Household finances are deteriorating faster than during the height of the UK recession in early 2009, new research has found. Research firm Markit's Household Finance Index hit an all-time low of 33.2 in August, which also saw the steepest drop in take-home pay for nine months. Readings below 50 show signs of decline. Almost 34 per cent of households reported a drop in their savings in August while debt levels increased for the fifth month running and at the fastest pace since November of last year. The August data showed people becoming poorer across all income groups, age ranges and … [Read more...]
Equity Release and Injection Increased
July 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment
According to the Bank of England statistics, homeowners have continued to inject equity into their homes but not as much as last year. At the start of 2011 the figures showed that borrowers have increased their financial stake in properties by £5.8 billion, far lower than the £7.1 billion in the previous quarter. Helpfully the Bank of England has suggested that the lower figures for the first quarter this year is due to the lack of activity in the housing market. The fall in figures shows a fall in the number of sales rather than the increase in prudence of homeowners paying off their … [Read more...]
The British property market is in for a gloomy summer
June 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment
As summer gets underway, how's Britain's housing market looking? If today's news is anything to go by, the answer is: not too good. One way of gauging future demand for UK property is to look at the number of new mortgages that have been approved for house purchases. Changes in this number tend to be reflected in moves in the mainstream house price indices about four months later. The latest figures are just out from the Bank of England. They show that in April, approvals dipped to 45,166, a four-month low, from 47,145 in March. What's more, the latest figure is 8% down on the … [Read more...]
Secret ’95 pc mortgage’ proposals ‘will help young first home buyers’
June 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Thousands of struggling first-time home buyers could be offered "95 per cent" mortgages under proposals being considered by some of Britain's largest house-builders and mortgage lenders. Secret talks have reportedly been held between senior executives from several FTSE-listed companies, leading banks and the Council of Mortgage Lenders in an attempt to ease the supply of finance. It was claimed that all the main lenders, including Lloyds and Santander, and some of the country's largest house builders, including Taylor Wimpey, Barratt and Persimmon, attended the … [Read more...]
CML publishes updated market forecasts
June 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The Council of Mortgage Lenders publishes updated mortgage and housing market forecasts. The CML report: We publish an updated assessment of prospects for the mortgage and housing markets. For the first time since the downturn, we have extended our forecast horizon beyond the current calendar year to the end of 2012, in the light of a more stable forecasting environment. Our forecasts assume hesitant economic growth for the rest of 2011, as the pace of fiscal tightening intensifies and households suffer an ongoing contraction in real incomes, but a moderately more positive … [Read more...]
U.K. builders, banks in talks on mortgages:
June 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. housebuilders and mortgage lenders are in talks to provide loans worth 95% of the value of a property to ease a shortage of available mortgages and help first-time buyers, The Times reported Tuesday, citing a housebuilder who attended the talks. The report said one scheme under consideration would see housebuilders create a fund with a significant injection of equity that would be used by banks to underwrite the mortgage loans. In exchange, the housebuilders would want banks to reduce their credit risk scoring criteria when assessing first-time … [Read more...]
Confidence jumps – albeit from rock-bottom
May 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment
A KEY UK consumer confidence reading rose sharply in May, but remained deep in negative territory, a survey published today reveals. Market research agency GfK NOP, which conducts the monthly survey for the European Commission, says its consumer confidence index has risen by 10 points to minus-21 this month. It notes that this is the second-biggest monthly rise ever – outstripped only by a 12-point improvement in May 1993. And it points out that, in the 449 months that the consumer confidence index has been running, a single-month movement on the scale of that in May in either … [Read more...]
Remote control – controlling credit by capping LTVs will not curb market volatility
May 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Mortgage brokers reject a suggestion from social policy thinktank the Joseph Rowntree Foun-dation that maximum loan-to-value ratios should be considered to help combat volatility in the housing market. Last week, the foundation published a report looking at possible ways of ending boom and bust cycles in the property sector. Alongside alter-natives to homeownership and increasing housing supply to combat volatility in the long run, it sug-gested credit controls as a means of ending short-term volatility. Volatility in the housing market causes a variety of problems for homeowners … [Read more...]
Construction statistics: Is it really that bad ?
May 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Government statistics suggest construction contracted 5% last quarter, but it’s hard to find anyone who believes that is true. Joey Gardiner argues the reality is actually more positive and presents alternative data to back up his case Last month’s first quarter growth data from the Office of National Statistics has been almost universally ridiculed by construction leaders as overly pessimistic - a view backed up by a slew of trading updates in the last week from the major contractors and housebuilders. The ONS said the construction economy declined by 4.7% in the first three … [Read more...]
Are you living in a hot spot? Our property map reveals a patchwork Britain with some areas rising while many are still cooling
May 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Each month a mountain of house price information is published by banks, building societies, Government agencies and other organisations. But getting an accurate snapshot of the market is hard, especially when – as now – there are vast differences between regions and property types. Forecasters were last week predicting a ‘double-dip’, with house prices set to slump again. Others foresee a gradual, five-year slide with prices dropping until 2015. A minority are more optimistic. But what all agree on is how fragmented the market is. Houses in certain London boroughs and other regional … [Read more...]
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