RBS Agrees 1,080 Mortgages Through UK's 'Help to Buy' Scheme

This article by The Star Online on November 11th, 2013 tells us that RBS agrees mortgages with 1080 customers through Help to Buy scheme.

LONDON: State-backed Royal Bank of Scotland has agreed in principle mortgages with 1,080 customers since Britain's flagship 'Help to Buy' housing stimulus programme was launched a month ago.

The Conservative government is pushing the plan, with a 2015 election in mind, as a way to help people move onto, or up, the property ladder, and stimulate growth after three years of economic stagnation.

RBS, which owns NatWest, said 73 percent of the mortgages were for first-time buyers. If all of the applications are approved, the bank will be lending 171.6 million pounds under the scheme.

It said the average amount its customers wanted to borrow was 159,000 pounds and the average price of the home they wanted to buy was 167,565 pounds.

"These are majority young first-time buyers who, without 'Help to Buy', wouldn't have been able to consider a mortgage or buy a home," said Lloyd Cochrane, head of mortgages at NatWest and RBS.

Meanwhile Halifax, owned by RBS's part-nationalised rival Lloyds Banking Group, said it had received 1,309 mortgage applications from home buyers across the UK who have found a property to purchase.Halifax said the applications were for mortgages worth a total of 194 million pounds.

Critics say that unless the three-year scheme is properly scrutinised it could drive up house prices in sought-after areas like London and create a housing bubble that might burst when interest rates start to rise later this decade.

RBS is allowing customers to draw down the funds before the scheme officially launches in January and said 5 customers had already purchased new homes through the scheme.- Reuters

Article Source: http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Business-News/2013/11/11/RBS-Agrees-1080-Mortgages-Through-UKs-Help-To-Buy-Scheme.aspx

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Is the UK Moving from Property Ownership towards Property Rental?

This engaging article by Mark Benson of propertycommunity.com on October 17th, 2013 covers potential moving of UK's market from property ownership towards property rental as opposed to the US market.

Historically the UK property market has been dominated by home owner properties as opposed to rented properties which have often been the mainstay of markets such as the US. Ironically as the US market moves from a rental to an ownership market it seems as if the UK is moving in the opposite direction. Is this a fair reflection of the UK property market in the longer term or is this just a short-term blip?

The subject of property affordability is something which has been in the news in the UK for some time now and despite the concerns of MPs and influential bodies, the problem seems to be getting worse.

Employment mobility

One subject which is mentioned time and time again with regards to regional property markets is employment mobility and the fact that many people are willing and able to move at very short notice to employment opportunities at the other end of the country. This means that a growing number of individuals, couples and families are choosing to rent properties on a short to medium term basis rather than commit financially to the longer term.

Quote from PropertyForum.com : “Over the last 12 months there has been a significant increase in the cost of property across the UK and many people believe we are headed towards a house price bubble.”

Even though the UK economy is starting to pick up, the subject of employment mobility is one which occurs in both difficult as well as prosperous economic times. Therefore, as this phenomenon is almost certain to continue we can expect further interest in renting properties.

Affordability

It is common knowledge that many first-time buyers have been priced out of property sectors in many parts of the UK. While the UK government has brought in the Help To Buy scheme this is only likely to be a short-term fix and indeed in the medium to longer term it could make the situation even less attractive for first-time buyers. A report today also suggests that UK wages in real terms have hit a historic low which reflects the ever increasing cost of living against minimal wage increases. The longer this continues the larger the gap between what first-time buyers can afford and the price of starter properties in the UK.

Renting is fuelling property price rises

In a rather unfortunate phenomenon, the fact that fewer people are able to afford to buy properties is leading to an increased interest in renting which is in itself pushing property prices higher as landlords look to increase their property portfolios. This in turn means that more people are unable to afford their first property, pushing a larger number towards renting and the vicious circle continues!

In reality there is very little that the UK government can do aside from increasing the number of new property builds on an annual basis although in reality they are already tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of properties behind the curve. It seems almost inevitable that the ever increasing rush to rent property, for a variety of reasons, is going to make this situation even worse and many young couples in the future will have little or no chance of owning their own property outright.

