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House prices continued to show signs of improvement in February, according to Halifax, but the bank issued a warning about the potential impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the property market later in the year. Prices rose 2.8% in the year to February, and 0.3% in the month, with the average property gaining £6,443 annually to reach a new record high of £240,677, according to the mortgage lender. The quarterly rate of house price inflation also rose to 2.9%. But Halifax managing director, Russell Galley, said: “Looking ahead, there are a number of risks, including the potential impact of coronavirus, which continue to exert pressure on the economy and we wait to see how these will affect housing market sentiment later in the year.”
The Times (06/03/2020) The Guardian (06/03/2020) The Daily Telegraph (06/03/2020)
London house sellers made a profit of £250,040 last year - more than enough to buy the average home elsewhere in the UK. The average cost of a house in the capital was £471,950 while outside London it was £202,900. About 73,000 people used that extra value to leave the city, many staying in the south, with 32% moving to places close to London in the southeast and 31% to the east of England. In 2018 those selling up made an average profit of £237,190.
The Times (09/03/2020)
HMRC figures show that the 3% stamp duty surcharge on additional properties, introduced in 2016, had raised £6.6bn by the end of last year. The Treasury originally put the target at £2.9bn by the end of the 2019/2020 tax year. When it was launched, George Osborne, the Chancellor at the time, said it would help first time buyers by dampening the investor market, but analysis by Countrywide of the charge's first year found that only 69% of those affected were landlords and second home-buyers. Tax expert Adam Kay said: “The whole point of this was to stop people buying too much property - many cases have nothing to do with that. It is reasonable to argue that it isn't working.”
The Times (06/03/2020)
The Telegraph looks at what the coronavirus outbreak means for the London prime property market. It notes that the share of Chinese buyers in prime central London (PCL) has just hit an all-time high, accounting for 6% of all PCL sales in the last six months of 2019. “When it comes to Chinese and other Asian investment in UK property, the coronavirus outbreak is definitely a disrupter,” says Georg Chmiel of Juwai IQI, a company that helps Chinese buyers invest abroad. The group most vulnerable to a depressed Chinese market are developers, which typically market their projects off-plan. However, there is also a flipside: Coronavirus is bringing a spike in internet shopping, and interest from Chinese buyers on certain schemes, particularly those in the City, east and west London, is “up 50 to 60%,” since the outbreak began.
The Daily Telegraph (04/03/2020)
UK house prices rose at the fastest annual rate for 18 months in February after December’s decisive election buoyed the market, according to Nationwide. The 2.3% annual increase is the best since July 2018, bolstering evidence of a “Boris bounce”. Nationwide's chief economist Robert Gardner said the landslide Tory victory may have pushed buyers back into the market. However, the outlook for house prices will depend on the UK’s economic performance over the coming months, which could take a hit depending on the outcome of Brexit trade talks and the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “There are still significant uncertainties that threaten to exert a drag on the economy in the coming quarters,” Mr Gardner warned.
The Daily Telegraph (28/02/2020) The Guardian (28/02/2020) The Times (28/02/2020)
Families are taking on huge mortgages in a bid to climb off the first rung of the property ladder and move to a bigger home, according to the Financial Conduct Authority. The number of borrowers taking out mammoth loans that stretch to more than six and a half times their income has soared, the City regulator said. It added that most of these borrowers are home-movers rather than first-time buyers. More than 96,000 mortgages taken out last year were for more than four and a half times the borrower's income, and 4,594 mortgages were for more than six and a half times income.
The Times (28/02/2020)