The demand for rural property has soared and continues to beat record levels according to a report from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. The average price of rural commercial land and dwelling including farms has seen stellar performance over 2011 with an acre of land rising by an incredible £6,514 in the second half of 2011 alone. The simple economics of supply and demand continues to push up land values. The predictions for this year are equally good as the supply of stock coming to market stays low, with prices rising at this speed many are hanging on for maximum sales prices. It has also been noted that demand for residential property in green belt areas remains high and competitive but these properties are less lightly to see such gains. They still compete with other residential property markets with are more constrained by the lack of suitable mortgage funding.
US housing market out perform economists forecasts
February 24, 2012
There is increasingly evidence of a stabilisation of the housing market in the US with purchases of new builds at a one year high. The increase is seen as a result of improving labour conditions coupled with a general improvement in the US economy. The supply of homes for sale in the US is at its lowest rate since 2006. Those that forecast London prices use the US and auction results as two of their key performance indicators for their predictions of the UK housing market. This will be welcome news to the UK’s house builders and land agents many have been stuck with marginal land and stock. They are waiting for the market to recover before building out potential development sites.
House sales halved from 2007
January 30, 2012
Things are improving slightly up from the record lows of 2009 when only 848,000 properties changed hands. The three most restraining factors on transaction volumes and house prices are the usual suspects a lack of suitable mortgage finance, unemployment and consumer confidence. Both new build and normal sales are subdued because there are limited new houses and a lack of confidence that existing home owners will achieve the sale figures they want. The council of mortgage lenders is predicting further falls in lending this year which ultimately will lead to further falls in transaction volumes.
HSBC pledges 15 billion to UK mortgages market
January 19, 2012
Last year the HSBC lent approximately 6.7billion to home owners so this represents a large increase, which could tempt other lenders to compete. The new money to the mortgage market is thought to be enough to help a further 150,000 home buyers. The new funding promise will defy economists who have remained pessimistic about the future of the UK property funding market. It is thought that at least 3billion of this property funding will be reserved for first time buyers. This come at a time when many mortgage brokers are expecting a sizable increase in interest from first time buyers.
Gap widens as prices in the North head South
January 17, 2012
Rightmove has put the fall in UK house prices at 0.8% and even more alarming is the dramatically low levels of transaction volumes. These are currently running at their lowest level since rightmove records began. The interest in property buying is defiantly there as rightmove reports a 27% increase in searches in the same period last year. This gives a search level above 44million, since records began in rightmove these are the highest ever seen. With London prices jumping 6 percent in the previous 12months the gap is getting bigger.
House prices dropped just shy of 2% in 2011
January 5, 2012
London was the only place to see house prices continually rise through 2011 but nationally we witnessed a 1.9% drop in the average house price in England and Wales over the year. This left the average UK house stumbling around the £160k figure. Interestingly as the average London house price increased it exceeded the £340k mark, will it make £350K in 2012? So was there any good news for the rest of the UK? There were two interesting items in the land registries figures one the highest monthly price rises were in the North east at a impressive 1.4% and the number of completions in September hit a 6% increase on the previous year.
Tenants get poorer as home owners pay less to live
January 2, 2012
Tenants are paying more in rent than their home owning counterparts are paying in mortgage payments. This come as little shock too many as interest rates stay at these historic lows and rent inflation soar skyward. At the beginning of 2011 it was cheaper to buy a home than rent in 80% of the biggest towns and cities. During 2011 the figure jumped to 94% this is a depressing statistic for those stuck in rented accommodation by the mortgage drought. With banks and big lending institutions happily rebuilding their capital reserves and balance sheets things look unlikely to change direction soon.
Vendors get jumpy before Christmas?
December 17, 2011
In November asking prices for houses coming to market have reduced by over 3% this takes the average asking price of property down by a over seven thousand pounds. This fall in asking prices in real terms has been the largest that Rightmove has seen since 2007 and the start of the economic down turn. Many blame the situation with the Euro as a key reason that sentiment and there for house prices are taking a turn for the worst. All this tailored with a 13% reduction in new vendors really highlights the population’s new aversion to large financial decisions and commitments.
Investment bankers look to lend to investment property mortgage specialists
November 20, 2011
The third quarter of 2011 has seen an increase in the number of loans to landlords by 16 percent. Interestingly this quarter has also seen investment banks looking to lend to the mortgage lenders who specialise in the buy to let market. The investment funds passed to these mortgage lenders has increased by 19 percent. This gives a clear indication that organisations and individuals that are best placed to predict the future of the buy to let property market are rapidly gaining confidence in the market. The 3.2 billion pounds that has been lent into the buy to let residential housing market is the highest level of investment funding hitting the market since the previous boom.
Mortgage market stabilises at new low levels
November 14, 2011
A report from the Council of mortgage lenders has shown that over 48000 mortgage loans totalling over seven billion pounds where secured in September. Good news was that first time buyer’s loans raised by one percent in September with an increase of five percent over the year even those this was from a historic high. A further encouraging figure showed a fall in the size of deposits with an average of twenty percent deposits compared to a twenty four percent deposit in September of this time last year. This coupled with lower purchase prices is increasing the purchase power of buyers.