Article Source: http://www.propertyforum.com/property-in-the-uk/is-the-uk-moving-from-property-ownership-towards-property-rental.html

Getting Returns from UK Property

This article by Sarah Davidson of Every Investor on October 14th, 2013 tells us how to gain returns from UK housing property investment.

Neil Hermon, fund manager of The Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust, argues the case for investing in smaller companies in the UK property sector.

“If you own a house the 2% rise in prices since last year and currently low mortgage rates are enough to help you sleep at night.

“If you are one of the unfortunate, mainly youthful, 17% of the population who rents from a private landlord, analogies about chasing the ends of rainbows will likely come to mind.

“Getting a foot on the ladder, it seems, is becoming an increasingly expensive business.

“Aside from foreign investment, the government is working hard to help. The Funding for Lending scheme, launched in July 2012, was originally designed to incentivise banks and building societies to boost their lending to the real economy.

“A key beneficiary of this has been the mortgage lending market, boosting supply and therefore reinvigorating the UK housing market. Enter the government once more this time with Help to Buy.

“Announced in April this year, the scheme was designed to aid first-time buyers by offering them a five year interest free equity stake of up to 20% for any new-build property worth up to £600,000. This means buyers only need a deposit of 5%. What is more, George Osborne has brought into effect phase two of the scheme which extends the offer to include any home bought by a first-time buyer.

“The effect? Property sector growth. First-time buyers account for over half of the mortgages approved in London, not too dissimilar from the rest of the country, and data by The Council of Mortgage Lenders shows they are borrowing 47% more than compared to a year ago.

“These growth drivers will generate promising investment opportunities within the UK property space.

“One company I am particularly excited about is LSL Property Services, whom I recently met following their annual results. Their business model is designed in such a way that enables them to generate revenue from a number of different avenues.

“They are the second largest operator of sstate agents in the UK running over 500 branches including brands such as Your Move and Marsh and Parsons. They are also the fourth largest broker of mortgage and non-investment insurance in the UK and finally, through e.surv, they own the UK’s largest surveying and valuations platform.

“They are also number one for asset management and property management services, executing all parts of the chain from repossession services and renovation, through to sale.

“The company is in a strong position to grow into a market leader in all lines of its business.

They have around £100m of financing available and management are approaching the available merger and acquisition opportunities sensibly. Combined with the top-down government drivers of Help to Buy and Funding for Lending, their future looks prosperous.

“UK housing is again an attractive investment proposition; you certainly would not have thought so in 2009 – how things have changed.”

Article Source: http://www.everyinvestor.co.uk/news/2013/10/14/viewpoint-getting-returns-uk-property-6290/

Help to Buy Has No Safeguards to Ensure the North Feels the Benefit Too

This article by Graham Jones of The Northener Blog on October 10th, 2013 tells us that constituent's tax should not be used to give a leg-up to bankers who want a 95% mortgage on a £600,000 London townhouse.

This week the government launched the second part of the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme – the means by which the state will guarantee 15% of the deposit on a mortgage.

The government claims this will help people who can't save for a deposit to get onto the housing ladder. Critics – everyone else from financiers to economists to housing specialists – claim it will create a new and unsustainable housing bubble; subprime lending that was the cause of the banking collapse.

For someone struggling to save, a reduced deposit is an easier route to home ownership.

But this has to be about more than one mortgage. It has to consider the cumulative impact and the colossal risks that brings to government finances should it all go wrong.

But the aspect of the policy I find particularly interesting is the huge and conflicting disparities between the housing markets in and around London, and much of the north of England; in particular in very low demand areas such as my constituency, Accrington. A quick glance at current average house prices on Prime Location shows a gigantic disparity between London (average price £491,000 – predicted to rise to £500,000 by the end of the year) and Lancashire (£141,000 to £157,000, depending exactly where).

The policy therefore runs the risk of pumping far more money into already super-heated housing markets in London simply by virtue of the cost of properties there. The policy has no mechanism to ensure a geographical allocation of the guarantees – there is nothing to prevent the majority of the £12bn being spent on fewer, more expensive mortgages.

Even in Lancashire this high bracket has seemingly perverse consequences – the £600,000 upper limit could purchase a very large property indeed. It is possible to buy five-bedroom properties with significant land with room for stables and horses. Should the hard-pressed taxpayer support the wealthy of Lancashire?

