Only London’s Highest Earners Able To Rent Privately At Affordable Cost

 Only the top 25% of earners in London were able to privately rent a property in the city at an affordable rate last year, according to official figures on costs across England. Data from the Office for National Statistics revealed that for three-quarters of households, rents in the capital were set at a level equal to more than 30% of their income. The ONS said it considered an area to have affordable private rent if tenants spend no more than 30% of their income on it. Rents in some parts of the country dropped when the pandemic struck but in recent months costs have started to rise again. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/oct/06/london-rent-privately-affordable-ons-household-income

Average UK House Price Fell By £10,000 In July

The average UK house price fell by £10,000 in July compared with a month earlier, official figures show, as the housing market appeared to cool after the phasing out of the stamp duty holiday. The average UK house price was £256,000 in July, which was £19,000 higher than a year earlier, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Average house prices in the year to July rose by 8%. However, the increase was down on the 13% recorded in the 12 months to June. The housing market fell slightly in July, as many homebuyers had rushed to complete their purchases before the stamp duty holiday deadline of 30 June. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/sep/15/average-uk-house-price-fell-by-10000-in-july-stamp-duty

Private Rents Falling In Real Terms Says New Data

Rents paid by private tenants across the UK are falling in real terms according to official data. The figures from the Office for National Statistics show that private rents rose by 1.2% in the 12 months to June of this year. This increase remains well below all measurements of inflation with the smallest increase, CPI including housing costs, being 2.4 per cent. Private rents grew by 1.1 per cent in England. 1.5 per cent in Wales and 1.2 per cent in Scotland. Read more on the NRLA website.

https://www.nrla.org.uk/news/private-rents-falling-in-real-terms-says-new-data 

House Prices Rise By 10% Amid Stamp Duty Holiday Rush

UK house prices rose by 10% in the year to May, the fastest rate since before the 2008 financial crisis, as buyers scrambled to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday in some parts of the country. Data from the Office for National Statistics put the average price of a property at £254,624. The annual growth appears to have been driven by buyers’ desire for larger homes and outdoor space, and the stamp duty savings that were largest on homes in England and Northern Ireland priced at £500,000 and above. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/jul/14/uk-house-prices-rise-by-10-amid-stamp-duty-holiday-rush 

ONS: Average House Prices Up 8.9% In April

UK average house prices increased by 8.9% over the year to April 2021, down from 9.9% in March 2021, according to the latest data released by the Office for National Statistics. Albeit slightly historic, this morning's data revealed that the trend of accelerating house price growth seen in the latter half of 2020 continued into the beginning of 2021, but has slowed to 8.9% in April. According to the report, average house prices increased over the year in England to £268,000 (8.9%), in Wales to £185,000 (15.6%), in Scotland to £161,000 (6.3%) and in Northern Ireland to £149,000 (6.0%). Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/property/ons-average-house-prices-up-89-in-april.html 

UK House Prices Grew In March At Fastest Pace Since August 2007

House prices across the UK grew at the fastest pace in March since shortly before the financial crisis hit in 2007, according to official figures. With buyers rushing to take advantage of the government’s stamp duty holiday, extended to the end of June, the average UK house price climbed 10.2% in the year to March, up from 9.2% in February. This is the highest annual growth rate the UK has seen since August 2007, said the Office for National Statistics. The average UK property cost £256,000 in March, £24,000 more than in March 2020. Prices rose 2.1% between February and March. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/may/19/uk-house-prices-grew-in-march-at-fastest-pace-since-august-2007 

House Prices Jump 8.6 Per Cent

UK house prices increased by 8.6 per cent in the year to February 2021, according to the latest statistics released by the Revenue and the Office for National Statistics. The UK Property Transactions Statistics showed that in February 2021, on a seasonally adjusted basis, the estimated number of transactions of residential properties with a value of £40,000 or greater was 147,050. This is 48.5 per cent higher than a year ago. Between January 2021 and February 2021, UK transactions increased by 23 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis. The data also showed that there were 180,690 UK housing sales in March, the highest monthly sum since the Revenue started publishing monthly transactional data in 2005. Read more on the Property Wire website.

