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12th January 2018
House prices rose by 2.7% in 2017, compared with a 6.5% increase in 2016, according to the Halifax, the lowest rise since 2012. The mortgage lender added that December had the first monthly drop in prices since June, with the average price of homes falling by 0.6%, or £1,387, to reach £255,021. "Nationally house prices in 2018 are likely to be supported by the ongoing shortage of properties for sale, low levels of housebuilding, high employment and a continuation of low interest rates making mortgage servicing affordable in relative terms," said Russell Galley, the managing director of Halifax Community Bank.
Financial Times (08/01/2018)
12th January 2018
Mortgage borrowers are benefiting from competition on the high street following the biggest squeeze on profit margins for two years. The Bank of England reported that in the final three months of 2017 the difference between the central bank's base interest rate and the average mortgage rates charged to borrowers narrowed significantly. Most of the extra demand towards the end of last year came from remortgagers keen to lock in low rates following November's 0.25% rise in the base rate to 0.5%, as the Bank’s latest Credit Conditions Survey said lenders were restricting access to unsecured loans and credit card borrowing after a steep rise in defaults.
The Guardian (11/01/2018)
12th January 2018
The number of London homes changing hands is around half the levels seen before the recession, according to the Office of National Statistics, which says during 2017 just over 52,000 houses and flats were sold across the capital, compared to more than 92,000 sold before the recession.
Evening Standard (10/01/2018)
5th January 2018
London weakest region in house price slowdown
Data from Nationwidehas revealed that, for the first time in eight years, house prices in London have fallen, with values down 0.5%. On average UK house prices grew by 2.6% last year compared to growth of 4.5% in 2016, with the West Midlands emerging as the country’s new property hotspot as prices climbed 5.2%. “London saw a particularly marked slowdown, with prices falling in annual terms for the first time in eight years, albeit by a modest 0.5%. London ended the year the weakest performing region for the first time since 2004”, said Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist.
Financial Times (04/01/2018)
5th January 2018
Theresa May says stamp duty cuts are helping 4,000 first time buyers a week to get on the housing ladder, with 16,000 property market entrants having taken advantage of the reform since it was outlined in the Autumn Budget. She said Conservative plans to “fix the broken housing market” stem from a “personal mission to build the homes this country needs so we can restore the dream of home ownership for people up and down the UK.” Commenting on her party’s stance on delivering homes for young people, the Prime Minister said she wanted to make sure the housing ladder “is not just a dream of your parents' past, but a reality for your future".
The Daily Telegraph (02/01/2018)
5th January 2018
London Labour housing spokesman Tom Copley has urged Philip Hammond to lift the borrowing cap for all councils to allow them to build more homes in the capital. In a letter to the Chancellor he wrote: "Many boroughs are delivering new council homes for the first time in decades and have ambitions to do far more - but their ambitions are not matched by their capacity to deliver and that capacity is artificially constrained by Government."
Evening Standard (02/01/2018)