As the Guardian itself warned this week, City bankers were holding off buying a property and getting 95% mortgages instead in order to free up cash that would otherwise be locked into a property through the deposit. I do not think city bankers and those hoping to bump themselves up the ladder (up to a potential £600,000 house!) are particularly the people that we ought to be focusing on when it comes to housing aspiration – and it certainly wasn't the way the policy was sold to the public. My hard-pressed constituents are paying into a pool of money which could be being used to guarantee the mortgage of someone who gets very highly paid so they can buy a £600,000 house.

The reason we have low demand in East Lancashire is in part due to the economy, but that in turn is partly due to the housing market: we have an oversupply of houses that people don't want to live in (many of which as a result stand empty, boarded up). If the government wanted to improve the housing prospects of first-time buyers they would focus on building new houses across the country. £12bn to prop up mortgages could be spent to massively open up supply and build hundreds of thousands of new dwellings.

I hope this policy works for the people who take part in it, and anything that helps (or could help, as long as the budget isn't swallowed up on a smaller number of expensive properties) young people should be welcomed – however it is a short-term solution to the problem of undersupply of housing in parts of the country, and undersupply of quality properties in others.

My constituents' tax is being used to guarantee these mortgages – they ought to benefit from it (I hope the Treasury is at least monitoring where the money is going, though I am not optimistic). There are better policies the government could have pursued, but this is the one they chose – the least they could do is guarantee my constituents have an equal opportunity to take part.

• Graham Jones is the Labour MP for Haslingden and Hyndburn

Article Source: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/the-northerner/2013/oct/10/help-to-buy-scheme-north-safeguards

One city's house price surge

This article by Kevin Peachey of BBC News Business on October 6th, 2013 reveals data from NBS that house prices has doubled in the past 10 years.

Two cities in the UK - one is a centre of commerce, has runaway house prices, and welcomes a constant stream of overseas property buyers. The other is London.

House prices in and around Aberdeen have more than doubled in the past 10 years, according to data from the Nationwide Building Society.

That increase is only matched by the trendy north London borough of Islington, and by Westminster in the heart of the capital of the UK.

Recent figures show that Scotland's third city is recording a fresh surge in property prices. One estate agent describes the area as a property force field.

"Everywhere outside is doom and gloom, but it is boom time here," says Brian Sutton, of James and George Collie solicitors and estate agents.

Silver city
 
Take a closer look at Aberdeen, and its picturesque, shimmering granite homes, and you can see the complexity of the UK property market.

The city has demand from first-time buyers willing to pay above valuation levels, interest from workers moving to the area, investors keen to get in on the act, and a lack of homes for sale.

All this pushes up prices. Yet, in Scotland as a whole, prices are only creeping up after years of stagnation.

It shows that averages can be misleading and that local areas can have very different trends to neighbouring regions, for reasons ranging from the quality of local schools to employment levels.

It also questions a widely held belief that the London property market is unique - that soaring prices in the south-east of England are unequalled in the rest of the country.

Oil money
 
At the mouth of Aberdeen Harbour, next to the fishermen's village of Footdee, is a landmark called the Roundhouse.

The Shoremaster's accounts for 1797-98 show that more than £225 was spent on the new house and telescope on the site.

Nowadays, first-time buyers in the city can expect to pay up to £140,000 for a one-bedroom flat, or up to £500,000 for a bigger property.

Competition for homes means many buyers are paying 5% to 10% over valuation at the moment, says Bill Barclay, partner at Raeburns solicitors and estate agents.
Often sales go to sealed bids, with first-timers stretching their savings to compete with buy-to-let investors.

Spend a few minutes standing by the harbour and the reason for this active property market is clear - North Sea oil.

"It drives the local economy," says Mr Barclay. "Big companies are making long-term financial plans for the area, so we are not going to see much changing."

Overheating market?

The area was not immune to the financial crisis. Banks were not lending at the levels they had been before 2008, but Mr Barclay says Glasgow and Edinburgh suffered much more.

Now, he says - using a phrase apt for an oil-producing region - the banks are "starting to open the taps" again to fund mortgages.

