Posted by admin on October 30th, 2009
British house prices are eventually higher than they were a year ago, with the first annual house price increase recorded for 19 months. This is good news for the property investment market for those waiting for property growth.
Nationwide showed new figures stating that during October, house prices rose by 2% in comparison to the same month in 2008, which shows the first annual rise since March 2008.
The monthly growth however, is beginning to slow, with house prices increasing by 0.4% in October, compared to 0.9% in September and 1.4% in August. House prices have still been slowly increasing each month since May this year.
Nationwide stated that this figure could be due to more sellers returning to the market, which creates more competition.
That said though, the average house price is now £162,038 which is still 13% lower than the October 2007 peak when average prices were £186,044.
It has been suggested that the stamp duty holiday removal at the end of this year might also have an effect on house price growth. The stamp duty threshold was extended for stamp duty being payable from £125,000 to £175,000 until the end of this year.
Posted by admin on October 29th, 2009
Data has been released by the Bank of England showing that in September mortgage approvals were at the highest level since March 2008.
There were 56000 loans approves for house purchases, nearly a 6% increase on the figure in August which was 53000. This was also above average for the last 6 months. The rise in mortgage approvals reflects the increased sales completed so far throughout 2009. Approvals for mortgages are very often regarded a good measure of short-term property market trends. This is excellent news for the property investment market as buy-to-let mortgages have proven harder to get over the last few months.
Posted by admin on October 27th, 2009
Buy to let investors are returning according to the latest figures which show estate agents reporting an increase in landlords buying investment property in the past three months.
Figures compiled by RICS showed an increase of 2% in the number of surveyors stating an increase in demand rather than a fall in property investment in the three months leading up to September.
However, investors are no longer showing interest in city centre apartments. RICS reported increased demand for houses, with 5% more surveyors reporting an increase, but there was a sharp drop in demand for apartments, with 15% of surveyors reporting a fall.
It has been added that landlords were being encouraged to shop around in the hope of picking up repossessed investment property. They had also been driven to property by fairly poor returns from other investments, such as savings accounts.
Those investors with cash to invest are at present attracted to residential property at a time when prices are low compared to the peak in 2007. This is at the time when other investment opportunities, particularly the returns currently receivable on cash deposits, are less appealing.
Posted by admin on October 22nd, 2009
It has become clear that the long-term argument over supply and demand being the main force over the UK housing prices is correct. More and more people are now agreeing that the strength in the UK housing or property investment market in particular is down to the imbalance, with far more people currently wanting to buy rather than those who are able to sell.
What makes this situation important is that many buyers are finding purchasing hard due to restricted finance in many cases. But even the downward pressure on demand isn’t enough to dominate the relative imbalance.
It is difficult to tell when supply will improve. But until it does it is difficult to tell for sure how strong the property market recovery will be.
Posted by admin on October 19th, 2009
The average house price rose 0.7% in the month of September from the month before. This was boosted by rising values at the higher end of the market giving more evidence of a market recovery, shown by a poll last week.
It has been found that the average house prices have now increased for four consecutive months, although they are down 5.9% from September 2008.
The poll showed that the average house price in England and Wales was £169,083, up £1,142 from August. But it was down £28,404 from the January 2008 peak. Average prices in Northern Ireland and Scotland were £181,178 and £159,159.
Although it is still early days for certain recovery, in the short term it is a positive sign for the market to be turning regarding the property investment industry.
Posted by admin on October 14th, 2009
The Times has reported that the FSA is to ban self-certification mortgages.
These types of mortgages allow customers to take out a mortgage without strict checks on their income, and no pressure on having to prove income. This area of the mortgage market became worth billions of pounds in the early 2000s when there was such enormous demand for mortgages.
This part of the industry has now been criticised by the financial critics and told as partly the cause for the collapse of the housing market and financial crisis.
The FSA will now be introducing a rule to make lenders get proof of income from their customers.
This is one part of the FSA’s mortgage review which is due to be published next week. The report will cover all parts of the mortgage market and set new regulations which should last for several years.
The property investment market may also be affected by these new regulations in order to obtain a buy-to-let mortgage.
Posted by admin on October 13th, 2009
Some experts have suggested that the UK interest rates will stay low for several years, as reported by the Daily Express. Mortgage holders are hoping that this will mean the mortgages will remain low for the same length of time.
The Bank of England maintained the base rate at 0.5% for the seventh consecutive month. Experts have said that it is likely to stay this low throughout 2010.
The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) has predicted the base rate will remain below 2% until 2014. It is hoped that for home owners and people with investment property will benefit from this in the way of cheaper deals being offered by banks and building societies.
If a mortgage war results from the low interest rates, that could mean a rush of offers and owners, buyers and property investment purchasers would see the benefit.
Posted by admin on October 12th, 2009
The housing market recovery in the UK has this year been strong enough to survive the usual slowdown in summertime, according to the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), is has been reported. The NAEA have said that the number of sales and new buyers registering with estate agents were higher in September than August.
They say that the figures were a source of optimism, although some say that the upturn was just a temporary respite, saying that property values may fall by about 17% as the lack of mortgages and unemployment take effect.
The NAEA also stated that the average of new house hunters registering with estate agents was 56, bring the average total to 294. The average sales in branch increased from 7.6 in August to 8.5 in September.
That said though, the number of first time buyers was down and so was the number of properties for sale. The main factor of the rising house prices has been the lack of available property at present. Although in some cases this has been an advantage to those in the property investment market as there are still some good bargains to be found.
It has been called upon the government not to end the stamp duty holiday at the end of this year in order to maintain the market recovery. Properties between £125,000 and £175,000 are currently stamp duty exempt, but this is due to change in January.
Posted by admin on October 7th, 2009
It has already been commented about the possibility of unemployment having a bad effect on house prices in the recession. But this is unlikely to outweigh the positive effects lack of supply is having on the prices.
The government is now admitting that long-term unemployment is going to be much lower than predicted resulting from this recession. Companies in the private sector helping to handle long-term unemployment were told that they should expect an average 450,000 people, but this has now been cut to 250,000.
House prices will not be pushed downwards by unemployment, and we must now await the election in order to find out what level of public sector cost reductions we will see from the winning party.
There has been talk of a 10-20% reduction in public sector spend which would put 1 million people on the dole, and if so this would have taken peak unemployment to 3.75 million. This is not going to happen to such an extent though based on previous findings.
By the time this reduction would take place , the recession would most likely be coming out the other side and employers who had to lay off staff in September 2007 are actually starting to hire staff again as business picks up again.
This is good news for the property investment industry if anyone is hoping to invest in property soon. If the economy begins to pick up, property prices should also rise consistently again.
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