Nottingham Predicted To Fall Short Of Housing Demand By More Than 4,000 Homes

Nottingham could fall short of the demand for housing by more than 4,000 homes, according to the latest predictions. The issue will be raised during a Nottingham City Council strategic planning and transport committee meeting, as the latest predictions show the city is set to fall short of its estimated housing need by 4,411 properties. However the city council says it has plans to produce a new strategic plan later this year, working alongside other local authorities across the Greater Nottingham area, to "ensure the demand is met". Read more on the Nottingham Live website.

https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/nottingham-predicted-fall-short-housing-5867183 

‘Acute’ Shortage Of UK Homes Expected To Run Until 2022

There is an “acute” shortage of homes available for sale, Zoopla said, with the market facing its greatest shortage since the property listing portal’s records began in 2015. This comes as the average price of a house went up by 7.6% over the last 12 months. Buyer demand remains strong, up 20.5% in July compared to the 2020 average. Stock levels are down 26.4% compared to last year's average, and down even more (33%) compared “with the more normal” pre-pandemic markets of 2018 and 2019, Zoopla said. Read more on Yahoo Finance.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/acute-shortage-of-uk-homes-expected-to-run-until-2022-230141094.html 

Housing Stock Down 40% Since January

Estate agent body, Propertymark, has released worrying data showing the scale of the decline in houses coming onto the market. According to research from Propertymark, the housing stock has been steadily declining since January - with the average estate agency branch having approximately 23 properties, a 38% decrease from June 2020 and June 2019 and a 40% decrease since January 2021. However, demand remains high with around 19 buyers per property prompting the body to warn that the market desperately needs more stock. Figures also show 40% of houses are selling for over the asking price. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/property/housing-stock-down-40-since-january.html

House Price Growth Slows As Housing Market Cools

The Halifax says house prices rose again in July after dipping last month, making the average price £261,221 and leaving prices 7.6% higher than at the same time last year. Last month, average prices were 8.7% up on a year ago. The lender said it expected prices to settle further after the recent spate of strong rises, which has been fuelled in part by tax breaks on stamp duty. But it said a shortage of homes was likely to support prices. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58112221 

House Prices Set To Continue Rising As Supply Shrinks

A lack of available properties is helping to push up house prices, surveyors say. As a result, a majority of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) members think prices will continue to rise over the next year. The shrinking supply meant the number of new properties coming to the market fell by a third in June. But with no let-up in demand, all parts of the UK continued to report robust increases in house prices, RICS said. Read more on the BBC website.

House prices set to continue rising as supply shrinks - BBC News

Years-Long Waiting Lists For Social Housing In Lambeth

A severe housing shortage in Lambeth means people are waiting for a council home for years, with one resident joining the list in 1975. According to a Freedom of Information request, someone joined the list 44 years ago and has yet to be given social housing. Lambeth Council said the oldest applications “include people who are adequately housed and therefore have no priority for social housing, and who are not actively seeking rehousing but remain on the list at their own request.”  Nearly 30,000 people are waiting for a council home in the borough.  Read more on the Wandsworth Guardian website.

https://www.wandsworthguardian.co.uk/news/18061394.years-long-waiting-lists-social-housing-lambeth/

Labour And Tories Push Housing Policies

Labour and the Conservatives have set out rival plans to tackle England's housing shortage. Jeremy Corbyn promised the biggest affordable house building programme since the 1960s, including 100,000 new council houses a year by 2024. Boris Johnson announced measures to help first-time buyers and boost private house building, promising a million homes over the next five years. The announcements came ahead of Labour's manifesto launch. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50496700

Crisis Looming In Supply Of Rented Properties

Landlords are warning of a rented housing supply crisis as a new survey shows more landlords are selling properties than buying whilst demand continues to increase. According to research by the Residential Landlords Association, almost 25 per cent of landlords have seen the demand for private rented property increase over the last three months. The growth in demand comes as the supply of private rented housing continues to fall. According to the research over the next 12 months 31 per cent of landlords plan to sell at least one property with just 13 per cent saying they plan to buy at least one. Read more on the RLA website.

https://news.rla.org.uk/crisis-looming-in-supply-of-rented-properties/

Rents In UK Up Almost 5% In Second Quarter Of 2019

Rising rents, a doubling of tenant applications and a shortage of housing stock continues to put pressure on the Private Rental Sector in the UK, according to the latest lettings index report. Average rents reached £774 per month in the second quarter of 2019, up 4.5% compared to the same quarter in 2018, the data from the Belvoir index shows. Belvoir’s analysis of tenant applicant leads in June 2019 confirmed a dramatic increase in numbers when compared to those recorded in May 2019. Read more on the Property Wire website.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/uk/rents-in-uk-up-almost-5-in-second-quarter-of-2019/

London Housing Shortage

The number of houses being built is rising at a slower rate in London than any other region despite the capital having the most acute homes shortage, according to analysis. It showed 40,735 energy Performance Certificates (EPC) — a legal requirement for a new home — were granted in London in the 12 months to June. This was a six per cent rise on the 38,394 issued in 2015, the year before Sadiq Khan was elected Mayor on a manifesto promise to tackle the capital’s housing crisis. Read more on the Homes & Property website.

https://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/property-news/london-housing-shortage-home-building-is-rising-at-a-slower-rate-in-london-than-any-other-region-a132876.html

Housing Crisis Is Harming Productivity

Britain’s housing shortage is having a harmful impact on the country’s productivity, nearly one in two businesses have warned. Some 43 per cent of UK companies with over 1,000 employees said that housing issues are having a negative effect on their business’ productivity, according to new findings released by the Centre for Social Justice. The think tank’s report has also revealed that 48 per cent believe that housing issues are having an adverse effect on the wellbeing of their staff. Download the report from the CSJ website.