Figures published by the University of Aberdeen show a 25% increase in the volume of sales in the second quarter of the year compared with the same three months in 2011. Prices were up by 5.5% in the city and its suburbs over the same period.

Sales volumes of flats were up by 53% in that time, as buy-to-let investors find the finance and predict demand from tenants
.
All this is gloomy news for potential first-time buyers. One 32-year-old tells the BBC he has been renting on the south coast of England and then Aberdeen over the past 15 years and is unable to save anything close to what is needed as a deposit.

You hardly see a sale sign erected within the city's sought-after areas, with supply low and competition picking up. But the market is far from overheating, as it was in 2007, according to estate agent Brian Sutton.

"We had people in their early 20s buying property, with 10 to 20 bidding for one property. Competition has come back, but it is three to four people bidding," he says.

"First-time buyers are in their early 30s, not their 20s, often with their parents helping."

Bubble fears?

He predicts the housing market will continue to rise at a "sustainable rate", especially as the oil companies build headquarters in the area and continue to relocate staff to the region.  

Prices may grow by single figures year-on-year, he says, but nobody wants to return to the days of 20% a year increases.

Much the same point was made by Business Secretary Vince Cable when he raised concerns about a property bubble potentially being inflated by government schemes to kick-start the market.

"In London and the south east, in the north-east of Scotland, in other areas, there are serious housing inflationary pressures," he said.

Despite his warning, the second phase of the Help to Buy scheme has been brought forward by three months in England, and the Scottish government has announced the start of its own scheme.

The UK and Scottish governments both argue that Help to Buy, which includes allowing buyers to apply for a shared equity loan for part of the property, are vital to give people the chance to secure a mortgage from risk-averse lenders.

Buyers only qualify under the Scottish scheme if they are buying a newly built property.
Critics might argue that they should encourage the developers to follow the example of the fishermen's cottages at Footdee - where the front doors face inwards to protect occupants from incoming storms.

 Article Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24348196

Help to Buy: Let the Property Scramble Begin

This article by Rupert Jones of theguardian on October 5th, 2013 tells us the criticism from experts regarding the second part of the government's help to buy scheme.

A range of government-backed 95% mortgages are set to go on sale next week after ministers fired the starting gun on a new property scramble.

Two partially state-owned banks, Royal Bank of Scotland and the Lloyds Banking Group, will offer the loans initially, and millions of people will potentially be eligible to sign up.

Under the controversial Help to Buy scheme, homebuyers will only need to put down a 5% deposit – and it is open to existing owners as well as first-time buyers. What is more, there are no limits on how much you can earn and it applies to both old and new-build properties costing up to a generous £600,000.

RBS and its NatWest arm seem to think this second part of the Help to Buy scheme, which is being launched three months earlier than planned, has the potential to be the financial equivalent of the Harrods sale. They say customers will be able to visit any of their 2,000 branches or ring up, and add that opening hours will be extended at peak times "to help with customer demand".

Homebuyers were this week awaiting details of the deals – in particular, how attractive the pricing will be – amid speculation that the scheme could push down rates on 95% mortgages from their current levels of between 5% and 6% to perhaps as low as 4.5%, as well as increasing the choice of products available. That could lop almost £100 a month off the typical payments of someone taking out a £160,000 mortgage.

RBS and NatWest say they will offer "a range of competitive 95% mortgages" to first- and next-time buyers. These will initially be available in branches and over the telephone, and later via mortgage brokers. Halifax, part of the Lloyds group, will also be offering deals from launch; these will be available via branches and brokers. Lloyds Bank will participate from January, while other lenders such as Santander and Nationwide have yet to confirm whether they will take part.

While the scheme won't become fully operational until January, people will be able to start applying from next week, and once their mortgage is approved the funds will be available straightaway – they won't have to wait until the new year to complete on their home purchase.

There has been fierce debate about whether the scheme will hand a vital lifeline to homebuyers or simply drive house prices even higher, but what is undeniable is that this is a huge and potentially risky venture for the government. It is partially guaranteeing £130bn of low-deposit mortgages, which ministers have claimed could translate into assistance for well in excess of 500,000 homebuyers over three years.

