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Tag: mortgages

Beware estate agents selling optimism – the housing market remains in a worrisome state

Beware estate agents selling optimism – the housing market remains in a worrisome state

There was a very upbeat headline given by the RICS press office to the latest housing market survey released today by the surveyors’ body. Judging by various headlines from news outlets, including that on the BBC website, and various tweets I noticed on the subject, the message received by the casual observer appears to be “well that’s all good then”. I was bemused. I can see that less bad may be construed as good in a world of torture. But looking…

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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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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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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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2011 is set to be worst year in decades for UK house sales

2011 is set to be worst year in decades for UK house sales

The latest set of residential property transactions figures from HMRC (the Revenue) make for rather gloomy reading. Without a perking up of sales in the final quarter the number of homes sold in 2011 is set be the lower than the slump in 2009. The seasonally adjusted HMRC data show that the number of homes worth more than £40,000 is continuing to slide. And, given the way things seem to work, that means we should not be surprised if fewer…

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Why a 1930s style private-sector house-building boom seems highly unlikely

Why a 1930s style private-sector house-building boom seems highly unlikely

As the parallels with the 1930s depression become increasingly unavoidable, I sense a new romantic surge of interest in the notion of a private-sector-led house-building boom driving economic recovery. For those not familiar with the 1930s private house building market, completions in England in 1934 hit almost 290,000. That is near on three time current levels. Never before nor since has there been such numbers of private homes built in England. The public sector was not workshy over that period…

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Spiralling rents pose a tough question for Shapps: Where will the new homes come from?

Spiralling rents pose a tough question for Shapps: Where will the new homes come from?

The latest survey of the residential rental market by the surveyors’ body RICS is likely to wind up the pressure on the housing minister Grant Shapps to promote more house building. The survey suggests that rents are rising ever faster, driven by rising demand in a market where supply is constrained, as the graph taken from the RICS survey shows.

Why young folk can’t buy homes

Why young folk can’t buy homes

My patience runs thin when listening to the reasons why young folk can’t buy homes. And today I’ve had to listen to and read various interpretations of why they can’t, prompted by the release of the interesting Halifax sponsored research “The Reality of Generation Rent: Perceptions of the first time buyer market”. Call me unnecessarily reductive, but there is one simple over-riding reason why young folk struggle to buy a home, so simple it seems to be the most often…

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Are we condemned to low levels of house building?

Are we condemned to low levels of house building?

Research released this week by the think tank ippr painted a gloomy picture of house shortages in England growing disturbingly in the years to 2025, by which time it reckons we could have demand outstripping supply by 750,000 homes. It’s a stab at trying to predict what might happen and there will always be problems with research of this kind. It is, for instance, not inconceivable that if Britain’s economy becomes less attractive we may see a significant rise in…

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Whither house prices in 2011 – it sounds as if they will

Whither house prices in 2011 – it sounds as if they will

House prices dropped over 2010 by 1.6% on the normal measure used by Halifax and appear to be on the way down. Meanwhile the Bank of England reinforced what we already knew –or at least thought we knew – that the appetite for mortgages waned markedly in the final quarter of 2010 and is expected to decline still further this quarter. So, things don’t look too perky on the house price front (unless you are buying) when we add in…

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