Why Building More Homes in the UK is Not Enough The lure of foreign living is becoming far more desirable for financial reasons than it is for those seeking that work/life balance, as reports of the UK’s “dysfunctional” housing market has left many of Britain’s residents wondering if their money is better spent elsewhere. Owing to the hangover from the credit crunch, an ageing population remaining in larger homes, and the significant gap between property prices and earnings, this culmination of factors is making the UK the toughest housing market in Europe. Bob Pannell chief economist of the Council of Mortgage…

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has said that the UK housing market is now “sitting on a plateau”, backing previous claims by experts that the rise in prices had slowed. According to the CML gross mortgage lending totaled £17.8bn last month, falling 1 per cent from August 2014. However, the figure was still 10% higher compared with the same period in 2013. Furthermore, it was reported that activity in London had finally slowed, too, after prices rose 19.7% in August this year. It now appears that worries the Bank of England might have had about a UK housing market ‘bubble’…

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistic (ONS) show that there are now six regions in the UK where the average property price is now higher than the pre-financial crisis peak of late 2007. With UK house prices up 11.7% nationwide in the year to the end of July, experts are now wondering if the housing market has peaked or if it is set to keep rising. Unsurprisingly, the biggest rise was in London, with housing prices up a massive 19.1%, meaning the average property price in London is now over £500,000, according to the ONS.  The East and…

As the nation waits patiently for the results of the Scottish independence vote, businesses across the UK are starting to wonder what an independent Scotland would mean for them.  Concerns that restrictions and regulations will hinder cross-border travel have left the UK removal and storage market yearning for answers. It would take 18 months until Scotland became independent if the ‘Yes’ vote wins. This means the country would become independent in the same year that it plans to hold its parliamentary elections, leading to concerns currently proposed polices could change depending on government. The current Scottish Government has said it “plans…

Despite shortages in supply doing their best to hold back the construction sector’s growth, August has actually seen it expand at the fastest pace recorded in the past seven months. August is the sixteenth consecutive month that the Markit/CIPS construction Purchasing Managers’ Index has been above the level that indicates growth, this month rising to 64 from the 62.4 recorded in July. Because vendors have been recording slow delivery times (the slowest, in fact, since records began in 1997), economists had expected a fall, and they were surprised to see the opposite occur. However, Markit said that because the amount of…

It is always fascinating to find out what the most desired postcodes in the country are – will they be near you? Might one of them even be the one you live in? A wide range of factors, including employability levels, the affordability of housing, crime rates and the overall quality of health and educational services, are taken into account. The Royal Mail, in a study commissioned to mark the fortieth anniversary of the postcode, have now revealed the most popular postcodes in England, Scotland and Wales. Postcode SP9, for the town of Tidworth in Wiltshire, was named the best postcode…

Although a drop in house asking prices throughout August is generally expected by the property industry, prices this August have fallen faster than were expected by the market. London, as it often does, led the way, sparking speculation that higher interest rates are on the way. New properties coming onto the market saw a 2.9 percent reduction in their initial asking prices, which subsequently led to a slowing-down of the annual rate of price growth to 5.3 percent in August from 6.5 percent in July, according to Rightmove. Asking prices within the capital fell for a third consecutive month, equalling much…

The housing market slowed down across the UK throughout July, and even went into reverse in London, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Demand and sales alike have fallen, especially in the capital, but the number of houses and apartments for sale has increased. As is often the case, worries about the affordability of the homes in question have prompted the slowing-down of completed deals, but this does not look to have affected the rising of prices in general. Property price growth is generally faster outside London, and this seems to be the current case. “The shift in the…

House prices in the UK, according to the Halifax, were up 10.2% in July (the first time it has risen above 10% for over seven years) from the year before, signalling the highest annual change since September 2007. In addition, property prices reportedly rose by 3.6% in the second quarter compared with the first and the monthly figures increased by 1.4%, meaning that the average home is now priced at £186,332. However, other lenders and banks, such as Nationwide, have suggested that the market is slowing down, with a rise of 11.8% in June falling to 10.6% in July. However, this…

The housing market has stabilised in recent weeks following a “spring bounce” in the amount of property purchases made in the second quarter, and prices in many regions have even begun to fall. However, house prices overall are still higher than they were at their most expensive in 2013. According to the Land Registry, seven out of ten regions across England and Wales recorded falls in house prices in June (with the biggest fall in Yorkshire and the Humber), though property prices were still nearly 6.5 percent better off than they were a year ago. It now seems widely accepted that…