That is a lot of people potentially being helped but, even so, there are fears demand could massively exceed supply. Santander issued research yesterday claiming 10% of Britons – equivalent to 5.1 million people – believe they are likely to buy a property in the next 12 months. A third of these, 1.7 million, said they planned to use Help to Buy.

In reality, some of these people would be locked out of the scheme because, for example, they are buying a property to rent out, or a second home, both of which are excluded from Help to Buy, or they don't meet the requirements on income and past credit history – but this still suggests that fears of a stampede of applicants may not be misplaced.

Phase two of Help to Buy is about encouraging banks and building societies to offer more mortgages that only require a small deposit (at least 5%) by giving them the opportunity to buy a guarantee on the "top slice" of the home loan – the bit between 80% and 95%. If a borrower gets into financial difficulty and their property is repossessed, the government will cover a chunk of the lender's losses.

Ministers are making available £12bn of guarantees to lenders, but the latter will have to pay a fee for each mortgage underwritten.

The scheme has come in for harsh criticism from some commentators. On Thursday, Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, warned: "There is a mounting danger that house prices could really take off over the coming months." He was speaking after figures from Halifax revealed that house prices are rising at their fastest annual pace for more than three years.

• A free Help to Buy show is taking place today (5 October) at the Glow events venue at the Bluewater shopping centre, Kent, between 10am and 4pm. The event is aimed at people in Essex, Kent, Sussex and south London. Go to glowbluewater.co.uk for more.

Article Source: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/oct/05/help-to-buy-property-scramble

Chelsea Beats HSBC to be Top for First-Time Buyers

Chelsea is now top on the list when in comes to two-year mortgage rates catering first-time buyers as revealed on this article by lovelymoney.com on September 18th, 2013.

Chelsea Building Society has launched a market-leading two-year fixed rate mortgage for first-time buyers.

Borrowers with a 10% deposit can apply for the deal, which comes with a fixed rate of 3.54% for two years and a one-off fee of £1,545.

The new offer from Chelsea shoves HSBC from the top spot for two-year fixed rates on 90% loan-to-value deals – making a mockery of a price promise the bank pledged just a couple of weeks ago.

Flawed price promise

The HSBC price promise is a guarantee to be 'first for first-time buyers' on three of its 90% LTV deals.

The deals include a two-year fixed rate at 3.59%, a five-year fixed rate at 4.39% and a lifetime tracker rate of 3.99% (base rate plus 3.49%). Each of the offers come with a £999 fee if you have a HSBC current account, otherwise you will have to fork out £1,499.

HSBC said it would automatically beat or match providers that offered a better rate elsewhere between 2nd September and 3rd November 2013.
But this bold claim comes with an important catch.

The HSBC price promise will only beat or match rates on offer from Barclays, Woolwich, Halifax, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander.

HSBC says these providers represent 81% of the UK mortgage market.

This means that HSBC will be able to match or beat four out of five providers on the price of 90% LTV mortgages, but not all of them, as the latest move from Chelsea Building Society has highlighted.

HSBC vs. the 19%

The eight providers HSBC challenged have so far failed to set the mortgage world alight with counter offers that might put the price promise on HSBC's leading deals to the test.
 
Only Chelsea Building Society, part of the 19% of providers HSBC's guarantee doesn't cover, has brought out a challenger rate that is just 0.05% lower.

Elsewhere Nottingham Building Society has launched a rate of 4.39%, fixed for five years with a low fee of £299, which matches the rate on offer from HSBC's five-year fixed rate.

The HSBC deals have only been challenged by lenders it discounted, a flaw in an otherwise bold offer.

HSBC said it had no immediate plans to extend the promise to the many building societies excluded from the guarantee, which is a shame as things could really get interesting if they were.

Punching above their weight

Last year building societies increased gross lending by 30% to £31 billion. This gave the sector a 22% share of the mortgage market, compared to 17% the year before. This year building societies are on track to go even further, with the latest figures pointing towards a 24% market share.

It's clear to see that building societies are punching above their weight and giving the big banks a run for their money.

