A Perfect Storm For FTBs As Listings Dwindle And Prices Continue To Rise

Agreed sales and average house prices have continued to rise ahead of the stamp duty deadline as the number of new listings entering the market fell for the second month in a row - a perfect storm for those attempting to get their first foot on the property ladder. According to the latest data and market analysis from RICS, during May, the number of people looking to buy a new home continued to rise, with 32% more respondents noting an increase from prospective buyers. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/property/a-perfect-storm-for-ftbs-as-listings-dwindle-and-prices-continue-to-rise.html 

'More Needs To Be Done' For FTBs

Worrying new figures released by Halifax have highlighted the struggle first-time-buyers in the UK are facing as they attempt to get their first foot on the property ladder. According to the lender, the cost challenge facing first-time buyers increased significantly over the last year, with growth in average purchase prices and deposits up sharply. The average price paid by a first-time buyer in the UK last year was £231,455, up by £18,252 (9%) from a year earlier (£213,203). London saw the biggest monetary increase in the price paid by first-time buyers over the last 12 months, up by £27,764 (7%). Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/property/more-needs-to-be-done-for-ftbs-as-costs-soar-over-the-past-year.html

Thousands More People To Be Given Step Up Onto The Housing Ladder

A package of measures to help people on lower incomes get onto the housing ladder have been confirmed today by Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick, including;

·         Plans for a new national model for shared ownership that will help thousands of lower earners step onto the housing ladder

·         Social tenants moving into new homes will be given the chance to buy a share

·         Just a 10% minimum initial stake will be required, cut from 25% for all shared ownership homes

·         Plans to allow people to buy their home in 1% chunks – rather than 10% at a time

Read more on the GovUK website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/thousands-more-people-to-be-given-step-up-onto-the-housing-ladder

Downsizers Want To Help Offspring Get On Housing Ladder

Home owners in Britain looking to downsize are four times more likely to spend their extra cash getting their kids on the property ladder, rather than supporting them through their education, according to new research. A survey of 1,000 home owners aged 55 and over by full service estate agency Yopa found that property takes precedent over education, with only 6% saying they would support their children through university compared to 22% wanting to help them get on the property ladder. While 23% of downsizers would like to spend more on their kids, more than twice as many would rather indulge themselves. Read more on the Property Wire website.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/uk/downsizers-in-britain-want-to-help-offspring-get-on-housing-ladder/

Report Warns Of Self-Employed Homeownership Ambitions

Two in five (38%) self-employed borrowers are making “worrying lifestyle changes and professional sacrifices” just to get onto the property ladder, according to new research from online mortgage broker Trussle. Using insight from lenders and 2,002 self-employed mortgage applicants, the report reveals how challenging the journey to homeownership is for the UK’s 4.85 million self-employed workers. Compared to permanently employed applicants, the self-employed are said to be required to go through extensive affordability assessments, provide further documentation and can face extra costs during the mortgage process. As a result, more than one in eight (13%) self-employed borrowers have seriously considered abandoning homeownership ambitions. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/self-employed-making-worrying-lifestyle-choices-to-get-onto-property-ladder/

Expand 'Commonhold' Ownership System, Government Urged

The rarely used “commonhold” system of home ownership should be expanded as an alternative to landlord-controlled leaseholds which are increasingly resented, the Law Commission is recommending. In a consultation, the government’s official adviser on law reform is calling for commonhold to become widely available because it permits anyone to own a freehold flat without the threat of a time-limited lease expiring. Commonholders become members of a company that owns and manages the shared areas and structure of a building. There is no landlord. The proposal would primarily benefit flat owners, many of whom are young and climbing the first rungs of the property ladder but still have to pay substantial annual ground rents. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2018/dec/10/plans-expand-commonhold-home-ownership-system-landlords-uk

