Housing Market
News covering issues affecting the UK residential property market, house prices, interest rates and buying and selling trends.
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Backlash against second homes gathers pace in the South West
The backlash against second homes continues after campaigners within the village of Mevagissey in Cornwall submitted plans to block outsiders buying new-builds to use as holiday homes in the picturesque fishing port. The move follows the Chancellors move in his Autumn budget two years ago to increase Stamp Duty on properties bought as second homes by an additional 1%, and three other villages and towns which have also introduced new-build bans. In Cornwall these include – most famously – the coastal community of St Ives but also St Minver and Rame Peninsula, and Lynton in Devon. In a recent poll of Megavissey residents by the county council, 56% said they didn’t want to see any more housing within the parish, 74% said they would support restricting the number of holiday or second homes being bought within the village, with only 16 opposed to such moves. Development plan In Mevagissey locals have included the new rules within the village’s Neighbourhood Development Plan or NDP, which must be then approved by Cornwall Council. Holiday homes make up a quarter of the village’s property market, and its average price according to Rightmove is £299,587, nearly £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000,…
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Former NAEA leader says housing White Paper is “toothless” and answer is to reform CGT and Stamp Duty
A leading industry commentator and past president of the NAEA has written to the new housing minister Alok Sharma (pictured, below) outlining his concern about the state of the property market and the government’s stalled attempts to tackle it. Within the letter Simon Gerrard (pictured, right), who runs north London agency Martyn Gerrard, accuses Theresa May’s government of not taking housing seriously. He also says the recent “toothless” White Paper is another example of the many speeches and papers in recent years that have come to nothing. “Whilst [the White Paper] made the right noises, a lack of active and transformative policy means we cannot fight the growing challenges facing our housing market,” the letter says. Simon’s missive comes just days after the Housing minister made his first major industry speech at the Resi 2017 conference at the Celtic Manor hotel in Wales, at which he promised to turn the White Paper “into action”. But Simon says that despite the Minister’s promises, he fears the government demonstrates a chronic lack of understanding of the market, and how to effectively fix it and that like many of his predecessors, Alok is good at producing sound bites, but not tangible actions. “I…
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Too good to be true? Rightmove says sales up 5% across UK
The number of homes sold in the UK during September is nearly 5% higher than last year, latest research from Rightmove reveals. The portal also says people’s earnings are now rising faster than house prices rises, the first time this has happened since the early noughties. Rightmove’s monthly house price index says “demand remains strong for the right property at the right price” but that prices are rising by 1.1% on average across the UK, the lowest annual rise since February 2012. The portal says the average price for a home in the UK during September is 313,663, down from £330,003 in August and a 1.2% drop despite the overall annual rise. It’s part of a trend that has included drops in price or very weak increases since June. This trend bucks the usual post-Summer bounce that the property market enjoys as buyers and sellers stimulate the market after their return from holidays and activity ramps up. Damp squib Rightmove blames this“damp squib” Autumn market on London’s faltering performance, where prices dropped by 2.9% during September, although prices have been falling month-on-month elsewhere including in Wales (-3.3%), the South West (-0.7%) and the West Midlands (-1.3%). London is the only…
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So that’s why sales are slowing down! Brits now move home every 23 years
The time gap between people moving home has increased from nine to 23 years since the late 1980s as high house prices have made moving up the property ladder more expensive, research by market analyst Hometrack has revealed. This may explain why property transactions have not recovered their pre-financial crisis crash. Before the global banking meltdown approximately 120,000 properties were sold each month, a figure which is currently running at just under half that number, according to latest Land Registry figures. Scottish movements Hometrack, which was purchased by ZPG recently, says the average Brit moves home every 22.7 years. Those in Scotland are the most frequent home movers, changing address every 19.6 years followed by the South West at 20.6 years and the East of England at 20.9 years. The Welsh are the most reluctant movers, changing home every 26.8 years on average. Residents in Powys, mid-Wales only move home once every 33.1 years, the data shows. On a very local level, Midlothian in Scotland, which covers the area south of Edinburgh between East Lothian and the Scottish Borders, is where people move home the most frequently, or every 14.9 years, five years faster than the rest of the UK.…
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Holding deposits to be excluded from letting fees ban, confirms Minister
Announcement comes during wide-ranging debate in Commons this morning led by former Hunters boss Kevin Hollinrake MP.
