Equity Release For Home Improvements Up 134% Since 2020

The number of over-50s customers seeking equity release to undertake home improvements rose by 134% in 2021, according to data from Legal & General Financial Advice. The business compared the first five months of 2021 to the same period last year, finding that the number of customers looking to unlock wealth from their home to make renovations initially rose in August 2020, and has been one of the main reasons for customers looking to take out a lifetime mortgage since then. Recent research commissioned by the Good Home Inquiry found that 63% of people approaching later life in England see home renovations as a priority in the next two years. Read more on the Mortgage Introducer website.

Equity release for home improvements up 134% since 2020 | Mortgage Introducer 

Social Housing Owned By For-Profit Providers Increases By 75%

Data collected by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) showed that 49 for-profit providers reported having 9,313 social homes compared with 5,342 in the year to March 2019. The data reflects the growth of the for-profit sector in recent years, with a number of high-profile private companies registering for-profit arms in recent times. These include asset management giant Legal & General setting up L&G Affordable Homes and Sage Housing which is owned by investment giant Blackstone. Both of these providers have begun delivering hundreds of homes through Section 106 and direct delivery. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/social-housing-owned-by-for-profit-providers-increases-by-75-69680#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20social%20housing,2020%2C%20new%20data%20has%20revealed.&text=Data%20collected%20by%20the%20Regulator,the%20year%20to%20March%202019.

Demand Rises For First-Time Buyer BTL Mortgages

New data from Legal & General Mortgage Club has revealed growing demand among first-time buyers who want to enter the buy-to-let market. Searches through its SmartrCriteria tool show that the criteria search combination for first-time buyer, first-time landlord and non-owner occupier has seen an 18% increase since the beginning of September. Searches for these applicants with these circumstances ultimately rose from fourth to first place. The data also showed that ‘holiday lets’ was the second most searched term among advisers in September, moving from the top spot in August. Read more on the Finance Reporter website.

https://www.financialreporter.co.uk/mortgages/demand-rises-for-first-time-buyer-btl-mortgages.html 

Bank Of Mum And Dad 'One Of UK's Biggest Mortgage Lenders'

Parents spend so much money to get their children onto the housing ladder that they are now among the biggest lenders in the UK, a survey suggests. The average parental contribution for homebuyers this year is £24,100, up by more than £6,000 compared to last year, according to Legal & General (L&G). Collectively parents have given £6.3bn, high enough to rank the bank of mum and dad 10th if it was a mortgage lender. Clydesdale Bank, the UK's 10th largest mortgage lender lent £5bn last year. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49477404

Off-The-Peg Homes Bid To Ease UK Housing Crisis

Hundreds of 26 sq m modular homes built to order at factory near Leeds to be rented out at lower cost than flatsharing. The first production run from a vast new factory outside Leeds began this week – with timber delivered at one end, and just a week later a fully furnished one-bed flat popping out the other. Legal & General Homes is promising to build thousands of flats and houses a year at the revolutionary, and highly secretive, factory, and delivered around the country on the back of trucks. Is this the solution to the housing crisis – or a new age of soulless prefabs for rabbit hutch Britain? Read more on the Guardian website.

Mass-Produced Home Factory To Start Producing “Within Weeks”

The UK’s first mass-produced home factory is expected to fire up production soon, as a financial services firm forges ahead with its plan to reshape the country’s failing housing sector. Ready-to-assemble sections of the cross-laminated timber homes will be delivered like flat-packed Ikea furniture, and prototypes are expected “within weeks”. A source said that the prototypes, produced by insurance and investment group Legal & General, would be for a three-bedroom home and a five-bedroom home. Legal & General announced in February this year that it would open the largest home-building factory in Europe in a bid to shake up the UK housing market, which is characterised by chronic undersupply of homes. Read more on the GCR website.

Britain Is Heading For A Homelessness Crisis - How To Stop It

If welfare reform continues on its current track, the UK is headed towards a homelessness crisis in the next decade. This stark warning from the Fabian Society comes at a time when public concern about housing has reached its highest level for 40 years.  For Us All by the Fabian Society, provides a comprehensive and long overdue analysis of the current trajectory of the UK’s welfare state. The research, supported by Shelter and Legal & General, is a vitally important kick-start to the discussions we need to have about the challenges of 2020 and beyond, and what some of the solutions might be. Download a copy of the report from the Fabians website.

“Last Time Buyer” Market Worth £820 Billion

A successful downsizing policy for 'last-time buyers' could play a key role in solving the UK's housing crisis, according to a new report. Research from Legal & General and Cebr shows that there are approximately 5.3 million under-occupied homes in the UK with 3.3 million last-time buyers (LTB) looking to downsize. The LTB market owns 7.7m spare bedrooms and a total of £820 billion of housing wealth, set to reach £1.2 trillion by 2020. Key research findings include:

·         A typical LTB lives in a four-bed house, but wants a two-bed property

·         Almost a third of older homeowners considered downsizing in the last five years; only 7% actually did

·         A majority (58%) put it off until after 70; a quarter until 80 or older.

Read more on the CEBR website.

Mansion Tax 'Will Punish the Prudent'

Families who have saved hard to own their own home would be punished under Labour’s ‘mansion tax’ plans, a major insurer has warned. Chief executive of Legal and General, Nigel Wilson, said the party was ‘pandering to the politics of envy’. He fears that Ed Miliband's pledge to impose a tax on homes worth more than £2 million would exacerbate the housing shortage and make it hard for first-time buyers to get a foot on the property ladder. Mr Wilson said: ‘People who choose to prioritise buying a home have typically made sacrifices to do so: fewer foreign holidays, meals out or other luxuries. Through no fault of their own, their prudence would be punished by a Mansion Tax.’ Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Legal & General Wants To Create Five New Towns in UK in Next 10 Years

Insurance group Legal & General wants to build five new towns across Britain over the next 10 years at a cost of up to £5bn, according to its chief executive. The firm, which manages £440bn in assets globally, said building new towns and regenerating inner cities was the best way of addressing Britain's housing crisis, and would also meet L&G's aim of investing more of its pension fund in infrastructure. "If we can bring communities with us and agree planning, we'd like to help build several new towns across the country. We're already developing towns within cities, in partnership with enlightened local authorities and boroughs," said L&G's boss Nigel Wilson. Wilson also said the government should scrap the Help to Buy mortgage deposit scheme in London to prevent house prices from spiralling out of control. Read more on the Guardian website.