https://www.propertywire.com/finance/uk-house-prices-jump-8-6-per-cent-industry-reacts/

House Prices At Record High In December

The latest official government house price data has revealed that the UK property market was still being greatly influenced by the possibility of being able to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday - with house prices up by 8.5% over the year to December 2020. During December average house prices in the UK stood at a record high of £252,000 - the highest annual growth rate the UK has seen since October 2014. ONS say that average house prices increased over the year in England to £269,000 (8.5%). Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/property/uk-hpi-house-prices-at-record-high-in-december.html 

Number Of Homeless Deaths Hits Record High

 An estimated 778 people died while homeless in 2019 in England and Wales, an increase of 7.2 per cent compared to 2018. The ONS stressed it is the highest number of deaths of rough sleepers since the agency began collecting the data in 2013. There has been a 61.4 per cent increase between 2013 and 2019. The majority of identified deaths were in urban areas. London had the highest reported numbers, with 144 estimated deaths of homeless people, 18.5 per cent of the total number. There were more than seven times as many male deaths, compared with females in 2019. Read more on the WLM website.

https://www.wlm.org.uk/news/number-of-homeless-deaths-in-england-and-wales-hit-record-high#:~:text=Number%20of%20homeless%20deaths%20in%20England%20and%20Wales%20hit%20record%20high,-15%20December%202020&text=An%20estimated%20778%20people%20died,collecting%20the%20data%20in%202013

Housing Construction Output Remains At Half 2019 Levels

 Public housebuilding – which does not include housing associations – is worse affected than the private sector, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said, while repairs and maintenance construction is also well down on last year. The value of private new build housing construction work over the three months to June 2020 was 52.6% lower than in the same period last year, a record decrease since the ONS began publishing the data in January 2010. For the public sector, the drop was 56.9% – again a record fall. However, the value of private sector housebuilding in June soared a record 42.3% to £1.83bn on the previous month. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/housing-construction-output-remains-at-half-2019-levels-despite-june-surge-67482?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Construction Output Begins To Rise After Dramatic Plunge

Construction output grew by 8.2% in May following the record decline of 40.2% in April 2020, according to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) report. Output fell by a record 29.8% in the three months to May 2020, compared with the previous three-month period. This was driven by record falls of 30.3% in new work and 28.9% in repair and maintenance. The decrease in new work (30.3%) in the three months to May was thanks to record falls in most of the new work sectors – private new housing and private commercial were the largest contributors, falling by 42.5% and 29.5% respectively. Read more on the pbcToday website.

https://www.pbctoday.co.uk/news/planning-construction-news/construction-output-may/79221/

ONS Sheds Light On Housing Market Slowdown

The Office for National Statistics has collated several different housing indicators to reveal the scale of the pandemic’s impact on the property market. Data show that the number of residential property sales fell by more than 60 per cent across all English regions between January and March, but the ONS says that the time lag in the reporting of transactions means the figures for recent months are likely to be revised upwards. Other data sets pointed to April as the month in which the housing market saw the greatest impact from lockdown. Read more on the Mortgage Strategy website.

https://www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk/news/ons-sheds-light-on-housing-market-slowdown/

Sites Stayed Open During Lockdown And Hundreds Of Construction Workers Died

During the peak, construction sites in England kept going while senior management stayed home. Now, men in construction have the highest COVID-19 death rate, according to the ONS. The ONS data confirms what campaigners had been saying for weeks. Opposition to keeping the sites open has been vocal and emotive. Campaigner David Smith, leader of a grassroots #ShutTheSites campaign, shared a video that included an interview with Steve Tombs, a professor in social policy and criminology, who describes the government’s approach as criminal negligence: “It’s manslaughter, it’s social murder.” Read more on the Developer website.

https://www.thedeveloper.live/places/englands-sites-stayed-open-during-lockdown-and-hundreds-of-construction-workers-died

Construction Figures “Disappointing”

