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Countryside lays ground for listing: Countryside Properties has appointed the former Finance Director of Lastminute.com as Chairman as it gears up for a potential stock market float next year.
Bank of England urged to include housing in inflation targets: The Bank of England is likely to be asked to target a new inflation measure after an independent review commissioned by the U.K. Statistics Authority recommended scrapping the consumer prices index (CPI) as the headline gauge of rises in the cost of living.
Thank you for the insight.
UK Halifax house price index rose more than expected in December On a MoM basis, the Halifax house price index rose 0.90% in December, in the UK, more than market expectations for a rise of 0.30%. The Halifax house price index had registered a revised rise of 0.50% in the preceding month.
I've spoken to three leading London/Surrey estate agents this week. They are united in the view that the increased stamp duty on homes of £1m and upwards is unlikely to affect sales in real terms. If you want a £4 million house, you won't let stamp duty get in the way. January seemingly got off to a good start - and it's only a few days in to the New Year.
Top house prices slow as stamp duty kicks in: House price growth in London’s most sought-after boroughs has been overtaken by areas outside the capital for the first time since the credit crunch.
I agree with your comments. I can only think that the new Stamp Duty regime for property in excess of £975,000 which is more expensive is assumed to dent BKG's sales in the year ahead which I could not disagree with more. I am assuming BKG will see a 7-10% increase in housing transactions in the next 12 months despite the stamp duty increase as the quality of its buildings are superior to any other listed House Builder on the stock market. ATB
MEDIA-Tycoon Telis Mistakidis pays around 46 mln pounds for London flat - London Evening Standard
I can't understand why the Berkeley share price is so low and why its performance over 2014 is not reflected in the share price. It has one of the best dividend yields out there at the moment and the strong performance looks set to continue according to the last trading statement. It has the most exposure not only to the London property market, but more importantly to the high net worth London market. This is a recession where they poor have got poorer, the middle have got poorer and the rich have got a lot richer. Why is that exposure to the London market a weakness? The London market is the strongest property market in the UK and is now driven more by London's position internationally rather than domestic demand. London is seen a safe haven, I cant see that changing. I cant see demand falling at all, I can see prices stabilising, but given that prices have risen 20% over the last year, what does that do for Berkeley's profit margin even if the market were to fall by 10%? ; ) Much of the housing sold by Berkeley is aimed squarely at high net worth individuals, these people are not affected by recessions or down turns. I rate Berkeley more than the other housebuilders and as a high dividend payer with good medium/long term prospects, it has no peers.
House prices will drop across the U.K. in 2015, says CEBR: House prices will fall across Britain this year, according to a leading economic forecaster, with the greatest declines expected to be in London.
Demand for mortgages declined significantly in 4Q 2014, indicated BoE According to the Bank of England’s (BoE) latest credit conditions survey for Q4 2014, the overall availability of secured credit to households rose slightly in the three months to early December, while demand for secured lending for house purchases declined significantly in Q4 2014. The overall availability of credit to the corporate sector was unchanged in Q4, while demand for credit rose, except from small businesses.
Londoners hit record number: London’s population is forecast to reach record levels this year according to figures from the Greater London Authority.
Most homeowners not saving for interest rate rise, survey finds: Three-quarters of U.K. homeowners are not saving extra money to cope with the interest rate rise that is expected for this autumn, a survey has shown, raising the prospect that they will be caught unprepared
UK construction PMI registered a drop in December In the UK, the Markit construction PMI registered a drop to 57.60 in December, lower than market expectations of a drop to 59.00. The construction PMI had recorded a level of 59.40 in the preceding month.
UK net lending to individuals recorded a rise in November Net lending to individuals in the UK advanced £3.30 billion in November. Net lending to individuals had recorded a revised advance of £2.70 billion in the prior month. UK net lending secured on dwellings advanced more than expected in November In November, net lending secured on dwellings in the UK rose £2.10 billion, higher than market expectations for an advance of £1.40 billion. In the prior month, net lending secured on dwellings had recorded a revised rise of £1.60 billion.
People aiming to buy their first property in London have to pay nine times their annual income, a research has shown. According to figures released by Nationwide, property prices in London have hit an all-time high, with the average London first-time buyer's mortgage payments as a percentage of mean take-home pay stood at 61.6% in the fourth quarter of 2014. First time buyers across Britain have to pay on average five times their annual income to buy a home and mortgage payments amount to 34% of take-home pay.
UK money supply expanded 2.9% year-on-year in November, but mortgage approvals fell for the fifth month in a row to a 17-month low, according to the Bank of England. That was less than the previous month's tally of 3.3%. In aggregate, lending to individuals increased by 0.2% over the month to reach £1,462bn. Mortgage approvals at year-and-a-half lows Of that amount, lending secured on homes also grew by 0.2% to reach £1,294.1bn. A total of 59,029 mortgages for home purchase, for £9.6bn, were approved in November. That marked a fifth month of declines, to hit a 17-month low, although the rate of decrease slowed. Mortgages were 22.9% below the 74-month high reached in January 2014, "pointing to a clear underlying moderation in housing market activity," economic research group IHS Global Insight said. Nevertheless, the weakening in buyer interest may well be close to bottoming out, IHS chief European and UK economist Howard Archer said. Bond issuance picks up Meanwhile, consumer credit grew by 0.7% to £168.8bn, after having expanded by 6.9% over the last 12 months. Net finance raised by private non-financial corporations (PNFCs) from monetary financial institutions (MFIs) and capital markets grew by £2.5bn, mainly due to £3.2bn in bonds issued by PNFCs.