https://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/core/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/CSJJ7065-Housing-Commission-report-4-190723-WEB.pdf

Build On Green Belt And Cut Tax To End Home Crisis, Urges Rees-Mogg

Large sections of the green belt would be declassified and VAT on property restorations slashed as part of a radical package of free-market reforms set out by Jacob Rees-Mogg to urgently tackle the housing crisis. The senior Tory, who is tipped to become Boris Johnson's Chief Secretary to the Treasury, puts Britain's homes shortage down to "distortive taxation" and the "most centralised planning system" in the world. "We must urgently renew a property-owning democracy in Britain once more," he says. Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/07/20/build-green-belt-cut-tax-end-home-crisis-urges-jacob-rees-mogg/

Housing Shortage Creates Downsizing Woes

A shortage of small properties is making it harder for retirees to downsize, equity release adviser Responsible Life has claimed. According to the firm's research, the downsizing dilemma is so bad that there is double the number of four bedroom properties for every two-bedroom house in 16 per cent of places. Responsible Life surveyed the number of four-bed and two-bed houses for sale in 120 major UK towns and cities and found Cambridge and Rugby to be the worst affected areas, where there are three four-bed houses for every one two-bed. Overall, in two thirds of areas the number of four bedroom properties outweighs two-bed houses, the adviser stated. Read more on the Financial Times website.

https://www.ftadviser.com/mortgages/2019/04/08/housing-shortage-creates-downsizing-woes/

Budget 2018: What Do The Housing Measures Mean?

More help for first-time buyers and plans to create more homes on the High Street have been announced in the Budget. Most first-time buyers of shared ownership properties will now no longer pay stamp duty, under the measures unveiled. Chancellor Philip Hammond said Britain's housing market needs to be fixed, adding it was key to boosting UK productivity and pushing up living standards. The UK is facing a shortage of housing. The number of homes on the market is at a 10-year low and fewer people are taking out mortgages. So what has the chancellor said he is going to do about it? Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46024789

Over 123,000 Children ‘Spent Their School Holidays Homeless’

More than 123,000 children and their families have spent their school holiday homeless, an increase of around 53,000 since the summer holidays of 2011. The Local Government Association (LGA) is warning the numbers of homeless children councils are housing in temporary accommodation has increased by 76% in the last seven years. Councils, who since 2011, have been housing an additional 650 homeless children every month – the equivalent of an additional primary school’s worth of children every fortnight – are calling on the Government to adapt welfare reforms and allow councils to borrow to build new homes, with the right infrastructure, to tackle the housing shortage. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/over-123000-children-spent-their-school-holidays-homeless/

Research Reveals Huge Rise In Number Of Empty Homes In England

The number of empty homes in England has increased for the first time in a decade with the city of York recording the biggest rise as the number of long term vacant properties rose 322% in a year. Overall one in 10 vacant properties are in London where there is some £9.6 billion of long term empty housing stock, according to a new analysis from online estate agents HouseSimple. The figures are published at a time when there are concerns about the number of homes lying empty when the country is facing a housing shortage in both the sales and the lettings markets. Read more on the Property Wire website.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/uk/research-reveals-huge-rise-number-empty-homes-england/

Disabled People In Housing Crisis

Disabled people have been left frustrated and trapped by a chronic shortage of suitable housing, as unnecessary bureaucracy and insufficient support leave them trapped in unsuitable homes, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has warned. The results of an eighteen month formal legal inquiry call for governments to take urgent action to make all new houses adaptable and accessible, as 365,000 disabled people say their home is not suitable for their needs. ‘Housing and disabled people: Britain’s hidden crisis’ calls on governments to produce a national strategy to ensure there is an adequate supply of houses built to inclusive design standards and for a review of the way that building standards are enforced. Read more on the EHRC website.

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/our-work/news/disabled-people-housing-crisis

Hundreds Of Thousands Living In Squalid Rented Homes In England

Rented housing so squalid it is likely to leave tenants requiring medical attention is being endured by hundreds of thousands of young adults in England, an analysis of government figures has revealed. Rats, mouldy walls, exposed electrical wiring, leaking roofs and broken locks are among problems blighting an estimated 338,000 homes rented by people under 35 that have been deemed so hazardous they are likely to cause harm. It is likely to mean that over half a million people are starting their adult lives in such conditions, amid a worsening housing shortage and rising rents, which are up 15% across the UK in the last seven years. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/28/hundreds-of-thousands-living-in-squalid-rented-homes-in-england

90% Of MPs Back Converting Empty Spaces Above Shops Into Housing

Research by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) entitled ‘Homes on our high streets’, shows MPs believe converting empty spaces above shops could have a number of positive consequences. The findings show 94% of MPs believe this could reverse the housing shortage in their constituency, an issue that was felt on the doorstep in the election back in June. 89% of MPs say it could boost local growth in their area and 86% of MPs think it could have a positive impact on the vibrancy of their town centres. Read more on 24housing.

Stamp Duty Having ‘Stifling’ Impact On Housing Market

The “stifling” effect of stamp duty on the housing market means an extra 146,000 property sales could have taken place over the last five years if home movers had not been faced with the tax, a report has estimated. Despite reforms to stamp duty in recent years, it remains “inefficient”, fuelling housing shortages, making homes less affordable and putting people off moving to more suitable properties – from those taking early steps on the housing ladder to older home owners. It also hampers social and economic flexibility by making it harder for families to live near their desired schools or places that could provide particular job opportunities. Read more on Yahoo.