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The UK housing market remained buoyant last month as the post-lockdown bounce continued, however experts have warned that sales are expected to weaken in the year ahead. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said its house price index shot up unexpectedly to +61 from +44 in August. According to RICS, house price growth has continued to accelerate in all regions, except for more modest rises in London. There was exceptionally strong growth in East Anglia, the South West, and Yorkshire and the Humber. Buyer enquiries, agreed sales and new listings all remained strong in September, with surveyors expecting sales to keep rising in the next three months. However, this near-term view is “becoming increasingly at odds with the longer term view”, RICS said, with surveyors seeing sales falling back next year as they expect more job losses once the furlough scheme is withdrawn. The Times looks at evidence from property professionals showing signs of the impending slowdown.
City AM (08/10/2020) Daily Mail (08/10/2020) The Daily Telegraph (08/10/2020) The Times (08/10/2020)
A property buying surge in the wake of the coronavirus crisis has sent the cost of upsizing to a record high of nearly £68,000, according to new data. Demand for larger homes has pushed up prices as Britons seek more space both inside and out. House prices have not risen equally in the market mini-boom, however, and the difference between larger properties and starter homes has increased. A growing divide has limited who can afford the traditional dream of upsizing to a house, so-called second steppers.
The Daily Telegraph (02/10/2020)
Boris Johnson has confirmed that he intends to create 2m more owner-occupiers by introducing 5% mortgage deposits for first-time buyers to transform "generation rent" into "generation buy". The pledge was one of a series of ambitious promises in the prime minister's speech to the annual Conservative conference. However, Eric Leenders, managing director of personal finance at banking trade body UK Finance, commented that, while the banking industry looked forward to working with the Government on its proposals, "firms have a duty to lend responsibly and consider the affordability of the mortgage in the long term, helping customers to avoid the risks associated with negative equity."
The Independent (06/10/2020) The Guardian (06/10/2020) Financial Times (06/10/2020) Daily Mail (06/10/2020)
Tower Hamlets Council’s strategic development committee has voted in favour of a large private housing development at the Bethnal Green gasworks, home of the world’s second-oldest gasometer. The final two remaining wrought-iron frames at the site, which held 60ft and 120ft high Victorian storage tanks, will be dismantled, restored, and reassembled around circular residential tower blocks. In total, the project will see 550 homes created in five round towers modelled on the gasometer geometrics.
East London Advertiser (27/09/2020)
Data from Nationwide reveals that UK house prices were up 5% in September compared with a year ago. This marks the biggest rate of annual growth in four years. Month-on-month, prices in September were up 0.9% on August, while quarter-on-quarter, July through September saw prices climb 1.7% compared to the previous three months. The figures show that the average house price hit £226,129 in September. In London, prices were up 4.4% in Q3, with the average price in the capital hitting a record high of £480,857. Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist, said the rebound in prices “reflects a number of factors,” adding: “Pent-up demand is coming through, with decisions taken to move before lockdown now progressing.”
The Daily Telegraph (30/09/2020) Financial Times (30/09/2020) City AM (30/09/2020)
UK monthly mortgage approvals hit a near 13-year high in August supported by the release of pent-up demand as consumers resumed spending and the government’s stamp duty holiday. Home loan approvals for August were 84,700, the highest rate of approvals since October 2007, according to the new data from the Bank of England; but the increase in approvals only partially offset weaknesses in mortgage lending in the Spring. So far this year, 418,000 mortgages have been approved, below the 524,000 approved in the same period last year. The data suggest that mortgage approvals “will remain well above trend for at least another couple of months”, said Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at consultancy Pantheon Macroeconomics.
The Times (29/09/2020) City AM (29/09/2020)