Ministers launch delayed loan guarantee scheme for housebuilding: Ministers have belatedly launched a multibillion-pound loan guarantee scheme for housebuilding, more than two years after it was first announced.
2014 was a year of two halves - in the first part of the year, house prices spiralled out of control. In the second, the Bank of England's cooling measures began to take their effect, dampening that growth. Will it be the same story in 2015? Savills has predicted more muted growth - a rise in prices of just one per cent during the year. For Prime Central London, traditionally seen as a "safe haven" for the likes of Russian oligarchs (who, at the moment, are looking for a way to get rid of their roubles), the news is less encouraging: a 0.5 per cent fall in prices, thanks to the government's stamp duty changes. So not quite the excitement of this year - but then, what goes up must come down. Albeit only slightly.
Will there be a fall in the value of London super-prime property? Yes. Prices will fall by about 10 per cent in 2015 because of an oversupply of new build super-prime properties — although this will mainly be felt outside the traditional top-end residential stamping grounds such as Mayfair and Knightsbridge. Some new build super-prime properties — such as Neo Bankside and Battersea — will struggle to hold their value. The former may have remarkable views across the Thames to St Paul’s Cathedral and easy access to the City but it is a far cry from Mayfair. And while Battersea power station has some surface glamour, its immediate environs are still more Battersea dogs’ home than super-prime. The threat of Labour’s mansion tax also hangs like a sword of Damocles over well-heeled property buyers. “Adjustments” and “corrections” will continue until the May election. Jane Owen
House prices end year in stable state – but only if you’re outside London: The worrying boom in house prices has cooled since the summer, boosting hopes that the market will soon return to stable growth, according to Britain’s second biggest mortgage lender.
In December growth in UK house prices slowed to 0.2%, as expected, with the pace of annual house price growth softening for a fourth consecutive month from 8.5% in November to 7.2% in December. A slight cooling of the still-frenetic London market was a key reason for the fall, with annual house price inflation in London decelerating to 17.8% in the fourth quarter from 21.0% in the third. Prices increases are being restricted by tighter bank lending, with mortgage approvals retreating over the last five months to an 18-month low in November. House prices were up 1.1% in the final quarter of the year compared to the previous year, which was the smallest quarterly gain since the second quarter of 2013 and down from gains of 1.6% in the previous period. Nationwide's chief economist, Robert Gardner, said he expected the housing market to regain momentum in 2015. "The slowdown in housing market activity is surprising given further steady gains in employment, a pick-up in wage growth (albeit from low levels) and the continued low level of mortgage rates. "If the economic backdrop continues to improve as we and most forecasters expect, activity in the housing market is likely to gain momentum in the months ahead. Supply side developments will be crucial in determining the trajectory for prices. "There are encouraging signs that construction is starting to pick up. Hopefully, this will set the stage for house price growth gradually converging with income growth in the quarters ahead." Economists elsewhere agreed that there will be some pick-up in housing market activity during 2015 from current lows, with possible extra impetus from the increased likelihood that the Bank of England will not lift interest rates before late-2015. Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight said he expected house prices to rise by a "solid but unspectacular 5% in 2015", compared to the double-digit annual house price increases seen this summer, as the weakening of buyer interest in houses bottoms out and consumer confidence and employment levels increase. "Looking ahead, significant restraint on house buyer interest and prices is still expected to come from more stretched house prices to earnings ratios, tighter checking of prospective mortgage borrowers by lenders and the prospect that interest rates will eventually start to rise in 2015. "Many people may also be deterred from buying houses because they look pricey in a number of areas after recent sharp rises." Archer added that there were also some signs that the limited supply of houses is currently easing as an overall factor pushing up house prices, though it is likely to remain a "significant influence in some regions" for some time yet.
Stamp duty switch puts brake on house prices: House prices in prime central London dipped in December as property owners grappled with the Chancellor’s shake-up in stamp duty, which sharply increased the tax paid on buying luxury homes.
UK housing crisis: brick stocks hit record low: Brick stocks in the UK have reached the lowest level on record as merger mania grips the sector. Stockpiles of the vital building blocks dipped to 323m at the end of October, down almost a third from 500m in 2012, after stocks of more than 1bn were recorded in 2009, according to monthly reports from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, and the Office for National Statistics.
Greenwich leads market with house prices up by quarter in 2014: The London borough of Greenwich tops a list of towns and cities recording the largest increase in house prices in 2014, according to the U.K.’s largest mortgage lender.