Apart from Chelsea and Nottingham Building Society presenting a challenge to HSBC's claim, Norwich and Peterborough has recently launched a market-leading rate of 1.99% to borrowers with a 35% deposit, while Leeds Building Society has come out with innovative 0%-interest mortgages.

Supporters of building societies always point out that they are run in the interest of their members rather than shareholders, so this is where the flexibility comes from. But the lower rates have almost certainly been spurred on by the Government's Funding for Lending Scheme.

This has given lenders access to cheap funding, which they have passed on to mortgages borrowers in the form of record-breaking low rates.
Now building societies like Chelsea are coming to represent a real threat to the big banks.

First time buyer mortgages

Don't discount the other 19% of lenders out there like HSBC has. Make sure you shop around for the best deal on a mortgage. You can visit our mortgage centre.

There are also deals like Help to Buy and New Buy which have been designed to assist first time buyers onto the property ladder.
 
Article Source: http://money.aol.co.uk/2013/09/18/chelsea-beats-hsbc-to-be-top-for-first-time-buyers/

England and Wales House Prices Up 1% in July

According to the latest data from the Office of National Statistics, house prices in England and Wales increased by 1% in July, taking the average house price to £164,098 as shown in this August 29th, 2013 article by the Property Wire.


The region in England and Wales which experienced the greatest increase in its average property value over the last 12 months is London with a movement of 6.3%. The average price of property in the capital is £385,799 in comparison with the average for England and Wales of £164,098.

In London the borough with the highest annual price rise is Lambeth, with an increase of 11.4% while Islington experienced the highest monthly increase, up 2.3%. Newham saw the least significant annual growth at 0.7% and Barking and Dagenham saw the greatest monthly price fall, down 1.5%.

Both London and the Midlands experienced the greatest monthly rise with an increase of 2.1%, while the North East also saw the most significant monthly price fall with a decrease of 0.5%.

The metropolitan district with the largest annual price increase is Birmingham, rising by 2.6% and Rochdale experienced the highest monthly price rise, with an increase of 2.2%.
Sandwell saw the most significant annual price fall, down 6.1% and Sandwell also saw the greatest monthly price fall with a decline in prices of 2.1%.

But on a monthly basis the Isle of Anglesey experienced the strongest monthly growth with an increase of 2.9% while Blaenau Gwent saw the most significant monthly price fall with a drop of 5.9%.

The most up to date figures available show that during May 2013, the number of completed house sales in England and Wales increased by 19% to 62,651 compared with 52,516 in May 2012.

The figures also show that number of properties sold in England and Wales for over £1 million in May 2013 increased by 28% to 740 from 576 in May 2012.

The region with the greatest fall in the number of repossession sales was Yorkshire and the Humber where repossessions dropped by 32% in May 2013 compared to the previous year.
Overall repossession volumes decreased by 23% in May 2013 to 1,365 compared with 1,765 in May 2012.

Paul Smith, chief executive officver of haart estate agent, said that the figures shows that the pace of the property market is up and now is a good time to sell.

'Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, has quelled fears that we are sitting on a volatile property bubble, by indicating that the Bank is ready with a plethora of tools to guard against such a scenario. His additional signal that interest rates are likely to remain the same until late 2016 injects further confidence into the rapidly recovering property market, with lenders able to offer highly advantageous deals for those seeking to step onto the property ladder,' he explained.

'Today’s Land Registry House Price Index shows that property prices are continuing to rise across the UK due in part to the increase in sales transactions which are up 19% annually in May 2013. While demand is very high, our market monitor this month indicated that new buyers across the UK are up 28%, and the majority of people have not cottoned on to the fact that the economy, and the property market, are looking incredibly rosy now is the time to sell now before everyone else does,' he added.

David Newnes, director of LSL Property Services, owners of Your Move and Reeds Rains, said that a splurge of sales, married to a painful lack of supply of homes, is driving up house prices at a rate of knots.

‘It has been a staggeringly quick improvement over the last 12 months, and is underpinning the wider economic recovery. Getting a mortgage is significantly easier than it was in 2012, and this has opened the door to thousands more first time buyers. Rates are cheaper, choice is wider, and criteria are less stringent, which has triggered a mortgage boom,’ he explained.

