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Tag: house builders

House building numbers more vulnerable than prices as the market turns

House building numbers more vulnerable than prices as the market turns

The latest monthly housing market survey from the surveyors’ body RICS will come as unwelcome, if expected, bad news to developers, estate agents and potential sellers. The survey shows the fastest increase in the number of agents seeing price falls since the ugly period that followed the credit crunch (see graph sourced from the RICS August survey) and the lowest reading since May 2009. Last month the survey showed the balance between agents seeing prices up and those seeing prices…

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Nationwide joins other indexes to show house prices falling

Nationwide joins other indexes to show house prices falling

It came as little surprise that the Nationwide house price survey should show a fall in July. And it showed a pretty significant fall of 0.5% on its seasonally adjusted series. It had been for many months among the more bullish of the indexes measuring inflation in the UK housing market, at a time when others were showing the market sliding backwards. But like most of the indexes, the Nationwide has had to draw big conclusions from a rather thinner…

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The housing market stalls

The housing market stalls

As the latest round of monthly housing market indicators spills new insight into the pot of understanding the figures seem to support earlier suggestions that both activity and prices are stalling. The pattern is varied regionally and confused by the General Election, pre-Budget anticipation over the increases in Capital Gains Tax for second home owners, the suspension of Home Improvement Packs and the ripples generated by the changes to stamp duty. But the overall trend does now seems to suggest…

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Some comfort for house builders as inflation fears ease

Some comfort for house builders as inflation fears ease

The latest set of inflation figures showing a fall in the headline rate of the CPI index will provide a good degree of comfort to the interest rate setters at the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee. And in turn this should provide some relief to those house builders who harbour fears about a rise in interest rates. At 3.4% the headline rate remains well above the 2% target and as such remains unsettling for those who fear that this…

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Private housing completions in England have dropped by more than half since the credit crunch

Private housing completions in England have dropped by more than half since the credit crunch

We all know it’s been bad in house building, but sometimes you have to look at the figures again to remind yourself just how bad things have been. The release of the latest housing figures provides that reality check, as the graph below so clearly illustrates. It’s been carnage and it is a long way back even to meet pre-credit crunch levels of building. In the first quarter of 2007 the industry was beginning to motor as is clear from…

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The big question for Mr Shapps

The big question for Mr Shapps

I would like to be among those welcoming Grant Shapps to his new role as housing minister and wishing him well. I must admit I have not been particularly kind to his ideas to date. It’s my job to be critical I guess. But for the record I do have a degree of admiration for his fervent faith in localism, for which I have much sympathy, albeit with a shed load of doubts. Somehow it chimes with the anarcho-syndicalist spirit…

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Construction redundancies remain high while vacancies remain low

Construction redundancies remain high while vacancies remain low

As the real business of governing the UK begins to wind up again, the latest employment figures will do little to cheer the incoming government as it prepares to put chalk marks on where deep public sector cuts will be made. The overall figures showed the rise of unemployment continuing above the 2.5 million mark. But equally as worrying is the swelling number of part-time workers that is hiding a bubble of underemployment. Over the first quarter of this year…

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Bank figures provide more jitters for the housing market

Bank figures provide more jitters for the housing market

The latest data on mortage lending from the Bank of England will do little to steady the nerves of those in the house building world. The figures show the number of approvals for house purchases on a seasonally adjusted basis has taken a dip in the first quarter of this year. The number of mortgages for the first quarter of this year dropped 16% on the final quarter of 2009, although the figure was up 17% on a year ago…

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We’re back to double-digit growth in house prices, oh dear

We’re back to double-digit growth in house prices, oh dear

House prices are booming again, crack open the champagne! Well maybe not. If I was a house builder reading the latest survey from the Nationwide building society showing a double-digit rise in prices over the past year (see graph) I would be worried. Looking at my short-term prospects, naturally I would be chirpy about the larger profit margin I could reasonably expect on my future sales. Naturally I would be upbeat about how price competitive I can now be against…

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Why construction firms must recruit financial engineers

Why construction firms must recruit financial engineers

Financial engineers – you can be forgiven for holding them in total contempt. The finger of guilt for the recession ravaging construction firms points witheringly in their direction. But, galling as it might seem, construction now needs financial engineers more than it needs civil, structural, mechanical or electrical engineers. The tools and tool-making talents of financial engineers could prove vital in thawing billions of pounds worth of frozen projects. It offers the potential to generate a vaste source of new…

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