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Mortgage lender Halifax has said house prices increased 1.1% in the year to the end of September, the slowest rate since April 2013. It added that for as long as economic uncertainty in Britain continues, price growth would remain "predominantly flat". The cost of the average home in September was down by 0.4% compared with August, at £232,574. House price growth has slowed since the Brexit referendum in 2016 - the Halifax index was showing growth of about 8% a year at the time - and prices have recently been falling in London. Russell Galley, managing director of Halifax, said: “We expect activity levels and price growth to remain subdued while the current period of economic uncertainty persists”.
BBC News (07/10/2019)
Mount Anvil is citing its latest Docklands development’s environmental credentials as a major selling point, with a quarter of the site, equivalent to 20 tennis courts, covered by green space, including raised lawns and wildflower meadows. Royal Eden Docks is situated just 109 yards from the Thames, offering panoramic views of Canary Wharf, the City of London, and beyond, with a rooftop running track and a “reflexology walkway”. It also actively promotes green transport options, with more than 1,000 cycle storage spaces, electric car charging points, and car club membership. Apartments at the development are priced from £355,000.
Evening Standard (01/10/2019)
Property giant British Land has been given planning permission for a £3.3bn project to create a new town centre in Canada Water, just across the Thames from Canary Wharf. Southwark Council approved the plans, which include 3,000 homes and will accommodate 20,000 jobs across a 53-acre site that includes a shopping centre, leisure park, the Printworks event venue and the former Dock Offices courtyard. Around 35% of the new homes will be considered affordable or for social rent. The project is expected to take 15 years to complete, with construction anticipated to start in the middle of next year. The scheme’s first phase includes a 34-storey tower.
Financial Times (01/10/2019) The Times (01/10/2019) City AM (01/10/2019)
House price growth in London is lagging behind the city average for the UK, edging up just 0.2% in August, compared to the 20 city average of 1.9%. However, data also revealed that mortgages for home purchases in London have been increasing slowly following the lower numbers seen since late 2014, suggesting that the decline in London housing sales has bottomed out. “We do not expect house price growth to increase but builders and agents in London will welcome any improvement in market activity,” the House Price Index report said. August was the first time since 2012 that no big city saw annual property growth rise above 5%.
City AM (27/09/2019)
UK homes have increased in value almost three times faster than their occupants' salaries over the past decade, according to new analysis. The average UK home has risen around 43% in value between 2008 and 2018, from £160,954 to £229,861. But over the same period the average salary has only increased by 15%, from 24,606 to £28,860. If wages had increased at the same rate as house prices over the period, the average annual UK salary would now be £35,187, according to the research by mortgage broker Private Finance. The firm’s managing director Simon Checkley said: "Over the past 10 years, as homeowners worked hard to earn an income, their home has done the same - arguably even more successfully."
City AM (01/10/2019) Daily Express (01/10/2019) Daily Mirror (01/10/2019)
London has moved out of "bubble-risk" territory for the first time in four years, according to a new UBS report, which however warns that the heady days of soaring house prices in the capital - which are around 10% below their mid-2016 peak - are long gone. Claudio Saputelli, head of real estate at UBS Global Wealth Management, said: “Many households simply lack the funds required to meet the banks’ financing criteria, which we believe poses one of the biggest risks to property values in urban centres.”
City AM (01/10/2019)