housing market
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Housing Market
Regeneration of a leading city
Marc Da Silva discovers that there is now a very lively property market in Leeds.
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Housing Market
Prime London market peaks
Marc Da Silva discusses the complex prime central London housing market with the UK’s leading expert in residential property research.
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Housing Market
UK house prices set to rise in 2016
With record-low interest rates for at least another few months and housing supply set to remain low, the general consensus among households across the UK is that property prices will increase in 2016, albeit at a slower rate than in 2015. The latest data from the House Price Sentiment Index (HSPI) from Knight Frank and Markit Economics found that house price growth this year is expected to be led by the East of England and London, with more modest levels of price increases set to be recorded in many other parts of the UK. The future HPSI, which measures what households think will happen to the value of their home over the next year, increased marginally this month to 70.5 from 70.3 in December. This is the highest reading since June 2015, but remains below the peak of 75.1 reached in May 2014. Expectations for residential property price growth among households in the East of England hit an all-time high of 81.1, suggesting that they expect to see the highest rise in property values over the next year. Home prices in London, where an average HPSI reading of 79.1 was recorded, is also expected to outstrip the national average. In…
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Regional Reports
Belfast, North West London and Chelmsford
Each month we visit three agents across the country to discover what is happening in their businesses and local markets. This month we visit Belfast, North West London and Chelmsford.
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Housing Market
Britain’s housing stock worth £7.76 trillion
Britain’s 28.6 million homes grew in value by nearly £1.4 billion per day during 2015, says Zoopla research. Brentford and West Drayton are areas with largest increases in 2015 (24% and 17% respectively) Wales is the region with the lowest price gains over the past 12 months, at 2.2% Edinburgh, Bristol and Glasgow amongst top online property searches in 2015 Zoopla says that the country’s 28.6 million homes are now worth a combined £7.76 trillion (£7,764,650,690,201) — with the total residential stock value rising £519 billion (7.2%) over the past year. The average British property is now worth £290,827 and has risen in value by more than £20,000 (7.4%) on average in 2015 – marking a bigger increase year-on-year than 2014 (6.9%). Homeowners in London have seen the highest price growth in 2015 of any region, with an 11.8% annual uplift. The East of England follows closely with an 11.6% rise – up from 9.6% during 2014. However, property owners in Wales and Scotland saw the lowest growth in house prices in the last 12 months, with values rising just 2.2% and 2.7% respectively. Bodacious Brentford Brentford in Middlesex, Greater London finished the year with the greatest increase in property…
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Housing Market
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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Housing Market
View from the top
Each month we visit three agents across the country to discover what is happening in their businesses and local markets. This month we visit West Sussex, Salford and South East London.
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Housing Market
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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Housing Market
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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Housing Market
House prices set to rise
Residential property prices look set to increase by an average of £60,000 over the next five years, hitting more than £320,000 in 2020, according to Cebr, the Centre for Economics and Business Research. The economic forecaster expects the average price of a home in the UK to reach £263,000 this year, up 5.6 per cent on last year, but believes that the market offers further room for growth of 3.5 per cent in 2016, with further annual price rises of in the region of 4 per cent in the four years that follow. If accurate, these price hikes will take the average price of a UK home to £321,600 during 2020 – £58,600 more than the average residential property price in 2015, according to Cebr. Nina Skero, CebrEconomist and main author of the report, believes that capital growth will be primarily fuelled by a growing “reduction in the number of properties being put on the market” as a result of low levels of housebuilding, as well as other factors such as an ageing population and the rising cost of moving up the property ladder. He commented, “The price gap between a first-time home and a larger family home has skyrocketed…
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