Housing Market
News covering issues affecting the UK residential property market, house prices, interest rates and buying and selling trends.
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Airbnb makes a step closer to lettings market
The US-based home sharing website Airbnb, which enables its users to search through a database of over a million homes worldwide and 25,000 in the UK, has this week launched a professional property management software suite called Guesty aimed at professional landlords. At first glance the move would seem to contain little to worry the UK’s letting agents. Airbnb markets itself as a way for holiday makers to find affordable accommodation and avoid paying the high night rates that hotels and B&Bs charge. Described as part of the ‘sharing’ economy and using a model that’s compared with taxi service Uber, Airbnb recently claimed to have so far generated over half a billion pounds of economic activity in the UK. But what Airbnb is really muscling in on – in a way that might alarm some lettings agents – is the peripheries of the private lettings market as the service becomes a new and low-cost alternative income stream for landlords. The Guardian newspaper recently analysed more than 13,000 Airbnb listings in London – by far its largest UK market – and discovered that 6,600 of them offered an entire home or flat, rather than a spare room – a clear sign…
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Town planning expert slams Right to Buy scheme
Giving housing association tenants the right to purchase their homes will do nothing to solve the UK housing crisis but instead is aimed at targeting new Tory voters, a Birmingham City University expert has warned. Alister Scott, Professor of Environment and Spatial Planning at Birmingham City University, describe the Government’s plans to extend Right to Buy discounts to 1.3 million housing associations as a “double whammy and bad news for the provision of social housing”. The Government announced new measures in the Queen’s Speech to Parliament last week, giving tenants the Right to Buy their homes while requiring councils to sell off high-value properties and invest the proceeds into building affordable ones. But Professor Scott pointed out that history has shown that the replacements of new homes will not keep up with the losses of housing associations stock and high price stock of council housing, and that the spatial impact of where these properties are lost will be significant and will worsen the housing waiting lists. Professor Scott (right) also highlighted other Government initiatives that seem destined to fail. He commented, “David Cameron’s recent pre-election pledge for 200,000 new discounted houses is what I would call a ‘Ryanair approach to…
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PRS set to soar
The private rented sector (PRS) is expected to increase by 700,000 households to 5.5 million by 2020, accounting for one-fifth of the total housing stock in this country, according to a new report. A fresh study on the buy-to-let sector by Kent Reliance finds that the PRS now accounts for 18 per cent of all housing stock, after almost 150,000 new households were added to the PRS in the year to March. A higher number of buy-to-let investors entering the market coupled with capital growth have led to an average rise of 11 per cent in the total value of PRS property, or £97.8 billion, to £990.7 billion, with gains led by London, at £406.5 billion, followed by the South East at £147.6 billion. Andy Golding, Chief executive, Kent Reliance, said, “Buy-to-let has come of age, moving from a niche asset class to one big enough to rival the stock market. Landlords are seeing the benefit of a structural change in Britain’s housing market, with tenant demand ever strengthening. Yes, house prices are showing signs of steadying somewhat, but growth remains brisk.” If recent growth continues, the whole sector is set to be worth in excess of £1 trillion by…
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Sharp rise in new home registrations
Over 40,000 new residential properties were registered in the UK during the first three months of the year, a rise of 18 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year, the latest figures show. New house building data released by the National House Building Council (NHBC) for the first quarter of this year reveal that in total, 40,281 new homes – 30,691 private sector; 9,590 public sector – were registered. This represents a year-on-year rise of 26 per cent for the private sector, with the public sector falling slightly by just 1 per cent. In March alone, the figures show that 17,210 new homes were registered (13,068; 9,051 private sector; 4,017 public sector), up by almost a third on the corresponding month in 2014. NHBC Chief Executive, Mike Quinton (main pic), said, “Our figures show an encouraging start to 2015 with new housing registrations up 18 per cent on the first quarter of last year. Housing growth levels remain strong across virtually every part of the UK. “However, we have made clear that the UK is still building way below the volumes of homes that we need. NHBC looks forward to working with government to ensure that high quality…
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NLA slams CAB report
A new report which claims that landlords earn in the region of £5.6 billion a year from unsafe homes which fail to meet legal standards has been slammed by the National Landlords Association (NLA). The Citizens Advice study report, A Nation of Renters, says 740,000 households in England now reside in privately rented homes which present a severe threat to tenants’ health from problems like rat infestations and damp. Gillian Guy, Chief executive of Citizens Advice, said, “Rogue landlords are putting profits before safety.” The Government is planning to give councils new powers to tackle unscrupulous landlords which own homes with a category 1 hazard, as part of number of proposals to be tabled in a new Immigration Bill. The details of the Bill, which will be a central part of the new Government programme will be announced in the Queen’s speech this week. “The Government has rightly said it wants to tackle the country’s housing crisis – it must make targeting dodgy landlords, giving tenants better rights and driving up standards a major part of that effort,” Guy added. But while recognising that bad practice does exist in private housing, “and that it needs to be stamped out”, Richard…
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Post-Election housing market activity set to improve
