house prices
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Latest property news
Is the Brexit effect on the property market beginning to wear off?
The Halifax says Declines in activity are beginning to ease off although despite high employment prices have been starting to soften.
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Latest property news
Agents should stick to lettings and selling flats, suggests Nationwide research
Estate agents should focus on both the lettings sector and selling apartments, according to Nationwide, as the overall sales market continues to show few signs of revival. The comments are published in its latest house price index covering May’s housing market. Overall it reveals a continuing “trickle” of properties coming on to the market and subdued buyer interest. The average house price now stands at £213,600, a 2.4% increase on the same time last year, the index shows. “Subdued economic activity and ongoing pressure on household budgets is likely to continue to exert a modest drag on housing market activity and house price growth this year, though borrowing costs are likely to remain low,” says Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s Chief Economist (pictured). “Overall, we continue to expect house prices to rise by around 1% over the course of 2018.” But several trends picked up by Nationwide should make interesting reading for agents. The UK’s rental sector is to continue expanding despite increased taxes for landlords helping persuade more of them to quit the market over the past year, it says, and that apartments are set to represent an ever greater proportion of the nation’s housing stock. Nationwide’s research confirms that the…
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Latest property news
All rise: haart reports February market surge
Instructions, viewings, transactions, new buyers, house prices, rents, new tenants and purchasing landlords all rose in February 2018, with 15 buyers chasing every property for sale.
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Latest property news
Stamp Duty changes to blame for 14% dip in property sales volumes says Your Move
The changes to Stamp Duty ushered in by George Osborne in 2014 have reduced property sales in London and the South by up to 30%, analysis of Land Registry data has revealed. The number of homes sold each year has plummeted by nearly a third in London and by 20% in the South over the past two years, according to the monthly Your Move/Acadata house price index, although the sales volume reduction has been less acute nationally, at 14%. These figures are also very different across the UK. For example, in the northern regions the volume reduction is just 11% while in Wales the number of homes sold increased by 2%. “The slowdown in London can now also be seen in the South East. Time will tell if the rest of England and Wales remains resilient,” says Oliver Blake (pictured, left), Managing Director of Your Move. His company’s index reveals one silver lining and potentially brighter times ahead for agents. The Christmas/NY shutdown for 2017/18 did not depress sales volumes as much as it usually does during the festive season. “We estimate that the number of housing transactions [during] January 2018 in England and Wales at 64,000, down by 15%…
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Latest property news
House prices to rise by just 1% this year, says leading lender
House prices will rise by just 1% this year, the latest house price report from the Nationwide reveals, returning to growth only in the “the longer term”. The lender says the average house price increase last year was 2.6%, down from 4.5% during 2016 as housing affordability problems and mounting pressure on household incomes continued to put the brakes on activity within the property market. Despite this, during 2017 all regions of the UK experienced house price gains except London, where they dipped by half a percent. “The major surprise during 2017 was undoubtedly the slowdown in London house prices. It’s been 13 years since the Capital sat at the bottom of the house price growth table, and since then we have seen prices surge to unprecedented and unaffordable levels,” says Alex Gosling, founder of HouseSimple.com (pictured, left). “Fortunately, there’s no longer the reliance on the London market to prop up the rest of the country. Growing regional business hubs have seen other major UK cities prosper, while London has suffered as property prices have become unaffordable for the majority. The West Midlands was the top performing region in the UK last year for house prices, where they rose by 5.2%…
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Latest property news
Property sales rising across UK, helped by London
Estate agency chain Your Move says the number of property sales during November increased by 4% year-on-year and that the average price in the UK is £300,859, an increase of 0.9% year-on-year. The company says London has seen some of the most dramatic increases in transactions. Within the two most expensive boroughs of the capital property sales have increased by 28% on average recently (Westminster, Camden) and by 23% within Kensington and Chelsea. “It seems momentum is returning to sales in prime central London,” the company says. Its monthly report on the housing market, which is produced by Cambridge University Economics Fellow Dr Stephen Satchell, also reveals an improving overall picture for the market – the first time the dials have begun to twitch upwards since the EU Referendum vote. The improvement in transaction levels and house prices is being driven by what it calls an “easing” of the problems within the London property market, which has helped drag the rest of the UK’s results downwards in recent months. New Year property sales Your Move,which is owned by corporate giant LSL, also says the company is positive about the New Year because the Chancellor’s recent Stamp Duty and Help to…
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Features
House price growth is failing to keep up with inflation, says expert Kate Faulkner
Designs on Property tracks and summarises the monthly property indices. Kate Faulkner says, “Property has, in the past, been seen a ‘sure-fire’ earner with some people earning more in a year from their home than from their wages. Now it’s failing to keep up with inflation.”
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Features
Stop obsessing about London’s house price problems
Daniel Owen-Parr, Commercial Sales Director at Together says, “As long as there is a housing shortage we will have continuing demand for rented homes.”
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Resources
House price myths debunked
Designs on Property tracks and summarises the monthly property indices. Kate Faulkner says, “The average age of a first time buyer today is hardly that different from 2003, 14 years ago, even in London!”
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Features
What’s really happening to house prices?
House price reports What’s really happening to house prices? Jeremy Leaf endeavours to make sense of the various property market surveys.
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