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The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is urging the government to introduce an emergency stamp duty holiday to help revitalise the housing market after it came to a standstill as the COVID-19 crisis gripped the nation. Hew Edgar, of RICS, said: “The Government will need to start considering medium and long-term measures that could assist a post-pandemic housing market. As we start to emerge from this crisis, however, it is likely that the finances of potential homebuyers will be under strain, and the burden of stamp duty could put buyers off.” Edgar continues: "For those who can afford to move they may lack confidence in the market, adding to the slowdown. A stamp duty holiday could be one of the ways to reactivate the housing market quickly as a short-term measure.”
The Daily Telegraph (08/04/2020)
More than one in five millennials who had been saving for their first home are diverting the money towards coping financially day-to-day, a survey found. Some 22% of 26 to 40-yearolds who had been hoping to get on the property ladder will be dipping into their savings instead, according to the research from credit checking company TransUnion.
Daily Mail (03/04/2020) The Sun (03/04/2020)
Figures from Nationwide show that house prices rose 3% year-on-year in March, outdoing the 2.3% increase recorded in February. On a month-by-month basis, UK house prices were up 0.8% in March, compared with a 0.3% climb in February. The average house price in the UK hit £219,583 in March. Wales had the biggest increase at 6.4% in the first quarter. Prices in London rose 1%. On an annual basis in England, house prices increased by 1.9%, with regions except the North seeing price growth of between 0% and 5% - in the North prices were down 0.3%. In Scotland and Northern Ireland they rose by 0.8% and 0.7% respectively. Nationwide notes that the figures gauge the period just before the coronavirus outbreak started to impact the market, with the bank saying housing market activity is “grinding to a halt”.
The Daily Telegraph (02/03/2020) Daily Mail (02/03/2020) The Times (02/03/2020)
Following the government’s announcement that the housing market is effectively on hold due to the coronavirus, property experts have speculated on how this will affect the sector moving forward. Hansen Lu, property economist at Capital Economics, expects mortgage approvals for house purchases to drop by 70% between April and June compared with the first three months of the year. Howard Archer, chief economic adviser at consultancy EY Item Club, added that the suspension will hit the wider economy as the world plunges into recession. “Obviously, all the players involved in a house purchase – estate agents, surveyors, removal companies – will not be generating any business, while banks will not be generating any income from new mortgages,” he said. Banks are also expected to take a significant hit because they will not generate revenue from issuing mortgages. Aaron Strutt of Trinity Financial, a mortgage broker, said that even those who had agreed mortgage terms faced major problems. “We can get mortgages agreed and applications submitted, but we cannot confirm exactly when they will be offered.”
The Daily Telegraph (27/03/2020) Daily Mail (27/03/2020) I (27/03/2020)
Nearly a third of all mortgage deals have been pulled from the market in just three weeks following the impact on the industry by the coronavirus outbreak. There are currently some 3,654 residential mortgage deals on offer from banks and building societies in the UK, according to Moneyfacts – 1,585 fewer than the 5,239 deals available on 11 March, a drop of 30%. Mortgage lenders including Nationwide and Santander have blocked loans to buyers with deposits smaller than three quarters of the property's value, while NatWest and Halifax will now only lend up to 80% of a property's value to new customers.
The Daily Telegraph (31/03/2020) Daily Mail (31/03/2020)
Recent figures have revealed the strength of the housing market before the Coronavirus crisis took hold in Britain. Mortgage approvals for house purchase achieved a six-year high in February, reaching 73,500, according to the Bank of England. Approvals for remortgages also rose to 53,400 last month. Net mortgage borrowing by households was £4.0bn in February, close to the average seen over the past six months. Andrew Montlake, managing director of the mortgage broker, Coreco, commented: "Never before has such strong mortgage approvals data rung so hollow. It feels like it came from another time.”
Daily Express (30/03/2020) I (30/03/2020) The Times (30/03/2020)