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Buyers face an average premium of £63,000 to live in a newly built home. The property analysts TwentyCi found that people will pay an average of £316,000 for a new property compared to £253,000 for an equivalent resale property, a premium of about 25%. Paula Higgins, chief executive of the Homeowners Alliance, warned that a new house depreciated "the minute you turn the key in the door. Even in a rising property market you may not get your money back if you have to sell within a year or two." |
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A mortgage warning has been issued over the Government's latest scheme to get people on the housing market. The 95% mortgage scheme was launched last week and has been widely welcomed. However, there is hesitancy as to the effectiveness of the scheme and who it benefits. “I really think it is going to take a lot of time before the majority of people can benefit from the process.”," said Matt Coulson, Director at Heron Financial. However, while the scheme has been dubbed as a political message, Mr Coulson urged people not to reject the scheme outright if it could be suitable for them. Meanwhile, Richard Hayes, CEO at Mojo Mortgages considered the potential long-term future of the scheme. He said: “Government backing is due to end in December 2022, but you'd hope it'll leave behind a mortgage market confident in 95% again. The signs are good, with some lenders who don't have the Government-backed deals, like Accord, already doing it. |
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Mortgage lenders are taking heed of environmental concerns with 26 "green mortgages" now available to borrowers. The deals promise lower mortgage rates to those whose homes have good energy efficiency ratings - typically a band A or B on the property's energy performance certificate. Until18 months ago there were no mortgages that offered discount rates for reducing a property's carbon footprint. Now, deals are from as little as 1.13% fixed over two years from NatWest for those with 40% equity in their home. That compares to the cheapest ordinary two-year fixed rate at the same loan-to-value, which is 1.24% t available from First Direct. Some lenders provide extra incentives, too, with Foundation Home Loans offering borrowers £750 cashback. Landlords are also eligible for the cheaper deals if they can show their properties have improved energy efficiency. Jeni Browne, director of Mortgages For Business, a broker specialising in buy-to-let, says: "At 14% of the UK's total emissions, housing has a greater carbon footprint than the farming industry and nearly as much as our shops and offices. We need a mass retrofitting programme on existing, inefficient properties in the private rented sector." |
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Property owners are more likely than renters to have been vaccinated, official breakdown of uptake figures in the over-50s has shown. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that the probability of someone accepting the jab is significantly linked to ethnicity, religion, language skills, job level and housing situation. It found that the vaccination rate among homeowners is 93.7%, but falls just 84.2% for those who rent privately. It was slightly higher for people renting social housing, at 86.6%. |
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The latest phase of the redevelopment of the old London Docks is now on the property market, with apartments in the new 18-storey Saffron Wharf tower up for grabs. Architects Patel Taylor have swept away old cobwebs with new shops, bars and restaurants, 1,800 homes and public spaces just a stone's throw from the Tower of London. “We want to retain much of the rich maritime and trading heritage of this neighbourhood”, developer St George City's managing director Marcus Blake said. “This includes workspace in the old Pennington Street Warehouse”, which has been refurbished into workshops with its historic brick walls and archways. Prices at the site start from £730,000. |
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House prices have rocketed over the course of the stamp duty holiday and there is a buying frenzy as the deadline looms, reports the Sunday Times. Figures from HMRC show almost 191,000 homes were sold in March - the highest number in a single month since July 2004. But the savings from the Chancellor’s tax cut have long since been cancelled out by property price rises. The average asking price in the UK has now hit £327,797, an increase of more than £4,000 on the previous record set last October. |