Housing Market
News covering issues affecting the UK residential property market, house prices, interest rates and buying and selling trends.
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Housing market continues to cool
The residential property market continued to slow in December, as lower demand led to the slowest rate of property price growth since the start of 2014. The annual rate of growth slowed to 7.8 per cent, which is 2.4 per cent lower than the high witnessed in July, and the lowest since the 7.3 per cent of January 2014, the latest data from mortgage lender Halifax reveals. The quarterly rate of growth has now fallen for five months in a row, with prices in the three months to December just 0.3 per cent higher than in the previous quarter, the lowest rate of quarter-on-quarter growth since November 2012. Halifax’s figures act as a further indication that the housing market may be far more muted in 2015. Halifax estimates that house prices will rise this year by between 3 and 5 per cent, which would be around half the rate of growth seen in 2014. “The deterioration in housing affordability as a result of rising house prices, earnings growth that has been consistently below consumer price inflation until very recently, and speculation of an interest rate rise, have combined to temper housing demand since the summer,” said Martin Ellis (left), Halifax…
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Scottish rents soar
Scottish rents rose sharply in 2014 as the market continues to see a definite trend for rented property in Scotland, new figures show. With many people struggling to raise the necessary savings required for a deposit to buy a property, they are opting to rent property instead, driving rental prices higher in the process. According to the latest Citylets report, figures to the end of December 2014 show that national rents have risen 7.9 per cent in the last year to stand at an average of £732 per month. This contrasts with just one per cent growth in the preceding year. The Scotland figure is heavily influenced by strong annual rises in three of the country’s main cities with Edinburgh at 9.5 per cent, Glasgow at 9.4 per cent and Aberdeen at 8 per cent. By contrast, Dundee registered a rise of only 3.2 per cent over the year. The fourth quarter of the year is usually the quietest time for lettings activity where seasonal falls are common. However, this year’s dip in average national rents was only £4 down from the country’s record high of £736 seen in Q3 of 2014. Commenting on the latest findings, Citylets MD, Thomas…
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Property shares nosedive
Share values across the property sector have dropped in recent days amid growing signs that the residential property market is slowing, especially in previously buoyant London and the South East. Countrywide, the country’s largest estate agent, saw its shares drop by 2.9 per cent late last week, while Rightmove and Zoopla’s share prices fell by 3.7 per cent and 2.5 per cent respectively. House builders also failed to escape unscathed from a raft of recent property reports and house price indices that suggest that it is fast becoming a buyer’s market as the market cools. Developers listed on the FTSE 100, such as Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon and Barratt, all saw their share prices depreciate by more than 4 per cent at the end of last week, with further falls anticipated by some market analysts. Stockbroker Jefferies, for instance, last week downgraded the entire residential property sector, projecting that London and the South East may see property price falls in the months ahead. A research note from Anthony Codling, Jefferies’ property analyst, which was made public last week, suggested “share price weakness in the UK residential sector” in the first quarter, on the back of “negative newsflow on UK mortgage approvals,…
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Is there any value in a mansion tax?
It has been more or less been killed off by the Chancellor's new Stamp Duty regime - but did the mansion tax ever have much currentcy?
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