Housing Market
News covering issues affecting the UK residential property market, house prices, interest rates and buying and selling trends.
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First time buyers counting on parents’ death to get on property ladder
Young first time buyers can seem like a desperate lot sometimes as they scrimp and save for a deposit, or beg deposits off their parents. But now a new kind of desperation has set in – those waiting for their parents to die. Research by online agency TheHouseShop.com to find out which options offer younger people the best chance of getting on the property ladder discovered that only 10% are taking the traditional route of saving up. Completed by YouGov, the research found that instead many first time buyers are instead hoping to take a rather morbid short cut. Just over a fifth hoped to become home owners when their parents passed away and left them the family home, while 17% were relying on using the money left to them by their parents. Property ladder Also, another fifth were expecting to borrow money off their parents before they die, meaning that nearly 60% of first time buyers are relying on their family or parents in one shape or another to get them on the property ladder. One surprising figure from the research is that the government’s Shared Ownership Scheme is obviously seen as a strategy of last resort – just…
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Property market slowdown worst at top of market, says Rightmove
The largest houses are taking the longest to find buyers as the property market slowdown continues, it has been revealed. Rightmove’s monthly house price index reveals that across the UK properties with five bedrooms and detached four-bedroom houses are taking 76 days to sell, while in London it’s 86 days. The average time to sell across the UK for all properties is 63 days, the portal says. Property market slowdown Rightmove believes the slowdown at the “top of the ladder” is helping soften the sales market overall. In London the number of sales agreed compared to same period a year ago is down by 9%, while southern counties have experienced a dip of 7.8%. The north has fared better, Rightmove says, with a dip of just 3%. But these are only year-on-year figures – better than expected sales across the UK earlier this year means sales so far this year are ahead of 2016. “Sales agreed numbers are holding up better in the north, whilst a common factor throughout the country is the lower and middle market sectors being the most active,” says Rightmove director Miles Shipside (pictured, left) “However, where property prices have far outstripped buyers’ wages, and consequently…
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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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