Housing Market
News covering issues affecting the UK residential property market, house prices, interest rates and buying and selling trends.
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Stamp duty hikes will push up rents, says IFS
Fewer new homes will be built and rents will rise as a consequence of the hike in stamp duty on buy-to-let unveiled in last week’s Spending Review, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has predicted. The Chancellor George Osborne announced that a 3 per cent rise in stamp duty for buyers of second homes and buy-to-let landlords will come into play from April 2016, almost trebling the purchase tax on a typical £275,000 buy-to-let home from £3,750 to £10,800. Osborne believes that the new surcharge on stamp duty for landlords and those acquiring second homes will raise £1billion for Treasury by 2021. The tax change will almost certainly result in an inevitable rush of people trying to secure buy-to-let properties before April’s deadline, which could push up home prices in the short-term. But should the buy-to-let market slow thereafter, as many analysts anticipate, it may enable more first-time buyers, squeezed out by investor-driven purchasers, to buy property, but not if there is a major reduction in the construction of new homes. Stuart Adams, a Senior Research Economist at the IFS, projects that the tax increase could deter property developers, with less reason to invest, slowing down the building of new…
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Residential transactions rise again
Residential property sales in the UK have exceeded 100,000 per month for a fifth month in succession with purchasers taking advantage of low mortgage borrowing rates. The latest official transaction data from HMRC reveals that the provisional seasonally adjusted UK property transaction count for October 2015 was 105,490 residential and 10,160 non-residential transactions. However, sales still remain significantly below the monthly tally of almost 150,000 recorded at the height of the property boom in 2006. This means residential purchases in October fell month-on-month by 0.2 per cent but on a 12 month basis rose by 6.3 per cent comparedwith the 99,290 recorded in October 2014. “In October 2014, the residential market cooled slightly following a busy summer – but this year the market shows little sign of slowing down,” said Brian Murphy (left), Head of Lending at Mortgage Advice Bureau. “Demand from potential buyers remains high, with many taking advantage of the excellently priced mortgage rates available on the market,” he added. Despite a slight correction in property transactions on a monthly basis, the UK housing market remains “head and shoulders above a year ago”, as buyers take advantage of a wave of “low interest rates and attractive mortgage products”,…
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Rents fall in October
Rents across England and Wales dropped by 1.2 per cent fell in October taking the average to £806 per month, according to the latest buy to let index from Your Move and Reeds Rains. Rental price falls were led by the South East where they dropped by 2.5 per cent month-on-month, followed by the South West, down 2.1 per cent, and London where they fell by 1.1 per cent. But despite the fall in rents between September and October, they remain significantly higher than a year ago, with average rents having increased by 4.7 per cent in the 12 months since October 2014. On an annual basis, London leads the way with rents 10.7 per cent higher year-on-year, while rents increased by 8.9 per cent in the East of England and 5.7 per cent in the East Midlands. By contrast, rents in Wales are 6.7 per cent lower than a year ago. With the festive season rapidly approaching, better deals will almost certainly be made available for tenants seeking to rent later in the autumn, but there has been no huge change in the supply-demand fundamentals pushing rents higher than in previous years, according to Adrian Gill (left), Director of…
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Government Spending Review
George Osborne has today declared that he plans to “end the crisis of home ownership in our country.” Great news. To do this, The Chancellor is to double the housing budget to £2 billion a year and build 400,000 new homes across the country. “We are the builders!” yelled Mr Osborne above the parliamentary hubbub. He was talking about infrastructure when he said that, but it also applies to his housebuilding plans. A new building bonanza will be funded by public money, with developers channeled into building starter homes for hard working families (Mr Cameron’s favourite sector). The Chancellor is also mindful of the importance of ‘young hardworking families’ as he has now decided to rein back his proposed cuts to tax credits, softening the blow by delaying implementation of those deeply unpopular cuts. He is, however, capping Housing Benefit for new tenancies. The funding for housebuilding will be split into several parts; £2.3 billion directly to developers (ever thought you were in the wrong business?) to ‘encourage’ them to build 200,000 starter homes. That’s £11,500 per house. These homes are designated as being for ‘those aged under 40.’ Tough luck if you are just 41 and not yet been…
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Planning delays stifle new housing
A lack of resources within planning departments is one of the biggest reasons for the chronic housing shortages in this country, according to Linea Homes. The niche housebuilder reports that the vast majority of planning applications are being delayed by six months or more owing to what it claims is a shortage of staff and inefficient processes within local planning departments. It is estimated that around 250,000 new homes need to be built in the UK annually to help address the growing supply-demand imbalance in the market, but housebuilders will continue to fail to meet that target year-on-year owing to severe delays with planning applications that could be avoided, Gavin Sherman, Co-Owner of Linea Homes, has said. He commented, “We are not alone in experiencing severe delays with our planning applications that are complete with professional reports and are policy compliant. Local authorities are so under resourced that they simply can’t acknowledge and administer the number of applications they are receiving. Some officers only work two days a week, which makes it impossible for them to deal with the workload they are given.” A recent report compiled by the British Property Federation and GL Hearn, a property consultancy, supported Sherman’s…