‘It has allowed more new buyers to realise their dreams of home ownership, which were a very distant prospect several years ago. In the long term, the government needs to do more to ensure the improvements in the housing market are sustainable,’ he added.

He also pointed out that if prices continue to rocket, it will freeze the next wave of first time buyers out the market and dash dreams of home ownership for buyers who can’t wield a big deposit. ‘More homes need to be built if supply is to keep pace with demand. An equilibrium between supply and demand should be the basis of a responsible and sustainable housing market.

There is currently a pitiful shortfall in housing starts. Planning restrictions need to be eased and the government needs to do more to help developers,’ he concluded.

According to Paul Hunt, managing director of Phoebus Software the housing market is proving to be resilient with underlying demand supporting house prices in London and the East Midlands in particular.

‘The catalyst for all this has been significant improvement in mortgage availability, and this is making life much easier for first time buyers. Mortgage lenders have thrown a lifeline to high LTV buyers by bringing in a range of cheap and more accessible deals onto the market, and this has sent a flurry of first time buyers flowing into the market,’ he said.

‘Lenders have been vital in their innovative approach, supporting potential buyers, while schemes like Funding for Lending have acted as a major helping hand for the mortgage market and made it markedly stronger. The months ahead look set to be slightly easier for mortgage lenders, thanks to the government’s support which should help improve the availability of finance for house purchases and help boost sales figures,’ he added.

Article Source: http://www.propertywire.com/news/europe/england-wales-property-prices-201308298174.html

First-time Buyers Get on Property Ladder

This article of Exeter Express and Echo on August 29, 2013 discusses Barratt pledge to help first-time buyers in Exeter to get into the property ladder and will have more shot in owning their own home.

Leading house builder Barratt has pledged to help as many first-time buyers in Exeter as possible take their first step on the housing ladder this summer.

Barratt, which has a wide range of developments across Exeter, has a number of schemes available for first time buyers, the most popular being Help to Buy.

The Government-backed scheme, Help to Buy, is helping first time buyers take the first steps onto the housing ladder with just a fice per cent deposit.

"We know first-time buyers face a number of challenges but we believe Help to Buy will give more people than ever before the chance of owning their own home," said Barratt Homes sales director Lee Monk.

"There are so many advantages for first-time buyers. In past years, we know that saving money for a deposit was difficult, but if you can raise the five per cent deposit you will be able to buy a new home with Help to Buy," added Lee.

Help to Buy, which is only available on new homes, is made up an "equity loan" and "mortgage guarantee". This means that you only need a five per cent deposit to qualify for the best mortgage rates and then the Government will lend you up to 20 per cent of the value of your property through an equity loan.

Among those who have bought their first home with Help to Buy are Wayne Bacon and Alicia Andrews.

"We got engaged earlier this year and decided to buy a home together," said Alicia. "Help to Buy was fantastic for us because it shortened the time it would take for us to get onto the property ladder."

If you would like find out more about how Barratt is helping first time buyers call 0844 5710 385 or log onto www.barratthomes.co.uk

Article Source: http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/time-buyers-property-ladder/story-19721313-detail/story.html#axzz2dLGx3NWR

Region’s Buy-To-Let Property Boom Will Last

According to the reports by Knighht Knox International, a leading property firm, the buy-to-let property boom is here for the long haul as shown on this article by lep.co.uk on August 22, 2013.

The buy-to-let property boom is here for the long haul, reports leading property firm Knight Knox International.

The North West is one of the best-perfoming areas, with Manchester and Liverpool particularly buoyant, latest figures show. More purpose-built student accommodation has been heralded as the answer to an increasing demand for rental stock.

The number of first-time buyers in England has now fallen to 200,000 per year, a staggering drop from 600,000 in 1999 according to Jones Lang La Salle.

Although rewards are strong for landlords investing in the buy-to-let market across the country, LSL confirmed in their buy-to-let index for April 2013 that rewards were in fact the strongest in the North West, where yields were highest.

The index documents that the North West produced yields of 7.2 per cent, topping London’s 5 per cent.

The average North West rent was £568, outshining the average rents of near counterparts Yorkshire and the North-East.

Article Source: http://www.lep.co.uk/news/business/region-s-buy-to-let-property-boom-will-last-1-5976941