Housing Association Spend Per Home Plummets By Nearly A Fifth During Pandemic

Social housing providers have reduced their spending on repairs and maintenance by 16% during the pandemic. The drop in ‘major works capital spend per unit’ reflects a downturn in all but essential repairs during 2020, when the sector was hit by successive pandemic-induced lockdowns. The slow in repairs meant that the overall cost by housing associations per home fell from an average of £3,664 in 2019-20 to £3,565 during 2020-21 – a drop of 2.8%. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/housing-association-spend-per-home-plummets-by-nearly-a-fifth-during-pandemic-73239 

Decline In Residential-Starts Holds Back Construction Industry Recovery

 Overall project-starts saw a steady slowdown in Q.2 and Q.3, after an initial surge in the first quarter and continued to fall in September, albeit at a slower rate, according to the September analysis from Glenigan. Further, the development pipeline remained robust throughout the year, particularly for some non-residential sectors, including industrial. Main contract awards have been increasing over the last eighteen months, ever since the first National Lockdown in March 2020 and detailing planning approvals remain consistently high. Read more on Specification Online.

https://specificationonline.co.uk/articles/2021-10-12/glenigan/strong-decline-in-residential-starts-holds-back-construction-industry-recovery

UK Enjoys Property Sales Boom Amid Covid-19 Pandemic

Hard-to-sell homes are being snapped up by the hundred as Britain’s booming property market maintains a year-long breakneck sales record. In areas of high demand, even the most knocked-about and idiosyncratic houses are spending just days on the market once buyers, desperate to grab something, see that predictions of a house price crash are proving off the mark. While the property merry-go-round screeched to a temporary halt during the first lockdown early last year, the pause did not last. With sales barely slowing over the summer, the data is clear: along with technology, real estate has emerged as one of the pandemic’s boom sectors. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/sep/03/uk-enjoys-property-sales-boom-amid-covid-19-pandemic 

Help To Buy Prices Stay 'Comfortably' Below Regional Price Caps

The Whathouse? New Homes Index, which tracks Help to Buy average new build prices across Britain, has revealed that prices are comfortably below the regional price cap limits in all regions. This is, Whathouse believes, a sign that concerns over the new Help to Buy scheme - which came into effect 1 April 2021 - and potential lack of affordability are not playing out.  This provides reassurance to first-time buyers now able to benefit from the scheme, with many having made the most of lockdown to save the 5% deposit required to get onto the property ladder. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/property/help-to-buy-prices-stay-comfortably-below-regional-price-caps.html 

Nottingham Facing Homeless Crisis As Hundreds Need Beds

Nottingham City Council are seeing applications from local people who say they've been made homeless rising at a rapid rate. At the moment the authority is looking after 600 families and individuals in temporary accommodation, including hostels, leased houses and B&Bs. During lockdown, eviction notice periods were extended to six months as an emergency measure by the Government. Now the period is four months – and from October it will be two months. The Labour-run authority is already forecast to exceed the £890,000 budget it set to deal with homelessness. Read more on the planet radio website.

https://planetradio.co.uk/gem-106/local/news/nottingham-facing-homeless-crisis-hundreds-need-beds/ 

House Prices Rise At Fastest Pace In 17 Years

UK house prices rose 13.4% in the year to June, the fastest pace since November 2004, the Nationwide has said. The building society said the average house price increased to £245,432 from £216,403 in June 2020. The Nationwide bases the findings on its own mortgage data. It said while the rapid annual growth was partly due to prices being "unusually weak" during the first lockdown last year, the market continued to "show significant momentum". Read more on the BBC website.

House prices rise at fastest pace in 17 years - BBC News

Financial Support Package Needed Now To Address COVID-Related Arrears

Propertymark, alongside other organisations, has written to the Minister for Rough Sleeping and Housing, Eddie Hughes MP, to emphasise the sector's ongoing concerns over COVID-related rent arrears and urging the UK Government to come forward with a package of emergency financial support. The organisations have provided a briefing to the Minister which explains why renters and landlords whose finances have been affected since the start of lockdown measures in March 2020 cannot keep tenancies going without additional financial support. Measures from the UK Government have provided some short-term relief but have not done enough to protect renters going forward. Read more on the ARLA website.

https://www.arla.co.uk/news/june-2021/financial-support-package-needed-now-to-address-covid-related-arrears/

House Price Growth At Highest Rate Since 2004

House prices are increasing at a staggering annual rate of up to 20.9% in the North West, driven by a high demand for semi-detached homes, according to the latest data released by e.surv. According to this morning's figures, the average price of a home in England and Wales stood at £343,658 in May - up 0.5% on the month and 13.4% on the year, the highest year-on-year growth since December 2004, and despite England and Wales having been in various states of lockdown and economic contraction since March 2020. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/property/house-price-growth-at-highest-rate-since-2004.html 

Eviction Notice Periods Reduced To Four Months From June

The MHCLG said that longer notice periods for tenants facing eviction during the pandemic will remain in place until at least October, although the term will be reduced to four months from next month. Ministers said the reduction in notice periods is in line with the nation “progressing cautiously” through the roadmap out of lockdown. The government said that subject to public health advice, notice periods will return to the pre-pandemic levels from 1 October. Housing associations welcomed the extended protections but called for longer notice periods to be in place beyond October. Read more on Inside Housing.

