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A study byTrussle has revealed that young buyers are increasingly relying on their grandparents to fund a deposit for their first property, as funds from the Bank of Mum and Dad start to run dry. More than a third of under-35s now need additional funding from their grandparents to buy a property. This compares to just 3% of today's over-55s who relied on their own grandparents when they bought their first home. The average first-time buyer given a cash boost by their grandparents receives £7,437, the firm said. But despite this generosity, youngsters still face a battle to save the rest of the deposit on their own.
The Sunday Telegraph (24/11/2019)
Ten-year fixed mortgage rate deals are lower than ever, with the average now 2.76%, according to Moneyfacts. A fierce mortgage price war has seen the number of 10-year fixed-rate mortgages on offer grow substantially over the past year, pushing rates down. The lowest rate currently on the market is set at just 2.2% by Coventry Building Society, following the news earlier this month that five-year fixed-rate home loans are also now at rock bottom levels. Furthermore, the average 10-year fixed-rate mortgage is just 0.36 percentage points higher than the average two-year fix, despite offering an additional eight years of security on monthly payments.
Daily Mail (25/11/2019)
Foster + Partners’ £3bn masterplan for 5,000 new homes on a 16ha strip of land at the Royal Docks has been rejected by Newham Council. A hybrid application was submitted for the Silvertown site, including outline plans for 18,600m² of industrial and workspace along with 7,000m² of shops, restaurants and bars, along with detailed proposals for a John McAslan + Partners-designed first phase with 460 homes and 3,417m² of flexible office space on the site of the former Carlsberg brewery. Concerns raised by planning officers included a lack of integrated designs for the scheme’s cluster of ‘overbearing, bulky and incongrous’ towers and the scheme’s ’excessive density’ given the site’s poor access to public transport. A spokesperson for the Mayor of London, said: “Newham Council has now referred this application to the Greater London Authority and the Deputy Mayor for Planning, Regeneration and Skills will consider it on its merits during the next two weeks”.
Architects’ Journal (15/11/2019)
Fresh figures from the Greater London Authority show construction began on 2,202 homes between July and September, a slowdown on the 2,672 started between April and June. The target figure for 2019-20 is to start an average of 4,874 a quarter. A spokesperson for Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was still on track to hit his target for the year, as he did last year, as house building is generally backloaded heavily to the final two quarters, adding: “This year the mayor has delivered more than double the number of starts compared to the same period last year”.
City AM (17/11/2019) Evening Standard (17/11/2019)
UK house prices will not match low inflation until 2021, according to new research by Reuters. The continuing Brexit malaise will cause prices to fall 1.5% in London this year, Reuters said. Elsewhere in the UK, house prices are predicted to rise 1% this year, 1.5 % next year and 2.3% in 2021, according to the poll of 27 property market analysts. Meanwhile, inflation is forecast to be 1.9%, 1.9% and 2% respectively. “Even if a Brexit deal is implemented soon, we expect to see only a small improvement in housing market transactions and house price growth over the next two years,” said Hansen Lu at Capital Economics.
City AM (20/11/2019) Daily Mail (20/11/2019)
Figures from UK Finance show there were 29,100 new first-time buyer mortgages completed in September, a 1.6% increase on September 2018. The number of home movers was also up year-on-year, climbing 1.8%, but these were outnumbered by those taking their first step onto the property ladder, with 50 more first-timers than movers. The data also shows that 5,500 new buy-to-let home purchase mortgages were completed in September, a dip of 3.5% on the same month a year ago. September saw 17,740 new remortgages with additional borrowing, a 5.9% rise, while re-mortgages with no additional borrowing were up 8% on September 2018, with 19,140 completed. Former Rics chairman Jeremy Leaf said: “It is good to see more first-time buyer mortgages completed, showing how this group are continuing to take the place of buy-to-let landlords”. A separate report found that almost half of adults in the UK are unaware that there are schemes to help first-time buyers get onto the housing ladder – and only one in five people can name any of the three main schemes. Research from Trussle also found that fewer than one in 10 of us find the Help to Buy Equity Loan, Shared Ownership and the Lifetime ISA easy to understand. And it warns that thousands eligible are set to miss out on the benefits of the Help to Buy ISA, which closes for applications at the end of the month, simply because they didn't know it existed.
The Times (19/11/2019) Daily Mail (19/11/2019) The Independent (15/11/2019)