Rental Payments Will Be Included In Credit Reports

Tenants could find it easier to access finance such as mortgages, with a major credit checking company now including information about rental payments in its reports. Experian said it is adding the data to credit reports, enabling firms offering finance to take these payments into account in a similar way to mortgages. For some tenants, this could potentially help them jump on to the property ladder and make it easier to access other types of finance. The credit checking company said more than 150 social housing providers, local authorities and letting agents are reporting data in an initiative called the rental exchange. Read more on the Yahoo Finance website.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/rental-payments-included-credit-reports-230100820.html?guccounter=1

Help To Buy Scheme Is Not Working As It Should, Housing Minister Admits

The Government's flagship scheme to help people onto the housing ladder is being used for purchases ministers do not wish to fund, the Housing Secretary has admitted. James Brokenshire said Help to Buy equity loans were financing the acquisition of leasehold properties, which can see householders saddled with large annual "ground rent" payments. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Brokenshire said the Government was "reflecting carefully" on the scheme and would make an announcement soon on "the next steps". Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/09/29/help-buy-scheme-not-working-should-housing-minister-admits/

Help To Buy An ‘Unmitigated Success’

A report by the Home Builders Foundation, whose members include the UK’s biggest housebuilders, highlighted that 170,000 households have used the scheme since its launch in 2013 and of these 81% were first time buyers. “It is quite clear that the Help to Buy scheme has been an unmitigated success and has delivered handsomely on all its objectives,” said Stewart Baseley, chair of the HBF. The HBF said it is estimated the scheme has helped around 246,000 people get on the housing ladder and rejected the idea it is helped more people on higher incomes than intended. Last year the median household income for those using the scheme was £49,000. The UK’s overall median household in 2017 was £27,300. Read more on the HBF website.

https://www.hbf.co.uk/news/help-buy-unmitigated-success/

First-Time Buyers Are Seven Years Older And Pay 30 Times More For A House Deposit Than In 1960s

The average first-time buyer is now seven years older than in 1960 - and needs to save more than £20,000 extra to be able to buy a home, a study commissioned by Keepmoat Homes has found. Researchers who polled 2,000 adults found a huge difference in the profile of someone buying their first home through the generations. For example, today, first-time buyers will be in their thirties before they get onto the property ladder and pay £20,622 for a deposit. In comparison, in 1960, the average first-time buyer was just 23 years old paying a deposit of just £595 on their first home, 30 times less than the average deposit today. Read more on the Keepmoat website.

http://www.keepmoatcorporate.com/news/firsttime-buyers-are-seven-years-older-and-pay-30-times-more-for-a-house-deposit-than-in-1960s

The Cost Of Renting A Property Will Fall – But Not Until 2019

Everyone knows that saving for a deposit to get onto the property ladder is an insurmountable challenge for many, but private renters are also stung by having to fork out huge amounts of cash at the outset.  Would-be renters have a number of costs to take into account before they can think about getting the keys, including up to two months’ rent as a deposit, the first month’s rent in advance, as well as letting fees imposed by the agent. With UK rents now averaging around £1,196, according to research from Landbay, this means that some tenants could be forced to stump up as much as £3,588 in advance to secure the property, plus letting agency fees of an average £200-300 per tenant. Read more on the buyassociation website.

Housing Plan Fails To Deliver A Single Home In Three Years

A flagship government programme to deliver 200,000 discounted new homes to first-time buyers is yet to see a single one built. The 2014 Starter Home initiative was touted as part of “a major push” to help people on the housing ladder, but officials admit delivering any properties under the scheme remains an “ambition”. It promised to achieve its target by pushing councils and developers to bring forward unused land and build on old industrial sites. The initiative’s lack of progress also comes as Labour claimed Conservative spending plans since 2010 have stripped £20bn out of UK housebuilding projects, robbing the country of an extra 280,000 homes. Read more on the Independent website.

Build More Bungalows To Tackle Housing Crisis

Stamp Duty must be overhauled in the Budget to help young people get on property ladder, the chairman of the influential Commons’ Treasury Select Committee has said. Nicky Morgan, a former Tory Cabinet minister, also called for new measures to encourage developers to build more bungalows for pensioners to move into and free up larger family homes. New research from the Taxpayers’ Alliance also warns that - without reform - the tax will be paid by nine of 10 home owners by the time of the next general election in May 2022. Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.

