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

Budget Fails Tenants Say Landlords

Tenants will continue to face a rental supply crisis as the Chancellor’s Budget has today failed to boost the supply of privately rented homes. Following years of tax hikes on the sector, organisations including the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Hamptons International, Zoopla and ARLA Propertymark have warned that private sector rents are set to rise as the demand for such homes outstrips supply. The Residential Landlords Association and the National Landlords Association warn that this only makes it harder for tenants to save for a home of their own. Read more on the NLA website

https://landlords.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/budget-fails-tenants-say-landlords

Landlords Urge The Chancellor To Take Action On Decline Of Rental Housing Supply

The Chancellor must use his first Budget to take immediate action to reverse the decline in the supply of rented housing, say landlords. With landlords selling more properties than they are buying and others switching to short-term holiday lets for tax reasons unless action is taken tenants are going to find it increasingly hard to find the home they want. The three per cent stamp duty levy on extra housing introduced in 2016, among other measures, has slowed investment in newly rented property, with landlord confidence now extremely low. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/landlords/landlords-urge-the-chancellor-to-take-action-on-decline-of-rental-housing-supply.html

Landlords Warn Of ‘Sharp Drop’ In Private Rental Supply

Landlords are warning of a crisis in the private rental market, as new figures show a sharp drop in supply over the last year. According to the latest Residential Market Survey by the Royal Institution for Chartered Surveyors, last month saw a net balance of minus 29% of surveyors reporting a fall in landlord instructions – twice the negative rating in November 2018. With tenant demand continuing to increase, RICS predicts that this will lead to rent increases of around 2% over the next year and around 3% a year over the next five years. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/landlords-warn-of-sharp-drop-in-private-rental-supply/

Housing Supply Spike Misses The Point

Government figures showing the supply of homes at a near 30-year peak failed to address major concerns around housing affordability and quality, according to a major charity. The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) acknowledged the latest figures, showing 241,130 “net additions” to England’s housing stock in the 12 months to March 2019, were good news for those looking to get on the housing ladder. But it warned the headline numbers “masked the question of whether those homes are affordable to the people who need them, are of a standard that people would want to live in or will even be occupied on a permanent basis by anybody”. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/housing-supply-spike-misses-the-point-says-cpre/5102750.article

Annual Housing Supply On The Up

Latest MHCLG stats show annual housing supply in England amounted to 241,130 net additional homes in 2018-19 – up 9% on 2017-18. But by those stats there’s still some way for the government to go to reach 300,000 new homes a year by the mid 2020s. The stats show the 241,130 net additions in 2018-19 resulted from 213,660 new build homes, 29,260 gains from change of use between non-domestic and residential, 5,220 from conversions between houses and flats, and 940 other gains (caravans, house boats etc.), offset by 7,940 demolitions. According to the stats, 14,107 of the net additions from change of use were through ‘permitted development rights’, with full planning permission not required.  Download the figures from the GovUK website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-dwelling-stock-including-vacants?utm_source=449ab539-7a93-4756-bd43-6df953dde5b8&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate

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/

Housing Crisis Not Caused By Lack Of Supply

The UK’s housing crisis is not caused by a lack of supply and 300,000 new homes a year would not make a significant impact on house prices and rents, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has said. The thinktank, which published a report written for the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE), said meeting the government’s 300,000 target would only cut house prices by around 10% over 20 years and that the supply shortage story was a “red herring”. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/housing-crisis-not-caused-by-lack-of-supply-says-tony-blair-institute-62891?utm_source=Ocean%20Media%20Group&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=10820689_IH%20daily%2021%2F08%2F2019&dm_i=1HH2,6FXAP,8CKJV9,PJB67,1

Lowest March On Record For Housing Supply

NAEA Propertymark has reported that, despite a month-on-month increase, housing supply hit the lowest level on record for the month of March. An average of 37 properties were available to buy last month, a 9% increase from 34 in February. After demand dipped in February, the number of house hunters registered per estate agent branch rose by 17% in March, from 252 to 296. This is similar a level to January, when 297 prospective buyers were recorded per estate agent branch. Year-on-year, demand was the lowest level recorded for the month of March since 2013. Read more on the Best Advice website.

https://bestadvice.co.uk/lowest-march-on-record-for-housing-supply/

Rented Housing: Older People – Parliamentary Written Answer

Lord Kennedy of Southwark: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that there is a sufficient supply of housing for older people in the private rented, social and council housing sectors.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth: In our Housing White Paper, the Government set out proposals to do more to provide the homes we need for all in our society, including older people. We are strengthening the National Planning Policy Framework, so that local planning authorities are expected to have clear policies for addressing the housing needs of older people. Planning authorities should also include a plan policy setting out their approach to promoting Build to Rent. We will be publishing further guidance on housing for older people this summer.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Lords/2018-04-16/HL6922

Raab Immigration Calculations Sourced From Quango Abolished In 2010

Dominic Raab’s claim that immigration has pushed up house prices by 20% in 25 years relied on a model produced by a quango abolished in 2010, the government has said. The MHCLG, however, has refused to publish this model or the statistics produced from it. A spokesperson for the MHCLG said: “Basically, the figure was produced using an analytical model originally produced by the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit (NHPAU), which incorporates ONS [Office for National Statistics] housing supply statistics. “So it’s not something that can be found online – or in published stats. Our officials provided it to Mr Raab ahead of his interview.” Read more on Inside Housing.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:whMnFD4SHRoJ:https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/raab-immigration-calculations-sourced-from-quango-abolished-in-2010-55685+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&safe=vss

