house prices
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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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Latest property news
Rightmove tells agents: Get the price right to sell homes quickly
Following last week’s report from Which? on overpricing homes, Rightmove says that agents must get the price right to avoid deterring price-sensitive buyers. Rightmove reports that the price of property has increased by just 2.0 per ent (+£5,986), the smallest price rise at this time of year since February 2009; well below the average +5.0 per cent February uplift over the previous seven years. This contributes to a further slowing in the pace of price rises, with the annual rate of +2.3 per cent being the lowest since April 2013. Miles Shipside, Rightmove director said, “While the prices of goods in shops are rising at a faster rate, the pace of price rises in property coming to the market is slowing. They’re still 2.3 per cent higher than a year ago, but perhaps we’re approaching the territory where many buyers are unable or unwilling to pay what sellers are asking, given the negative combination of rises in the cost of living, tighter lending criteria, and a dose of Brexit uncertainty. The housing market has had a long sprint since April 2013 when the annual rate was last below this level, so it’s not surprising that upwards price pressure is running on tired legs…
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Resources
House prices and sales hold steady
Designs on Property tracks and summarises the monthly property indices. Kate Faulkner says, “It’s time for agents to be the ones that inform and educate on local property markets.”
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Latest property news
Number of property sales rise in August by 5.2%
The August Land Registry figures just out reveal that the number of residential properties sold in England and Wales increased between July and August by 3,353 sales or 5.2%. This chimes with recent mortgage figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders, which revealed that £22.5 billion was lent in August, a rise of 7% on July’s figure and an increase of 15% on the year before. The number of houses sold in August compared to July increased across the board including detached, semis and terraces although the number of apartments that were sold decreased, albeit by only 400 properties or 2.3%. But the prime market is clearly showing signs of weakness, the figures reveal, as George Osborne’s Stamp Duty increases kick in for higher-value properties. The number of homes sold for over £1m decreased from 581 in July to 552 in August while the decline in London was more marked. There sales of homes over £1m dropped from 339 to 297 during the same period. The data release by the Land Registry also shows the breadth of the market. The most expensive sale during August was a terraced property in Westminster, central London, at £25.5 million while the cheapest homes were…
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Uncategorised
How long does it take first time buyers to save up?
Shocking figures just out reveal that it takes five and a half years for the average couple to save up for a deposit while it takes singleton savers ten years. The data from the London market is even more hair-rising. There, couples are taking on average nine years to save up a deposit while single savers require 14 years, says Hamptons International. This is despite recent help for from the Bank of England, which announced a cut in interest rates in early August. This has been passed on by lenders in recent weeks including to first time buyers (FTBs) and, if they shop around, rates for ‘discounted mortgage’ products can be found for under 3% while several two-year fixed rates are available at 3.5%. Overall, August’s 0.25% cut to interest rates, if fully passed on, mean that mortgage payments could on average be £244 a year lower for the average first-time buyer home in England and Wales. In London, the agent says, mortgage payments would be £518 lower. But despite the long wait to gather a deposit, enthusiasm for property ownership is not waning; figures from the National Association of Estate Agents show that the number of sales to FTBs has…
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Housing Market
Post Brexit vote market is still buoyant…but only just
The number of properties on the market has increased by 1% since the Brexit vote but the number under offer has dropped by 2.5% and national asking prices are down by 2% reports Jackson-Stops & Staff. The agent has given its verdict on the post-Brexit vote market after looking at 500,000 properties for sale across the UK. “Three months after the UK’s historic vote to leave the EU, the property market remains alive and active [and] there are more properties on the market today than on the day of the Brexit vote,” says chairman Nick Leeming. Predictions during the EU referendum of a bloodbath in London after the Brexit vote have proved to be inaccurate, the JSS research suggests, as it reveals that asking prices in the capital are down by only 3% since mid-June and that “properties priced below £1m are still seeing high levels of interest”. London’s £2m+ prime market is in less good shape. Only 7% of properties in this price bracket are under agreed offer compared to 36.1% nationally, the JSS research reveals. Leeming says this is down to a range of factors including reduced confidence in the prime property following Brexit and the increased Stamp…
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Latest property news
Summer in the cities
The Hometrack UK Cities House Price Index has found that annual house price inflation plateaued at 10.2 per cent in June, the same level as May 2016, but still ahead of 6.9 per cent growth seen in June 2015. Bristol remains the fastest growing city in the UK with a year on year growth rate of 14.7 per cent, but year-on-year house price inflation in London and in other cities in the south of England, such as Cambridge and Southampton started to slow between May and June 2016. Conversely, large cities in northern parts of the UK such as Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds have registered strong growth in the last quarter on the back of more affordable prices, lower interest rates, improving local economies and higher yields making purchases attractive to investors. For all cities in England and Wales, excluding London, new listings have grown 10 per cent faster than the 12 month average, this rises to over 15 per cent in London. In contrast is an 8 per cent relative fall in sales in London i.e. 8 per cent fewer homes sold per month in the last 3 months compared to the 12 month average. Richard Donnell, Insight…
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Latest property news
Chill wind across the property market
Countrywide, Zoopla, Crest Nicholson, Persimmon and Berkeley all hit by falling share prices.
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Regulation & Law
Introduce CGT on homes, says thinktank
The Government is being urged to consider introducing capital gains tax (CGT) to help prevent house prices from spiralling out of control. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) believes that the levy would help deter people from investing in property, helping to restrict overall demand from buyers and keep property prices at bay. Angus Armstrong, a Senior Economist at Niesr, told the press, “A first priority must be to improve the taxation of housing. An efficient tax system would be consistent across assets and leave the decision about how much to consume today versus save and consume tomorrow unaffected. “If a capital gains tax were introduced, this would reduce the gains in an upturn and losses in a downturn, so dampening house price cycles. These ideas are unfortunately in the opposite direction to recent policies.” The thinktank also urged the Government to stop relying so heavily on the private housebuilding sector to help solve the widening supply-demand imbalance in the market, as it could never meet the demands for housing.” The latest figures show that the number of new homes registered across the UK hit an eight year high of 156,140 in 2015, up 7 per cent…
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