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Britain is building again
The volume of new homes in England increased by 25 per cent in 2014-15, the biggest rise in 28 years, according to latest Government figures. Alterations to planning laws helped boost the number of residential properties developed through a change of use, but the main factor was a hike in the number of new-build homes completed during the year. Data from the Department for Communities and Local Government shows that a total of 170,690 homes were added to the country’s housing stock, which Communities Secretary Greg Clark said was further proof of the Government’s commitment to get more homes developed. More than 700,000 additional homes have now been delivered since 2010, supported in part by a rise in the number of commercial buildings converted into residential properties. Clark (left) said, “As a one nation government we’re determined to make sure everyone has the opportunity and security of owning a home of their own. “Today’s figures show a 25 per cent increase in the number of new homes over the past year – showing our reforms are building new homes across Britain. “We are going further and will do everything we can to help families buy a place of their own.…
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Static lending rates may fuel house prices
Residential property prices in the UK will almost certainly continue to rise next year after the Bank of England implied the first interest rate rise may not happen before 2017, according to Savills. With borrowing costs set to remain low, the company forecasts that UK home prices will rise by an average of 17 per cent over the next five years, led by gains in the South East of the country, with an increase of 21.6 per cent, while properties in the North East will appreciate by only 12 per cent over the period, Savills said. The forecasts are based on interest rates staying below 4.5 per cent, but it is now expected that the base rate may only increase to 0.75 per cent in around 2017. “If interest rates rise too quickly, mainstream house price growth will be quickly be curtailed,” said Lucian Cook (left), Head of UK Residential Research for Savills. “On the flip side, if rates remain low for too long, there is a risk that prices will rise too far, creating affordability issues further down the line.” Property prices in London, which have increased more than other parts of the UK in recent years, are expected…
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Lack of homes for sale hits profits
Countrywide, Foxtons, Savills, Martin & Co and Belvoir were among the main property firms to see their share prices fall last week amid housing market fears. The residential property market in parts of the country is taking time to recover especially in Prime Central London, where transaction levels remain at historically low levels owing to strong recent price growth and changes to stamp duty. Countrywide was one of the FTSE 250’s biggest fallers last week, with shares at one stage down 60.10p or 12.92 per cent to 404.90p, before later recovering to 412.79. Other listed estate agent firms also suffered, with Foxtons dropping 7p to 192.8p and Savills down 9.5p to 902.5p. Countrywide, which saw its annual operating profits drop 11 per cent in the nine months to September compared to the same period last year, has warned that its full-year profits are set to fall below its 2014 total of £121.1million, primarily due to a lack of homes coming up for sale after the anticipated post-election recovery in residential transactions failed to materialise. “Against the current backdrop of less than expected residential volumes, group EBITDA for the nine months to September 30 was 11 per cent below last year,”…
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Supply shortage leads to rise in rental prices
Private rents in the UK rose by the fastest rate in almost three years in September, as the severe housing shortage continued to place upward pressure on rental values across the UK. The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reveal that the cost of renting private accommodation increased by 2.7 per cent in the year to September, the biggest jump since November 2012. The biggest increases in rents were recorded in London, where prices rose by an average of 4.1 per cent year-on-year. “When people say the UK needs more homes, the true meaning is usually that London needs more homes,” said Andrew Bridges, Managing Director of Stirling Ackroyd. The increase in rental prices in the capital was almost half as much as the average rise of 2.8 per cent recorded across the rest of England, and significantly outstripped increases in Scotland of 1.6 per cent and Wales of 0.5 per cent. “For landlords and buy-to-let investors, the story has been one of consistent rental increases, with no notable dip in growth levels since 2014,” said John Goodall (left), CEO and Co-Founder of buy-to-let mortgage lender Landbay. “The big trends pushing up rents are the booming job…
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Cash buyers account for one-third of property transactions
The number of people paying in cash for properties in England and Wales has increased, according to new analysis published by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). The total volume of cash buyers rose to around one-third of transactions, fuelled largely by older purchasers who are selling off their large homes for significantly more money than they paid for them. In turn, they are acquiring smaller units with cash, leaving them mortgage-free. The research by CML shows that in the region of three-quarters of cash purchases were funded by the sale of another property. Most of the rest are paid for from savings or an inheritance. Cash buying increased across many parts of England and Wales, with the average value of a cash transaction almost identical to one funded by a mortgage. The largest proportion of purchases funded by cash is in the South West, while the smallest proportion is in London, reflecting the fact that property prices in the capital are significantly higher than the national average. London and the South West were the only parts of the country where the average property acquired for cash is more expensive than one funded by a mortgage. Within the capital, there…
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