'Mad Rush' To Buy Homes Faded In April

The "mad rush" to buy properties to take advantage of stamp duty holidays waned in April, official figures suggest. Transactions fell by 36% compared with the record level of UK home sales in March, according to HM Revenue and Customs. An extension to the deadline for stamp duty relief into the summer is likely to have been behind the fall. However, analysts expect interest and prices to remain high. Read more on the BBC website.

'Mad rush' to buy homes faded in April - BBC News

Super-Rich Spent Almost £3bn Buying 'Third Or Fourth Trophy' London Homes During Pandemic

 Super-rich buyers spent almost £3bn on luxury properties in London last year that became their “third or fourth” homes and “trophy assets”. Political uncertainty in the US and Hong Kong, as well as a weak pound, were other key factors that enabled the mega-wealthy from both overseas and within the UK to splurge even as hundreds of thousands of Londoners risked being “plunged into poverty” as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The UK capital sold 201 “super-prime” residential homes – defined as costing more than US$10m (£7.3m) – in 2020, according to recent figures by the estate agent Knight Frank. Read more on the Huffington Post website.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/super-rich-luxury-london-homes-pandemic_uk_60782f61e4b0e554e81c44ef

Buying Vs Renting Gap Widens During Lockdown

New data, based on the housing costs associated with a mortgage on a three-bed home versus the average monthly rent of the same property type, has revealed that first-time buyers are now £800 a year better off than renters. According to research from Halifax, the gap between buying and renting has stretched by 8% in the past 12 months. Monthly rental costs have increased by 10% to £821 in the past year, while monthly buying costs have increased by 1% to £753 during the same period. The difference was only 1% in 2019, which dropped sharply from the previous year, when the monthly difference between buying versus renting was 10%. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/property/buying-vs-renting-gap-widens-during-lockdown.html

Buying House In UK City At Least Affordable Level Since 2007

City living is at its least affordable levels for home buyers since 2007, a report suggests. The average house price in a UK city in 2018 equated to 7.2 times average annual earnings – making the cost of buying a home the least affordable since 2007 when buyers had to fork out 7.5 times their income typically, Lloyds Bank found. The average home in a city cost £248,233 while average full-time earnings stood at £34,366. Lloyds found seven cities where the average house price tops 10 times earnings -Oxford, Chichester, Winchester, Truro, London, Bath and Cambridge. Read more on the Belfast Telegraph website.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/buying-house-in-uk-city-at-least-affordable-level-since-2007-study-suggests-37775722.html

Home Buying Activity Declines In January

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, lending in January:

·         Home buyers borrowed £8.4bn in January, down 28% on December and unchanged on January 2016. This came to 45,700 loans, down 28% on December and 1% on January 2016.

·         First-time buyers borrowed £3.6bn for home-owner house purchase, down 29% on December but up 9% on January 2016. They took out 22,600 loans, down 29% month-on-month but up 7% year-on-year. 

·         Home movers borrowed £4.9bn, down 25% on December and 4% year-on-year. This equated to 23,000 loans, down 27% month-on-month and 7% compared to January 2016.  

·         Gross buy-to-let saw month-on-month increases, up 11% by value and 12% by volume. Compared to January 2016,  both the number of loans and the amount borrowed decreased by 16%.    

Read more on the CML website.

Five Facts About……….Housing

The steady rise in the cost of buying a home shows no sign of abating, as ONS figures reveal that average house prices have risen by 8.7% in the year to June 2016. But house prices are just one part of the story; here are five facts about housing in the UK, from renting to the number of homes being built.

1 The average UK house price was £214,000 in June 2016, £24,000 above its pre-economic downturn peak of £190,000 in September 2007.

2 The percentage of young adult householders owning their home decreased

3 All the countries that constitute Great Britain have experienced rises in their private rental prices since 2011.

4 In both 1995 and 2015 the cheapest small area in England and Wales to buy a property was in Lancashire

5 The overall level of house building in the UK has declined since 1980

For more details go to the ONS website.