. Paphos is the only place with positive returns in all asset classes when compared to the third quarter of 2014. At the end of the third quarter of 2015 average gross yields stood at 3.9% for apartments, 2% for houses, 5.2% for retail, 4.3% for warehouses, and 4.5% for offices. The parallel reduction in capital values and rents is keeping investment yields relatively stable and at low levels compared to yields overseas, the RICS report says, adding that it suggests that there is still room for some re-pricing of capital values to take place, especially for properties in secondary locations. Meanwhile, the latest monthly data from the Department of Lands and Surveys, shows that sales increased across Cyprus apart from Larnaca where they fell by 1%. Sales in Nicosia were up 64%, in Paphos up 30%, in Limassol up 28% and in Famagusta up 4%. But it must be remembered that sales volumes are low. There was a total of 463 sales contracts recorded covering residential, commercial and building plots. However the Land Registry data also shows that during the first 10 months of the year sales are up 8% compared with the same period in 2014 with 3,993 transactions completed. Continue reading