Help To Buy Supports Over 320,000 People In Buying Their Own Home

The government’s Help to Buy schemes have continued their success, supporting over 320,000 people across the UK to buy a home. Over 1 million Help to Buy: ISAs have now been opened by first time buyers, offering government bonuses of up to £3,000 towards the cost of a first home.

Statistics show that:

·         over 320,000 completions have taken place using one or more of the Help to Buy schemes

·         over 275,000 first time buyers are now on the housing ladder thanks to Help to Buy

·         the average house price across the schemes is £196,092, below the average UK house price

·         over 90% of completions across the Help to Buy schemes have taken place outside of London

Read more on the CLG website.

Tenants Don’t Have Much Faith In Private Rented Sector

People renting a home in the UK feel that not enough is being done to help them onto the housing ladder with those in London forced to rent because of the high price of property, new research suggests. Some 67% of UK adults, 34.4 million people, feel the Government is out of touch with the wants and needs of tenants and 49% in London can find a better home to rent than they could afford to buy. Overall nationwide some 39% choose to rent so they can live in a nicer property than they could have any chance of buying, according to a survey by virtual letting agency LetBritain. Read more on the Property Wire website.

£5m Help Onto Housing Ladder

A £5 million affordable homes scheme will be marketed to NHS staff, carers and teachers who struggle to get on the housing ladder in York. Councillors have approved money to launch a new shared ownership homes programme, which will see people getting council help to buy 65 homes in York. The homes - probably made up of 40 new-build homes, and 25 “second hand” homes bought on the open market - will be targeted at valuable key workers in areas like the NHS, children’s workers and social care, and schools - who currently struggle with York’s high housing costs. The first people could be buying their new homes by the end of the year. Read more on the York Press.

UK Will Never Build Enough Homes To Keep Prices Down

Britain will never build enough houses to make property affordable for young people, according to research. A study presented to the Royal Economic Society’s annual conference said those hoping to get on the ladder may have to rely on windows of opportunity created by periodic slumps in the market. However, the overall trend will remain for residential property price rises to outpace salary growth, according to economists at the University of Reading. The government has discussed moves to increase the supply of homes but the changes are on far too small a scale to act as a brake on price rises. Read more on the Telegraph website.

Help To Buy Scheme 'Offering Blank Cheque To Builders'

Families earning more than £100,000 and people moving up the housing ladder are among those taking advantage of a government scheme which is offering a "blank cheque" to builders. The Help To Buy scheme, which offers loans guaranteed by the state for up to 20% of a property's value - or 40% in London - was launched in 2013, allowing Brits to get on the property ladder with as little as a 5% deposit.  More than 90,000 first time buyers have been helped onto the property ladder by the initiative, but figures show that more than 20,000 were people moving up the housing ladder. Read more on the ITV website.

New Home-Buyers Could Need £23,000 To Get Onto Property Ladder

People aspiring to get on the property ladder across England and Wales could find themselves needing more than £23,000 for a deposit and moving costs, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) data. The ONS has placed a new affordability calculator on its website, which allows would-be home-buyers to see what level of household income they might expect to need to get a mortgage on an "entry-level" property in their neighbourhood. The ONS said that with the average cost of an entry-level home in England and Wales being £140,000, prospective buyers could require £300 stamp duty, an estimated £2,000 for legal and moving costs and £21,000 for a 15% deposit, coming to £23,300 in total. Read more on the Belfast Telegraph website.

Rent To Buy Scheme To Help Aspiring Home Owners

More than 80 families will have the chance to get their feet on the property ladder thanks to £2 million of Government funding. EPIC Housing has been awarded the money under the Homes and Communities Agency's Rent to Buy scheme, which will allow it to help first-time buyers save for their home. EPIC, which is contributing £6 million to the programme, will give aspiring home owners the chance to choose a property for sale, which they would eventually like to purchase, in North Staffordshire. Only homes requiring repairs costing between £1,500 and £10,000 will qualify for the scheme - as one of the aims is to bring homes back into use. Read more on the Stoke Sentinel website.