House Sales Tumble In July After Stamp Duty Holiday Deadline

House sales tumbled by almost two-thirds in July after tens of thousands of homebuyers rushed to complete their purchases in order to beat the end-of-June stamp duty holiday deadline. Following a record surge in activity in June, when 213,370 UK homes changed hands, transactions slumped 62% to 82,110 in July according to official data, after the government scaled back its tax break for buyers in England and Northern Ireland. HM Revenue and Customs – which published the new data – said it showed that homebuyers were “completing property transactions earlier to take advantage of government housing market policies”. HMRC also said that following the changes to the rules, “an expected but noticeable decrease [in sales] has been observed”. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/aug/24/uk-house-sales-stamp-duty-holiday-deadline-tax-break

Right To Buy Sales Plummet

Right to Buy sales fell 23% in the last quarter of 2018/19, while replacements slipped more than 4,000 homes behind the government’s one-for-one pledge. Councils in England sold an estimated 2,612 homes through the policy from January to March 2019, down from 3,396 in the same period last year. Over the whole of 2018/19, 10,213 homes were sold – a 21% drop on 2017/18 and the lowest number since 2012/13 when Right to Buy discounts were raised dramatically. Councils received £219.7m from Right to Buy sales from January to March, an average of £84,100 per home. Find out more on the MHCLG website.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/810184/Right_to_Buy_sales_in_England_2018_to_2019_Q4.pdf

Poverty After Housing Costs By Housing Tenure

Since 2002/03 the number in poverty in all but owned with mortgage tenure types has decreased. While the proportion of those in poverty after housing costs in the social rented sector fell by 7.5 percentage points between 2002/03 to 2014/15 - the largest fall across all tenure types – the poverty rate in the social rented sector remains higher than any other tenure type. The proportion of those in poverty in the private rented sector is 36%, a decrease of 2.5 percentage points. Among those owning their properties outright, the proportion of those in poverty fell by 5.6 percentage points to 11%, while the figures for those owning a property with a mortgage remained unchanged. Read more on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website.

Demand From Buyers In UK Falls To Two Year Low

Demand for housing in the UK is at its lowest level in two years with the number of house hunters making enquiries down by a fifth in April, new research shows. Estate agents also reported that the number of sales made to first time buyers fell in April. The April Housing Market report from the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) shows there were 325 house hunters registered per member branch on average last month. This was the lowest number recorded since March 2014, when there were 313 house buyers recorded at each estate agent branch. This means demand has decreased by 22% from 417 in March. Last month, the supply of houses available for buyers also decreased by 35% from 54 properties available in March to 35 in April. Read more on the Property Wire website.

Revealed: How Many Council Homes Are Left In England After 20 Year Sell-Off

The number of council owned social homes has fallen to less than half what it was two decades ago. Figures from the CLG have revealed the number of local authority owned social houses in England as of April 2015. Across the whole of England 1,643,000 dwellings were local authority owned which is a drop of 1.5% compared to the same month in 2014. Compared to 1994, however, the number has fallen by 55% from 3.67 million. Private Registered Providers now own 2.45 million dwellings across the country, up from 985,000 in 1997. Around 17.6% of all houses in England are owned by either public bodies or Private Registered Providers which is a slight decrease compared to the 17.9% recorded in 2012. Read more on the Daily Mirror website.

Calm Before The Storm For Private Tenants

Letting agents reported a “seasonal lull” last month as both demand and supply dropped off – but it has been called a calm before the storm for private renters, as changes to the buy-to-let market kick in later this year.  In its December private rental sector (PRS) report, the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) said its agents registered an average of 29 prospective new tenants last month, down from 34 in November. This represents a decrease of 15%. Supply also decreased marginally in December, with an average of 182 properties managed per branch, down from 189 in November. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Labour Hit Back At Cameron’s “Record Of Failure” On Housing

Labour’s Shadow Housing minister John Healey has slammed the “five years of failure on housing” since Cameron took office. He said: “Over the last five years with David Cameron in charge the Conservatives have completely failed on housing. They claim to be the party of home ownership but it has fallen every year for the past five years and is now at its lowest level for a generation – for those under 35, it’s down by over a fifth. Their record of failure has also seen rapidly rising rents, more homelessness, higher housing benefits bill, and fewer homes built than at any time since the 1920s. After five years of failure on housing, the millions of people struggling to cope with their housing costs deserve a real plan for more affordable homes to rent and buy. And the country needs a new wide debate about how our deepening housing crisis can be tackled.” Read more on the Labour List website.

One in Three to Face Renting In Retirement By 2040

Millions of future pensioners are destined to spend their retirement in rental accommodation as home ownership plummets, estimates show. Up to a third of 60-year-olds will be renting by 2040, with many never having been able to own their own home, it is claimed. Academics describe renting in retirement as a ‘time bomb’ which will stretch the finances of the elderly while costing taxpayers billions in housing benefit and social care. Professor Steve Wilcox, of the University of York’s centre for housing policy, estimated that only two-thirds of 60 year olds will own their own home within 35 years. Charities warned this could leave them vulnerable to poverty, poor living conditions and eviction. Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Social Rent Cut Set To Take £2.6bn from Councils

George Osborne’s decision to cut social housing rents by 1% in each of the next four years will cost local authorities a total of £2.6bn in lost revenue, a study by the Local Government Association has found. The LGA found the measure would initially cost councils £234m in year one through lower rents in council homes. The amount lost would rise to £508m in the second year, then to £795m in year three, and more than £1bn by 2019/20. The total £2.6bn lost will represent 60% of local government’s total housing maintenance budget, and is the equivalent of funding to build almost 19,000 new homes. Read more on the Public Finance website.

Planning Shake-Up to Get More Homes Built

Developers could get automatic planning permission to build on disused industrial sites in England. Ministers would also get powers to seize disused land, while major housing projects could be fast-tracked, and rules on extensions in London relaxed. It came as official figures showed new house building fell by 5.8% in May, the sharpest decline in nearly four years. There is a question mark over whether building more homes will boost productivity as much as ministers claim and Labour said the Conservatives had a record of making "empty promises" over the past five years. Read more on the BBC website.

Some Landlords Could Be Exempted From Rent Cut

Social landlords could be exempted from new rules forcing them to lower rents by 1% a year if such a move would threaten their financial viability. A clause in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill says social landlords could be exempted from the rent decrease if complying would ‘jeopardise’ their finances. The exemption would need to be approved by the secretary of state. Read more on Inside Housing.

Self Build Properties Fall to Six Year Low

New figures reveal that UK-wide self build planning applications in 2014 have decreased by 28% compared to 2008. Data show that 16,792 self build planning applications were submitted in the first three quarters of 2008, which has steadily declined year on year to 12,159 in 2014. As part of the Government's on-going policy to increase the number of available homes, new measures were announced in the 2014 Budget to increase the amount of self build projects. These include a £150 million loan fund to help bring forward thousands of 'shovel ready' building plots and a proposed 'right to build' policy, giving custom builders the right to a suitable plot of land for self build housing, which is currently being pioneered in 11 areas across the country. Read more on the PR Newswire website.

Ministers Warned Of Decrease In House Building

The government is exploring emergency measures to kick-start house-building, amid an expected decrease in new build this year, BBC Newsnight has learned. In leaked documents, officials warn the last set of figures before the 2015 general election will reveal house building to have decreased by 4%. That figure will be released in February 2015, three months ahead of the general election. The government said pressure would be brought to bear on "slow-coach councils" to deliver on new build. The decrease is worrying the government after it expended quite considerable political capital on planning reform and other measures to boost house building. Read more on the BBC website.