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Tag: house prices

New towns, greater homeownership and localism heavy: a possible Labour housing strategy?

New towns, greater homeownership and localism heavy: a possible Labour housing strategy?

Business Secretary Vince Cable has in recent weeks upped the debate on house building and yesterday called together a mix of top folk from across the housing spectrum to chat about ideas for financing more homes. It’s encouraging. It indicates that the Government is eager to improve the wretched state of house building. But it’s also worrying. Last November the Coalition launched a “radical and unashamedly ambitious” housing strategy for England. What of that?

The solution is construction, but the answer is not just any old construction – Part 2

The solution is construction, but the answer is not just any old construction – Part 2

Yesterday’s blog looked at the need to boost construction and the huge benefits the nation gains from focusing on job-intensive work. Today we’ll look at how else we might boost construction to generate economic growth and, interestingly, reduce the deficit. But before that it’s worth noting that favouring job-intensive construction is not just about where to channel public spending. It’s also about how Government frames policy and incentives. Yesterday I received a tweet putting the case for cutting VAT to 5% on repair…

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Average house prices may be stable, but the figures hide trouble

Average house prices may be stable, but the figures hide trouble

Much fuss is made over the monthly ups and downs of housing price indicators. But in reality those released recently suggest the average UK house price remains more or less locked at the steady altitude it has followed for more than a year. Taking a consensus from the plethora of available measures suggests an average home costs you today within 1% (probably 1% less) of what it would have cost a year ago and more or less the same as…

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Has the Office for Budget Responsibility misread the housing market?

Has the Office for Budget Responsibility misread the housing market?

There seems to be a fair chance the Office for Budget Responsibility’s view of the housing market may be badly awry. Why would that be that bad? 1. Because it potentially supports a complacent attitude among policy makers towards problems within the housing market. 2. Because it may well leave the Chancellor a few billion pounds light on stamp duty in a few years time. But before galumphing into why the OBR may be wrong it’s worth making a couple…

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By how many will NewBuy boost house building numbers?

By how many will NewBuy boost house building numbers?

Praised in some quarters and vilified in others, NewBuy appears to have been misunderstood and over-hyped. It’s not, for instance, as some think primarily a way to get first-time buyers (FTBs) on the housing ladder and it will not generate 100,000 “extra” new homes over the next three years. It is in essence an allocation of the overall mortgage pot supported by an indemnity fund that is design to provide high loan-to-value mortgages to buy new-build homes. But while it…

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Why calling for housing QE is not special pleading: Part 1

Why calling for housing QE is not special pleading: Part 1

Over recent months there’s been a growing mood to exploit the power of quantitative easing to accelerate growth in key parts of the UK economy and for the Bank of England to buy other assets other than Gilts – UK Government bonds. Here in Part 1 I’ll be looking at the background to these calls and, in Part 2, I’ll look at why, if we are to experiment further with QE, we should look to housing as the alternative to Gilts…

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Figures show we are just not building enough homes. It is that simple.

Figures show we are just not building enough homes. It is that simple.

The latest official house building statistics to emerge underline the massive task ahead for the Government if it is to meet its promise of boosting English house building rates to a level above that achieved before the recession. It was in September 2010 that Grant Shapps ambitiously announced this “Gold Standard” against which he, as housing minister, would be judged.

It’s time for Shapps to find a big bazooka

It’s time for Shapps to find a big bazooka

In September 2010 Grant Shapps set a “Gold Standard” against which he, as housing minister, would be judged – to see a house-building rate at least matching that achieved before the recession. There are few targets (political hostages to fortune, perhaps) discernable from the reams of documentation and hours of speeches and statements made by this Government. But this is one. It is important. The consensus is England needs more homes. Sorry, a lot more homes, more even than the previous…

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So what should we expect the housing market to do in 2012?

So what should we expect the housing market to do in 2012?

The various data suggesting how house prices shifted over 2011 are mostly in and the vast array of pundits have made their predictions for the market in 2012. So here’s a round up of the prospects for the housing market in the year ahead and a suggestion of what it might all mean for house building. If we look at all the indicators, the picture painted for 2011 was of house prices flatlining. Some indicators were up a little, some down…

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The Housing Strategy: Was that it?

The Housing Strategy: Was that it?

There’s little doubt that we need radical solutions to build more homes. There is a broad consensus for that view, leaving aside supporters of Malthus, the Daily Telegraph anti-house-building campaign and a few others. There’s little doubt also that the issues are complex and we need a strategy rather than one big idea to save the day. But unless I am very much mistaken the 88-page Laying the Foundations: A Housing Strategy for England probably doesn’t amount to a strategy…

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