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Newsflash: Sadiq Khan to bring in longer tenancy agreements for Londoners
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is to tackle London’s housing crisis with a ‘new deal’ for renters including longer tenancies called the ‘London Model of renting’, it has been announced. The initiative, which will be part of the Mayor’s new Housing Strategy, will see tenants and landlords brought together to create the new concep. This is likely to include longer tenancies to create a more “stable, family-friendly sector” and see an end to six and 12-month Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreements that currently dominate the sector. A statement released today says that: “the Mayor wants a better deal for the increasing numbers of Londoners who live in the private rented sector, with the aim of creating a modern, fit-for-purpose and high quality housing option for the millions of Londoners who rent…where the legitimate rights of landlords are protected too”. Tenancy agreements Figures quoted by Khan’s office reveal that a quarter of all Londoners live in the private rented sector, and increase of 200% since 2004, and that the current legal framework for tenancies were introduced almost 30 years ago. Khan says that with a standard tenancy length of just six to 12 months, renters face high rents and little guarantee of…
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Build to Rent landlord takes deposits and rent in Bitcoin
A co-living housing development in London says tenants can now pay their £500 deposit using the controversial crypto-currency Bitcoin and will also be able to use it to pay their rent later on this year. This will make The Collective, which is an 11-storey 550-unit development in North Acton, the first in the UK to enable tenants to make payments with Bitcoin. Launched in 2009, Bitcoin was the world’s first digital currency and works without a central administrator or ‘bank’. Instead, those using the currency download software onto their computers and then use the currency to buy products or services ‘peer-to-peer’ with other users. The currency enables money to be moved around the world undetected by central banking or tax authorities and has therefore faced allegations of misuse, including by organised crime, cyber hackers and tax evaders. Bitcoin Build to Rent The currency has been chosen by The Collective at its recently-completed Build to Rent development called Old Oak because, it says, Bitcoin is the payment platform of choice among many of its overseas tenants. Old Oak charges on average £1,083 a month for a small ‘twodio’ one-bedroom apartment (pictured, below) for a couple which includes a private bathroom but…
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London mayor asks TfL to start building homes
Khan says transport quango has the land on which it should start building affordable homes for the Capital.
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London lettings showing “green shoots” says Foxtons
Foxtons says demand for rental properties in the London lettings market increased during the second quarter of the year, helping offset ongoing drops in rents. The company says in its latest lettings report that this is evidence of “stabilisation” within the market, which has witnessed decreasing average rents for six months now. “While this might not appear to be a significant increase, it comes against a backdrop of decline, suggesting that green shoots are starting to appear,” says Ed Phillips, Foxtons’ Managing Director of Lettings (pictured, below). The number of renters looking for property who are registered for each rental property offered by Foxtons’ branches increased by 3.3% during the second quarter of the year. But rents continue to decrease across many parts of the London lettings market, for several reasons. This includes the glut of properties created by the rush to buy properties before the extra Stamp Duty was introduced in April last year. Also, several large build-to-rent schemes have gone live in the capital this year, including the 1500-unit in the former Olympic Village. Zoned in Foxtons says the reason for this growth is an increase in demand for properties within London’s central Zone 1 and Zone 2…
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Rent should be added to a tenant’s credit history, say landlords
Nearly two thirds of landlords support tenants being allowed to add rental payments to their credit history, according to the Residential Landlords Association (RLA). It canvassed 3,000 of its member landlords of whom 61% said they supported such a move. Following the survey’s result, the RLA says it is writing to the Government calling on it to work with the industry to include rent payment history as a standard feature when calculating credit scores. “With many tenants wanting to buy a house of their own, it is absurd rent payment is not routinely included when undertaking credit checks for mortgage applications,” says RLA Chairman Alan Ward (pictured, left). “Moving to such a scheme would help not just tenants, but also landlords by giving them a clearer sense of whether a prospective tenant has historically paid their rent in full and on time.” The RLA is not the first out of the trap with a campaign. In March this year Jamie Pogson (pictured, below), a young self-employed builder and dad from Plymouth started a parliamentary petition after struggling to get a mortgage after realising he had a poor credit history. His petition took off and amassed 145,000 signatures – enough to…
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