TSI
Property prices in England and Wales up for ninth month in a row
Property prices in England and Wales increased by 0.4% in September, the ninth month in a row when values have grown, taking the average price to £284,742, the latest index shows. Year on year prices increased by 4.2% and overall average house prices across England and Wales have risen £11,500 in the last year, after 42 months of annual growth, the LSL index also shows. The London housing market moved upwards after a period of decline with its biggest monthly price rise since June 2014 at xxx and the South Est saw the strongest year on year rise of any region. The growth is primarily being underpinned by sturdy demand and solid activity at the bottom of the property ladder, according to Richard Sexton, director of e.surv chartered surveyors. ‘The most frequently paid property price across England and Wales is just £125,000, mirroring the level at which stamp duty becomes payable, and reflecting the impetus that has been injected in the first-time buyer market recently,’ he said. ‘It is also the lower to mid-range properties priced between £180,000 and £360,000 which are seeing the fastest increases in value, while the shift in stamp duty bands continues to slow growth at the higher end of the market, and prices above £600,000 are largely stationary,’ he explained. He also pointed out that a price surge in London in September has halted its stalled market. ‘As in the rest of the country, it’s the more affordably priced London boroughs which are behind this renaissance, as the strengthening of sterling, rising stamp duty rates and moves against non-doms take their toll on the high end market,’ he said. The index shows that the 10 London boroughs with the lowest average house prices all set new record highs in August, and it is Barking and Dagenham, at the very bottom of the price rankings, that recorded the fastest year on year increase in property values at 15.7%. ‘While London is once again leading the pack in terms of monthly price growth, the South East region has soared two places in the rankings to top the charts with the highest annual increase in property values. Average house prices in the South East have grown 5.8% over the past twelve months,’ said Sexton. ‘Combined, these two regions are now having a much greater influence on national measures of price growth. Compared to July, when they were only pushing up the overall annual change by 0.1%, this has grown to 0.7%. As house price growth becomes more southern-centric again, the London commuter belt is spurring some of the fastest rates of change with Luton witnessing the steepest price rise compared to last year, jumping 14.9%,’ he added. Sexton also pointed that it has been the strongest September for home sales since 2007. Monthly sales totalled 84,000, an increase of 3% from August, and making September only the second month this year in which sales have overtaken 2014 levels. Meanwhile, the… Continue reading
British women say strict mortgage rules are discriminatory
A number of women who apply for mortgages in the UK believe that they have been discriminated against by lenders because starting a family would have an impact on their finances. Getting a mortgage in the UK has become tougher since new regulations were introduced in 2014 and applicants are now asked to fill in a form detailing their monthly outgoing, including things like gym membership, and how they would fair when interest rates rise. Now new research shows that 25% of women have intentionally not disclosed plans to start a family as they fear this would lead to their application being refused and 9% said they have been discriminated against by lenders over their plans to have children. Indeed, the research from comparison website uSwitch also found that 11% would delay having a child in order to secure a mortgage while 48% save up to cover payments during maternity leave. The research also found that the pressure of disclosing information for a mortgage application is having a significant emotional impact. Some 71% of women who concealed their family plans from lenders experienced high levels of stress and anxiety during the mortgage application process. Overall 27% of women think the current affordability criteria is out of step with modern family finances and many said savings should be taken into account. ‘There is a strong feeling that mortgage lenders, rightly or wrongly, may be penalising women for starting a family,’ said Tashema Jackson, money expert at uSwitch. ‘A worrying outcome is that some female mortgage applicants are feeling forced to withhold information from potential lenders. Not only can this have severe implications in terms of invalidating any mortgage offers, but it is causing stress and anxiety for home buyers at a critical time in their life,’ she pointed out. ‘While it’s vital that lenders help people only borrow within their means and ensure they can afford future payments, it’s not fair for lenders to make blanket assumptions. Those planning a family may be able to manage their repayments even with a drop in household income, thanks to careful planning or savings,’ she explained. ‘We believe lenders should be making decisions based on a broader picture of an applicant’s financial situation, including the amount that they have in savings, rather than on assumptions about a woman’s personal circumstances or intentions,’ she added. She also pointed out that anyone who feels that they may have been discriminated against for any reason should lodge a complaint with the mortgage provider and if there is no resolution they can go to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Continue reading
Auckland property market gets boost after three cooler months
The average sales price of a property in Auckland, New Zealand increased by 1.9% in September to $836,275, the latest published data shows. The median sales price reached $790,000, a rise of 4.6%, the data from real estate firm Barfoot & Thompson also shows with the firm also reporting an extremely active month with sales up 3.4% month on month and up 41.6% compared to a year ago. Peter Thompson, managing director of Barfoot & Thompson, said that nearly a third of all homes sold were for in excess of $1 million, which is the highest number of $1 million plus homes ever sold in a month. ‘You have to go back to June this year to see a similar lift in values in one month to that we experienced in September. In part the price surge may be down to buyers getting in ahead of the new regulations around equity ratios for investors, which came into force in October, but without doubt an element of the traditional lift that comes with spring was there,’ he explained. Some 11.9% of all homes sold were properties for under $500,000. This is significantly lower than the 14.3% of sales in August in this sector or the 31.8% recorded in September last year. New listings at 1,940 were the highest in a September for 12 years, and created a reasonable level of choice, he also pointed out, which has given a boost to the residential real estate market following three months of cooling. ‘Whether September’s prices have set a trend for the remainder of the year has yet to be seen,’ said Thompson who also pointed out that new regulations for international buyers are due to come into force in November and these have coincided with a tightening of requirements around the export of money out of China. ‘In the last week of the month there was a falloff in sales made under the hammer at auctions, and there was less pressure on buyers to make immediate decisions. This end of the month development carries with it a note of caution that September’s prices may not prove to be the start of a new round of increases, and that buyer’s may not be prepared to overstretch themselves to secure a property. The future direction of prices still remains at the crossroads,’ he added. Continue reading
