Housing Market
News covering issues affecting the UK residential property market, house prices, interest rates and buying and selling trends.
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Rampant growth of build-to-rent sector revealed by British Property Federation
Homes built grew by 30% over the past 12 months, will reach 200,000 by 2020 and has the backing of the government and planners.
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Public concern over ‘broken’ housing market highest since mid-1970s
Research by pollster Ipsos MORI reveals middle class in South East and Scotland most worried by problems with issue.
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Former housing minister Mark Prisk to headline ombudsman gathering
One of David Cameron’s former housing ministers Mark Prisk is to make his first keynote speech about the industry since he left stepped down. Mark was in post for a characteristically short time for a recent housing minister, although longer than last year’s Alok Sharma, holding office for 11 months from September 2012 to 2013. He is to make his speech at The Property Ombudsman’s annual conference this summer which is to be held at Birmingham’s National Conference Centre in Solihull on June 13th. The event will focus on how to raise standards within the industry. Mark, who is a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and was arguably one of the more thoughtful and better-qualified Tory housing ministers of recent times, will be joined by BBC business journalist and TV presenter Declan Curry, consumer champion and newspaper columnist James Walker, Ryan Hampson from Brief Your Market and Rob Symes, Rightmove’s lettings innovations boss. “Mark’s previous role as Housing Minister and current membership of the Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee, Declan’s work for the BBC and James’ experience in helping millions of consumers get their problems sorted, makes them great assets to the conference,” says…
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Purplebricks blames slow start to Spring market on weather, training and economy
Purplebricks has hit its first purple patch after it was revealed today that group revenues for the financial year are likely to be 5% lower than its target of £98 million. In a statement released this morning, the company says a difficult few weeks during late February and early March are to blame for the drop in performance, although Purplebricks says overall group cashflow is on track to be double that of last year’s, helped by good performances from its US and Australian operations. It blames the slowdown on “macro issues” within the economy – presumably the ongoing Brexit jitters – plus the ‘Beast from the East’ storm and the fact that 10% of its LPEs were withdrawn from the market for a training course during late February and early March. These factors drove down sales instructions by 17% during the first three weeks of this month year-on-year, Purplebricks reveals. New instructions “While Purplebricks has experienced strong growth in its UK division to date and it continues to build market share in both the total estate agency market and hybrid estate agency sector in the UK, it has experienced lower than expected levels of new instructions for the Company during…
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All rise: haart reports February market surge
Instructions, viewings, transactions, new buyers, house prices, rents, new tenants and purchasing landlords all rose in February 2018, with 15 buyers chasing every property for sale.
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Savers investing an average of £25 a week in ISAs
Millennials surprisingly engaged in regular investment, but will it build a deposit to buy a home?
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Mortgages at their most affordable for 10 years, says Halifax
Halifax announces best home loan affordability for a decade, with borrowers spending less than a third of their disposable income on mortgage payments.
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64% of London tenants still target homeownership
Latest measure of confidence and intent shows two thirds of London’s private tenants still want to own their own home, despite confidence dip.
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Strong home mover demand pushes up average asking price by 1.5%
Newly marketed properties in the UK have risen by an average of £4,503 says Rightmove, with prices highest in the first timer and second stepper sectors.
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Spring Statement: Hammond reveals where taxpayers’ billions are being spent on extra homes
Philip Hammond updated MPs during his Spring Statement today about the government’s progress towards building more homes in the UK and revealed where and how part of the £44 billion committed to the effort is now being spent. This includes £4.1 billion being distributed to 44 “forward thinking” local authorities via the government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund to help build more homes, and that £220 million is to be spent on supporting small house builders. Also, London is to have £1.67 billion to spend on 27,000 additional affordable homes by 2020/21. First time buyers The Chancellor also said that 60,000 first time buyers had been helped on to the property ladder so far by his Stamp Duty changes in last year’s Autumn Budget, which abolished the duty for homes bought by first timers under £300,000. Philip Hammond also referred to the work of Oliver Letwin MP, who is leading a government investigation into why it takes so long for homes to be built. House building delays In a letter deposited in the Commons Library, he reveals that his initial investigations blames the ‘build out’ stage rather than land banking, which many affordable homes campaigners believe is the real culprit. Instead, Letwin…
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