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Official figures show that the average UK house price has jumped by £24,000 in a year. The Office for National Statistics said prices rose 10.2% to £256,000 in the year to March 2021. March’s increase outpaces the 9.2% recorded in February and marks the fastest annual climb since August 2007. London saw the lowest annual price growth with a 3.7% increase, while Yorkshire and the Humber saw the biggest climb at 14%. Average house prices rose 10.2% in England, 11% in Wales, 10.6% in Scotland and 6% in Northern Ireland. The biggest increases have been seen on detached properties, as buyers sought more space in response to the pandemic. According to the ONS, the price of a detached home increased by 11.7% in the year. |
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BBC News (19/05/2021) Daily Mail (19/05/2021) Evening Standard (19/05/2021) The Times (19/05/2021) |
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Developers will face new “use it or lose it” taxes for failing to build homes on land that already has planning permission, with Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said to be considering a levy as ministers look to encourage higher rates of building. It has been suggested that housebuilders could be forced to pay full council tax on all the properties in a project from one to two years after securing planning permission, regardless of whether they have been built. The CPRE has demanded levies on developers who fail to build, with Tom Fyans, campaigns and policy director at the countryside charity, saying: “In the eye of an affordable housing crisis we need a ‘use it or lose it’ approach”. Local Government Association analysis shows that since 2010/11, around 2.8m homes have been approved for construction but only 1.6m have been built. |
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A housing developer is setting up the first Bitcoin enabled community, which he claims will soon be "the norm" in housing markets in the next few years. Managing Director at One Bequia Storm Gonsalves is planning to create the first Bitcoin community in the Caribbean where goods, services and the houses themselves could all be paid for through digital currency. The properties, ranging from £670,000 to £1.6m, can be purchased using cryptocurrencies equivalents where prices are locked in to avoid fluctuations in price during transactions. Mr Gonsalves said he is happy to be "pioneering" the technology and says other developers and countries will be watching how to replicate his successes - stating it could be a very normal thing in the years to come. "There is a lot of wealth in the cryptomarket that cannot be ignored anymore - it's just too large,” he said. |
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The number of affordable homes projects started under Greater London Authority (GLA) programmes was down by 23% last year as the coronavirus pandemic disrupted construction. Despite the decline, City Hall said the number of starts in 2020/21 exceeds the annual target agreed with government at the start of the pandemic. A total of 13,318 affordable homes were started in 2020/21, compared with 17,256 in 2019/20. A further 2,600 open-market sale homes were started under GLA programmes in 2020/21, bringing the total number of homes started to 15,918, a 24% drop on the previous year. Social rent made up the largest share of homes built under GLA programmes last year, accounting for 6,162 (39%) of the total. The number of affordable completions across the capital rose by 16%, to 9,051, in 2020/21. |
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Halifax has reported that house prices are up 8.2% in the last 12 months, increasing at the fastest pace since 2016, with the average selling price at a record high of just over £258,000. On a monthly basis, prices increased by 1.4% or nearly £3,600 between March and April. Russell Galley, the lender’s managing director commented: “The stamp duty holiday continues to add impetus to an extremely active market, magnifying the current shortage of available homes as buyers aim to take advantage of the government scheme”. He continued: “The influence of the stamp duty holiday will fade gradually over the coming months as it’s tapered out but low stock levels, low interest rates and continued demand is likely to continue to underpin prices in the market”. |
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BBC News (10/05/2021) City AM (10/05/2021) The Times (10/05/2021) |
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Britain’s booming property market is seeing record sales figures, with an average of 13 buyers for every home that gets listed, according to NAEA Propertymark. Agreed sales last month were up 57% compared with April 2019, and experts said the industry was working around the clock, while buyers were resorting to extreme measures to secure a home. Mark Hayward, chief policy adviser at estate agents' lobby group NAEA Propertymark, said: “It's quite aggressive out there. We've got instances where prospective buyers have actually followed agents in cars to properties so they can be the first in line". |