Housing Market
News covering issues affecting the UK residential property market, house prices, interest rates and buying and selling trends.
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Number of people selling via online estate agents doubles, but just 19% get a sale
Read how Zoopla's State of the Nation report on the UK housing market reveals that the number of people using online agents has doubled.
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Home owners staying put for almost two decades on average
Read how research by both Barclays and Savills published over the weekend reveals the time spent in a home between moves has increased dramatically.
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First time buyers replacing landlords but market remains flat, says Nationwide
Read how the latest nationwide house price index reveals a softening price rises but a market saved by growing number of first time buyers.
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Hard Brexit will prompt property slump, says leading rating agency
Read how leading global rating agency Standard & Poor's says the UK will see house prices slump by up to 10% following a hard brexit.
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Builders are not ‘land-banking’ but their homes are too boring, says Letwin review
MP Oliver Letwin’s long-awaited investigation into land-banking by big developers has failed to find proof of the alleged practice. “The review found no evidence that speculative land-banking is part of the business model for major house builders, nor that this is a driver of slow build out rates,” Chancellor Phillip Hammond said during his budget speech yesterday. But big builders are not off the hook. The report also takes a highly critical view of the homes they build and calls for large estates to be constructed more creatively and offer a wider range of home designs. In recent years big developers have been accused by many experts and lobby groups of ‘land banking’ or ‘sitting’ on land for their own financial gain. But Letwin’s review instead points a finger at the uninspiring and ‘homogenous’ nature of the homes they built as the main culprit. His report concludes that too many developments and the properties within them look and feel the same and this makes them harder to sell – or ‘absorb into the market’, as he puts it. Greater diversity To remedy the problem, Letwin recommends that new planning rules are introduced to force site developers containing more than 1,500…
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Why did Hammond continue his attack on landlords, wonders lettings industry
Read how several senior members of the lettings industry have spoken out following the 2018 budget to wonder why Hammond hates landlords.
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Budget 2018: First time buyers given extra stamp duty exemption boost
A move to abolish the stamp duty paid by those buying homes via a shared ownership scheme for less than £500k is only major housing policy in budget.
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Hope for a housing-focused budget evaporate as Hammond so far swerves ‘broken’ market
Philip Hammond’s pre-Budget briefings have so far been largely bereft of the housing sector policies that many had expected. Only one has been revealed so far. The Chancellor says local authorities will be given powers to compulsorily purchase smaller plots from big developers who sit on them, and hand them to smaller house builders. Hammond has chosen to keep many headline-grabbing policies under wraps until his main speech in the past, but the stark lack of any major housing market policies is surprising. The government has spent much of this year promising to fix the UK’s ‘broken’ housing market including regulating the industry harder and balancing the rental market more in renters’ and first time buyers’ favour. Philip Hammond Ideas discussed in recent weeks as potential Philip Hammond voter winners include offering landlords capital gains tax-free sales if they sell their buy to let properties to a sitting tenant, and backing for Lord Bird’s Creditworthiness Assessment Bill, plus further funding and support for first time buyers. Other ideas include tax incentives for landlords who offer longer-term tenancies, a delay to – or scrapping of – the Section 24 tax relief reductions facing landlords, and an easing of stamp duty for…
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Hybrid estate agents help push down average sale fee to 1.18%
Read how hybrid estate agents and the financial crash have helped lower the average fee charged by estate agents over the past seven years.
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Housing market just about clinging on, reports Bank of England
The property market has been softening across the UK as homes take longer to sell in particular higher up the property ladder, the Bank of England has reported. Its latest quarterly assessment of the UK economy reveals fewer transactions and weaker house price inflation in many areas and a continuing shortage of stock. But the bank says that the housing market remains strongest in the north and in particularly Scotland, and that in general sales of newbuild homes are stronger than resales, helped at the lower end of the market by Help to Buy. The report also says that cheaper homes are selling best while more expensive properties are struggling, reflecting the impact of recent Stamp Duty changes on the housing market. “Some house builders reported slightly weaker demand and the need for greater use of incentives, especially for higher-priced properties,” the report says. The Bank of England also says the rate at which new homes are being built slowed in some regions, although the construction of homes for the student market remains strong. It also says sales of new cars, white goods and homewares have weakened significantly, which the bank blames in part on reduced housing market activity. “In…
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