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Tag: house prices

Value of UK homes rose £125.7 billion in 2009

Value of UK homes rose £125.7 billion in 2009

Here is a figure I love to highlight – just for the craic. It seems to get people all hot under the collar for some reason. The Blue Book of national accounts shows the official estimate of the value of homes in the UK. The latest edition, out today, puts the figure for the end of 2009 at £4,048.3 billion against £3,922.6 billion in 2008. That is a rise of £125.7 billion. Mind you, if you apply a deflator – say that…

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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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Estate agents expect housing prices to fall

Estate agents expect housing prices to fall

The latest survey by the surveyors’ body RICS provides further evidence that the bounce back in house prices is petering out. The surveyors polled had, on balance, seen house prices rise in June, but when asked for their expectation for the three months coming the balance swayed narrowly towards a fall in house price. Not that the pattern is even across the UK, the markets in London and Scotland appear fairly buoyant. But in swathes of the north of England and in…

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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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What to make of the conflicting messages from the latest house prices surveys

What to make of the conflicting messages from the latest house prices surveys

As last week closed the Halifax index showed the average price of a home (seasonally adjusted) falling for the second month in a row. This contrasts starkly with the Nationwide data which earlier last week was showing a continuation of a minor surge in prices. Meanwhile the Hometrack survey released last Monday suggests that house price inflation in flagging as activity in the market slows. It is hard to know exactly what to make of these conflicting accounts and to…

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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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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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More home sellers, fewer home letters – a housing market in flux

More home sellers, fewer home letters – a housing market in flux

How should we read yesterday’s Rightmove figures showing the slowest ever March pick up in asking prices? They appear to be consistent with much of what else we are seeing in the market – a growing body of evidence that the recent bounce back in the housing market is faltering (see previous blog). The key factor slowing the rise in asking prices (see graph) Rightmove isolated was a rise in properties coming onto the market – up 34% on the…

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