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Mortgage approvals reached record low levels last month, the latest Bank of England figures reveal, with around 9,300 new loans approved in May, down from 15,900 in April and 90% since February. Approvals for remortgages with a different lender dropped to 30,400 in the month, down 42% on February’s total. However, net mortgage borrowing picked up to £1.2bn in May, after the closed housing market led to zero borrowing in April. The monthly rise in borrowing was due to more new borrowing by households, rather than lower repayments. Analysts warned that a “two-tier” mortgage market has emerged, with banks and building societies willing to lend to homeowners with large deposits but excluding first-time buyers.
The Guardian (30/06/2020) City AM (30/06/2020)
The number of homes sold in May 2019 was double the number of those sold in the same month of this year, mainly because of COVID-19 lockdown. HM Revenue & Customs says that 46,230 property transactions were completed in May, down 52% from last year. Restrictions on the housing market were lifted in the middle of the month.
The Sunday Times (28/06/2020)
Specialist regeneration developer and investor U+I has submitted plans for a mixed-use development at Morden Wharf, close to the O2 Arena on the Greenwich Peninsula. Once complete the mixed-use scheme will deliver around 1,500 new homes across 12 tower blocks, hundreds of jobs and more than six acres of public realm, including a landscaped park along the River Thames. The plans may also provide a new permanent boathouse for the Queen’s Royal Rowbarge, Gloriana. A planning decision is expected to made by the end of 2020.
Property Week (22/06/2020) UK Investor (22/06/2020)
House sales showed signs of slow recovery in May, increasing 16% on the month before, but they were still at only half the level seen a year earlier. The figures from HM Revenue and Customs show that an estimated 48,450 residential property transactions took place across the UK during May. This was 49.6% lower than the number seen in May 2019, when there were 96,050 sales recorded. HMRC said the figures should be taken with caution, as they were "provisional" and - due to the lockdown - based on incomplete data. Transaction numbers in the second quarter of this year have fallen to levels similar to those seen in late 2008 and in early 2009, following the financial crisis
Sky News (23/06/2020) The Times (23/06/2020)
Property transactions are being hit with new "coronavirus clauses". If there are complications after exchanging contracts, such as a person not being able to move or losing a mortgage offer, these allow the completion date to be delayed or a party to pull out of the purchase. Builds will be particularly affected, as completion dates after exchange are often not set and can be months in the future, and Andrew Boast of SAM Conveyancing said coronavirus clauses should be the norm in new-build sales.
The Daily Telegraph (19/06/2020)
The government has confirmed it is to extend planning permission deadlines under new measures to stimulate the building of thousands of new homes as the UK emerges from the COVID-19 lockdown. Under the changes announced by Robert Jenrick, planning approvals with an expiry date between the start of lockdown in March and the end of this year will be extended to 1 April 2021. Existing planning rules mean that development permissions usually expire after three years if work has not been started. However, hundreds of projects with expiry dates during the lockdown period were put in jeopardy. It said the changes would help these developments to resume as the economy recovers.
The Guardian (22/06/2020)