New figures from the Office for National Statistics show that construction output dropped by 1.7 per cent in February this year, the largest fall in monthly growth since October 2019. The ONS says that this may be because of the weather in February, which was the wettest seen since records began in 1862. Poor figures were seen in private housing new work, too, which fell 7.7 per cent on January’s figures, which is the second-largest fall in monthly growth in a decade – with only January 2018 being worse, at 8 per cent. Read more on the Mortgage Strategy website.

https://www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk/news/pre-coronavirus-construction-figures-disappointing/

PRS Rents Up By Less Than Inflation

The Office for National Statistics has published the latest Index of Private Housing Rental Prices for the UK for January 2020. It says:

·         Private rental prices paid by tenants in the UK rose by 1.5% in the 12 months to January 2020, up from 1.4% in December 2019.

·         Excluding London, rental prices for the UK increased by 1.6% in the year to January 2020, up from 1.5% in December 2019.

·         Private rental prices grew by 1.5% in England

·         Between January 2015 and December 2019, private rental prices in the UK increased by 8.6%

Read more on the ONS website.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/indexofprivatehousingrentalprices/january2020

UK Private-Rental Prices Rise Across The Board

Private-rental prices paid by tenants in the UK rose by 1.4% in the 12 months to November 2019, and are up from 1.3% in October 2019, latest stats show. According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), in England, private-rental prices grew by 1.4%; Wales experienced growth of 1.0%; while in Scotland private rental prices increased by 0.9% in the 12 months to November 2019.

London private-rental prices rose by 1.0% in the 12 months to November 2019. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/new-stats-show-private-rental-prices-rose-between-october-november/

Homeless Protesters Storm Council Building In Chester

Two dozen homeless protesters have stormed a council-owned building in Chester, north-west England, and barricaded themselves inside. The 20-strong group of rough sleepers, accompanied by a dog, took over the upper floors of Hamilton House in the city centre on Monday night, claiming squatters’ rights and reportedly changing the locks once inside. This comes as official figures revealed that a record number of homeless people died last year. The highest number of deaths were in London and the north-west, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), as charities and MPs warned that cuts are fuelling the homelessness crisis. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/oct/02/homeless-protesters-storm-council-building-in-chester

UK Rents Increased By 1.3% In 12 Months To August

Rents paid by tenants in the private rented sector in the UK rose by 1.3% in the 12 months to August 2019, unchanged since May 2019, the latest official index shows. In England rents increased by 1.3%, in Wales they were up by 1.2% and in Scotland rents rose by 0.9%, according to the data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Excluding London rents increased by 1.5% in the 12 months to August 2019, unchanged since January 2019 and in the capital they were up by 0.8%, the data also shows. Read more on the Property Wire website.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/uk/uk-rents-increased-by-1-3-in-12-months-to-august-2019/

House Prices In Britain Rising At Slowest Rate For Seven Years

House prices in Britain are rising at the slowest annual rate for seven years as Brexit uncertainty dampens consumer demand. Dragged down by steep declines in London and the south, national house price growth for the country at large dropped to 0.7% in July from 1.4% a month earlier, hitting the slowest growth rate since 2012, said the Office for National Statistics. House prices fell in four of nine English regions, with the biggest decline in the north-east where the average cost of a home slid by 2.9% over the year. The average property price for the country at large increased over the year by £2,000 to stand at £233,000 in July. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/sep/18/house-prices-in-britain-rising-at-slowest-rate-for-seven-years

Private Rents Falling In Real Terms

New figures showing rents have dropped, when set against inflation, prove the market is working, says the RLA. Private rental prices paid by tenants in the UK rose by 1.3% in the 12 months to July 2019, unchanged since May 2019.Inflation over the same period was:

·         2% as measured by CPI(H) which includes owner occupiers’ housing costs.

·         2.1% as measured by CPI.

·         2.8% as measured by RPI.

This means a real term fall in private rents. More can be found in the Index of Private Housing Rental Prices.

https://www.housingnet.co.uk/pdf/Index_of_Private_Housing_Rental_Prices,_UK_July_2019_(1).pdf