Inside Housing - News - Eviction notice periods reduced to four months from June

Supply Dries Up In UK Housing Market

Parts of the UK property market are facing a supply shortage, with a quarter fewer properties listed for sale in England and Wales in March 2021 than compared with the same time last year.  This is more of a problem in the market for houses rather than flats, as the number of houses listed for sale was 33% lower over the 12-month period while the number of flats was 7% higher. Analysis also revealed that it is more acute in parts of the country that have experienced stronger demand due to successive COVID-19 lockdowns. Among the house listings, the number was 3% down in London compared to a drop of 42% in south-west England. Read more on the Yahoo Finance website.

Property: Supply dries up in UK housing market as listings shrink by a quarter (yahoo.com) 

House Prices Were Flat In February

House prices remained flat in the UK in February, according to the latest official figures from the Land Registry. The lack of change left annual house price inflation up at 8.6%, following the surge in prices seen in the wake of the spring 2020 lockdown. The figures reflect activity prior to the chancellor’s announcement on 3 March of an extension to the current stamp duty holiday for homes under £500k in value, and of the introduction of a mortgage guarantee system to support 95% loan to value mortgages. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/house-prices-were-flat-in-february/5111485.article

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

Government Urged To Step In And Pay Off Escalating Rent Debts

The latest analysis shows that there are an estimated 840,000 private tenants who have built rent arrears since lockdown measures began, with many likely to lose their homes in the long term as a result. A year on from the first ban on the repossession of rented homes, the latest research from the National Residential Landlords Association has revealed that with no action possible against them, these debts are increasing to the point where there is no hope of many being able to afford to pay them back. The outcome will be that most will have to leave their homes as emergency measures taper down from June. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/landlords/crisis-in-the-prs-government-urged-to-step-in-and-pay-off-escalating-rent-debts.html

Almost 40% Fewer Social Homes Let During First Six Months Of Pandemic

 The number of new social housing lettings in England fell by 39% between April and September last year compared with the same period in 2019, the latest government data shows. A total of 76,458 social homes were let during the first six months of 2020/21, compared with 125,149 in the first six months of 2019/20. The data covers the majority of the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, starting just eight days after the first national lockdown was announced on 23 March 2020. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/almost-40-fewer-social-homes-let-during-first-six-months-of-pandemic-70260?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Evictions – Parliamentary Written Answer

Olivia Blake: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will extend the section 21 notice period extension beyond 31 March 2021. 

Christopher Pincher: We are continuing to require landlords to provide tenants with six months’ notice before eviction in all but the most serious cases until the end of May 2021. This includes Section 21 notices. This means that most renters served notice during April and May will be able to stay in their homes until October and November, except in the most serious cases such as anti-social behaviour and serious rent arrears The Government will consider the best approach to tapering down notice periods after 1 June, taking into account public health requirements and progress with the roadmap out of lockdown.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2021-03-08/164376

Asking Prices Surge As Demand Overwhelms Supply

 The escalating property drought has seen house prices and rents leap by 1.4% since last month, pushing annualised growth up to 4.8%, as stock shortages force up prices outside of the capital. According to the latest data and market analysis from Home.co.uk, house prices look set to go ballistic in the regions as demand looks set to completely overwhelm the little supply there is. The latest lockdown has radically reduced the supply of new sales listings entering the market. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/property/asking-prices-surge-as-demand-overwhelms-supply.html

Eviction Orders Being Issued Despite UK Government Covid Pledge

Eviction orders are being issued to tenants who have run up rent arrears because of the pandemic despite a promise by the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, that “no renter who has lost income due to coronavirus will be forced out of their home”. The government quietly changed its eviction ban last month to allow landlords to throw out tenants who had fallen into arrears as a result of Covid. Until January, landlords could not evict tenants because of rent arrears amassed since the first March lockdown. They could only act if nine months’ arrears had built up prior to the pandemic. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/28/eviction-orders-being-issued-despite-uk-government-covid-pledge

Rough Sleeper Numbers Down 37% In England During Covid Pandemic

The number of rough sleepers in England plummeted during the pandemic, data shows, with 2,688 people estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2020, down 37% from the previous year. However, the numbers are still 52% higher than in 2010 when such data first started being collected. Homelessness charities said the decrease showed the success of schemes, such as the Everyone In initiative brought in during the first lockdown, to bring people off the streets and provide safe accommodation, but warned numbers could rise once lockdown ended if the government did not make plans to tackle homelessness permanently. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/25/rough-sleepers-england-covid-pandemic-homelessness

Housing Market Turned Negative In January

Housing market activity moved decisively into decline last month due to concerns over the pandemic and the imminent end of the stamp duty holiday, according to the latest figures from the RICS. The institution’s monthly housing market survey showed that its indices measuring demand, listings and lettings all fell into clear decline in January following seven months of strong growth since the initial easing of the spring lockdown. It said a balance of -28% of surveyors saw a decline in buyer enquiries over the month, with the listings index falling to -38%, and the sales index falling to -18%, denoting a drop-off in agreed sales. Each of these had registered growth in December. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/housing-market-turned-negative-in-january-says-rics/5110336.article

Housing Market Boom Loses Steam

The boom in Britain’s housing market cooled sharply in January as the country went back into coronavirus lockdown and a tax break for buyers neared its expiry. House price growth slowed more than expected by economists polled by Reuters and prices in London fell for the first time since July. A measure of properties hitting the market was the second-weakest on record, excluding a slump during the first lockdown last year when the sector was closed along with much of the rest of the economy. Near-term sales expectations were close to a pre-pandemic record low. New buyer enquires and agreed sales also fell. Read more on the Reuters website.

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-houseprices/uk-housing-market-boom-loses-steam-rics-idUSKBN2AB00O