House hunters faced with restricted choice could soon find that they have significantly more homes to choose from as the result of a post-Election surge in homes for sale, according to Righmove. The property portal is forecasting a sharp rise in the volume of residential properties set to come onto the market in the coming weeks, now that the Election uncertainty is over. In the three months after the May 2010 Election, the number of properties coming to market rose by 17 per cent compared to the previous three-month period, Rightmove said. “This is an election-driven price stall which gives some buyers only short-term relief from the back-drop of a long-term housing shortage, and many estate agents are now reporting a resurgence in interest following the surprise election result,” said Miles Shipside (left), Rightmove Director and Housing Market Analyst. He pointed out that the threat of Labour’s proposed mansion tax on homes valued at £2million-plus had “put a brake on the market”, but believes that “their removal gives a reason for a rebound in activity and prices.” Mr Shipside added, “Buyers should note that there is often a surge of property supply after an Election, as those who have held…
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Property industry welcomes new Tory Government
The Conservative victory in the General Election has been welcomed by the housing industry. It should provide welcome stability to the residential property market. Glynis Frew (left), Managing Director of Hunters Property Group, said, “We welcome a Conservative victory as this will bring some much needed stability to the property market, and from stability comes growth. We look forward to seeing the extension of Right to Buy to 1.3 million housing association homes in England, and more importantly, the introduction of 200,000 starter homes by 2020. We anticipate this will have a massive impact on the market. What’s more, the Government’s Stamp Duty reforms announced in December last year have already had a positive effect on the housing market, so we are pleased this will stay in place.” Lucy Morton, Director and Head of agency at Prime Central London estate agency, W.A.Ellis, said that her firm noticed an immediate change in sentiment from both vendors and purchasers after the election result, following months of uncertainty and the threat of Labour housing policies, including the planned introduction of a mansion tax. “A Conservative victory is a good result for the housing market, particularly in London,” she said. “As we opened for…
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Transactions fall across England and Wales
The number of residential property transactions in the three months to January fell by 18 per cent at an average of 71,090 a month compared to the corresponding period a year earlier, the latest figures from the Land Registry show. The data also reveals that the average price of a home in England and Wales dropped by 0.8 per cent in March, following several months of slowing activity. The figures, which are based on sold prices, put the average price of a property at £178,007, 5.3 per cent higher than in March last year. The month-on-month decline in property prices reflects the fact that inquiries from prospective homebuyers has fallen in recent months, while mortgage lending has dropped. Despite the overall decline in prices, two regions, London and the south east of England, did record month-on-month price increases of 0.8 and 0.2 per cent respectively. In contrast, the north east of England witnessed a 4 per cent fall. On an annual basis, double digit price increases continued to be recorded in London and the south east, but growth was far more modest in other regions, while in the north east prices fell by 2.9 per cent year-on-year. The highest property…
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Political parties set to fail on house building promises
All the major political parties are proposing to develop at least 200,000 new build homes a year if elected to power this week to help tackle the housing shortage, but new research shows that level of house building may be unachievable under existing market conditions. Knight Frank’s latest Housebuilding Report reveals that more than two thirds of residential property developers in the UK believe that it would be impossible to deliver more than 180,000 new homes a year as things stand. More than 160 respondents from house-builders and developers across the country took part in Knight Frank’s annual survey, with 67 per cent of respondents stating that the maximum sustainable annual delivery of new homes was 180,000 or less. Just 9 per cent said it was possible to build more than 200,000 residential units a year. Over half of all developers and house-builders said a rise in the delivery of affordable homes over the next year was unlikely. However, around 60 per cent expect a continued rise in the number of total housing starts and completions over the next 12 months. With a general shortage of new homes coming onto the market, 78 per cent of respondents expect new-build prices…
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Labour plans for PRS would be disastrous – NLA
Labour’s plans to cap rents, ban letting agent fees, and restrict tax reliefs for landlords who do not keep properties to basic standards could have an adverse impact on the private rented sector (PRS), according to Richard Lambert, Chief Executive Officer at the National Landlords Association (NLA). While acknowledging that Labour has tenants’ “concerns at heart”, Lambert points out that the policy will almost certainly backfire because “they don’t understand the economics of supplying private housing to rent”. The NLA’s CEO (left) insists that these changes “will have far-reaching consequences for the PRS”, and could deter many people from investing in the buy-to-let market which in turn would reduce the supply of housing stock in the PRS. He commented, “If these proposals are going to be rushed into the first Queen’s Speech, less than a month away, without time to think through the consequences, Labour’s good intentions could make the housing crisis worse, not better.” NLA research has found that around two-thirds of landlords do not increase rents during a tenancy. Lambert continued, “Capping annual price rises to inflation sounds like a great consumer protection initiative, but wherever these formulas have been introduced, it’s proved to be counterproductive because it…
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