Property Sales Unchanged Year On Year

Residential property sales in the UK increased by 1.3% between December 2017 and January 2018 and were 0.1% lower compared with the same month last year, the latest official figures show. There were 102,610 residential sales and 10,780 non-residential transactions, according to the data published by HMRC, unchanged from a year ago and rising only marginally on a monthly basis. Overall sales have been stagnant and experts believe it is a sign that there is just not enough properties and the limited housing supply is acting as a roadblock. Read more on the Property Wire website.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/uk/uk-property-sales-unchanged-year-year-marginally-monthly-basis/

Housing Infrastructure Fund :Written Statement

The Government announces that we will invest £866 million to help unlock up to 200,000 new homes through 133 Marginal Viability Fund projects, within the Housing Infrastructure Fund. The Government has set out a plan that puts us on track to increase housing supply to 300,000 homes a year and this first wave of funding from the £5 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund is part of a comprehensive programme to fix the broken housing market. This investment will fund key local infrastructure projects including new roads, cycle paths, flood defences and land remediation work where it is needed for new housing to be built. Without this financial support, these projects would struggle to go ahead or take years for work to begin, delaying the homes these communities need.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-02-01/HCWS440

How To Fix The Housing Shortage

A surprise increase has been caused by a shortage of supply, says Nationwide. If Communities Secretary Sajid Javid imposes a charge on builders' unused land the money should be handed to cash strapped council planning departments to get developments moving.  Something of a surprise from Nationwide, which reported a 3.2 per cent annual rise in house prices in January and the 2.6 per cent recorded the previous month.  It’s the biggest increase since March 2017, and has pushed the average price to £211,756, the highest recorded by the building society. This is eye opening when you consider the squeeze on household budgets, the general lack of consumer confidence, the torpid economic outlook thanks to Brexit. Read more on the Independent website.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/how-to-fix-the-housing-shortage-as-nationwide-reports-record-average-prices-a8189796.html

Government ‘Unacceptably Complacent’ In Tackling Homelessness

The cross-party committee of MPs said the CLG’s “limited action” has “lacked the urgency that is so badly needed and its ‘light touch’ approach to working with the local authorities has clearly failed”. The PAC said the CLG is placing “great reliance” on the Homelessness Reduction Act, which comes into force in April next year, to provide the solution to homelessness and while this legislation “will no doubt help”, it cannot be successful unless the government also increases housing supply and makes homes more affordable. The latest government statistics showed there are 79,190 households in temporary accommodation, a 65% jump since 2010. Read more on Inside Housing.

Social Housing Sector Delivers ‘Another Strong Year Of Investment’

The social housing sector has delivered ‘another strong year of investment’ in new and existing properties according to the 2017 global accounts. The main findings for 2017 are:

·         The sector invested £10bn in new housing supply and £1.6bn in existing stock. Total investment of £11.6bn represents a 15% increase on 2016

·         Of this, investment in new and existing social housing stock was £7.9bn

·         Turnover was unchanged at £20bn

·         Operating margins have increased by 2% to 30%

·         Total debt held by the sector increased by £2.9bn to £69.6bn

·         The underlying net surplus was £3.5bn – a 7% increase on 2016

Read more on 24housing.

Tenants Face Dwindling Supply Of Housing

Private sector tenants face a perfect storm with the supply of homes to rent set to fall as demand increases. According to a survey of almost 3,000 landlords published today, 22 per cent plan to sell at least one of their properties over the next year, with just 18 per cent planning to buy additional properties to rent. The new data, published in the Residential Landlord Association’s (RLA) latest quarterly research report, finds also that 33 per cent of landlords have seen an increase in demand for homes to rent over the past three years. Read more on the RLA website.

CLG Urged To Shape Up Over New Homes

A government that spends around £21bn each year on housing benefit does not know what contribution this money makes to the supply of new housing. Now, a key Commons committee has put the CLG on notice, wanting a report back within a year on identifying metrics that can be used to establish the full impact of housing benefit on building new homes and scope for this financing to be used more innovatively to increase housing supply and home ownership. The Public Accounts Committee says it specifically wants to see research into the estimated £8bn in housing benefit a year spent on subsidising rents paid by tenants in the private rented sector.  Read more on 24housing.

Javid Drops Council House Building Hint For White Paper

Sajid Javid dropped a huge hint that councils would get the chance to build again in the Housing White Paper. The document, which has been delayed numerous times, is going to be “a whole new mindset” according to Javid. Speaking at a Local Government Association event, he said: “It wouldn’t be right for me to reveal everything that’s in the white paper before it’s published.  The white paper will set out serious, lasting, long-term reforms that will boost housing supply immediately and for many years to come. A whole new attitude to house building at all levels – in central government, in the building industry and, yes, in local government too.” Read more on the 24housing website.

Social Housing Is Vital For London’s Future

The current patchwork of eight Government housing schemes are helping more get on the housing ladder, new research suggests. But there are very different levels of ‘generosity’ in the programmes with the Right to Buy and Starter Home schemes offering more than others, according to the research commissioned by the Council of Mortgage Lenders. One of them, the Help to Buy Mortgage Guarantee scheme ends in in December, and the seven remaining schemes all also specifically promote and deliver new housing supply, which the CML report says is clearly helpful in addressing this most pressing structural housing market problem.  The report analyses how each of these schemes works for different types of households. Read more on the Property Wire website.