House Prices Rising £200 a Day

This article by Sarah Westcott of the Express on October 28th, 2013 reveals how house prices have gone up by an average of 0.5% this month.

 
House prices have risen for the ninth month in a row [GETTY]
 

Homes across England and Wales are worth 3.1 per cent more than a year ago, says property analyst Hometrack.

In the past four weeks alone, the value of the average property has soared by £6,923, more than £200 a day.

A typical three-bedroom semi is now worth £252,418.

There is still such a shortage of supply – with buyers flooding the market thanks to the Government’s Help To Buy scheme – that sellers are almost always getting their asking price.

The proportion of the asking price achieved was 95.2 per cent in October, up from 94.7 per cent in September.

This is just half a percentage point off the record 95.7 per cent at the height of the property boom in 2007.

As the resurgence continues, Halifax has also revealed that a record seven out of 10 Britons think house prices will continue to go up over the next year.

The biggest increases are in London, up 0.8 per cent month-on-month with sellers typically achieving 97.2 per cent of their asking price.

 
The value of an average propery in the past four weeks has risen by £6,923 [GETTY]

Across the country, prices were up everywhere except the North-east.

The increases were 0.1 per cent in the East Midlands and the North-west, 0.2 per cent in Wales, Yorkshire and Humberside, 0.3 per cent in East Anglia and the West Midlands, 0.4 per cent in the South-west and 0.7 per cent in the South-east.

Help To Buy, which allows buyers to secure a mortgage with a five per cent deposit, is partly driving the boom.

The other factor is the shortage of properties for sale. This month new sales listings have dropped by 1.6 per cent, while buyers registering with estate agents were up by 2.0 per cent.

Richard Donnell, director of research at Hometrack, said there is a “chronic lack of supply”.

He added: “Growth in new sales being agreed is running at four to five per cent per month and this is continually eroding the stock of homes for sale. In contrast, levels of demand have grown. Improving confidence amongst buyers has been fuelled by low mortgage rates and positive news on a recovering housing market.”

The Halifax survey reveals that fewer than half (41 per cent) think it will be good to sell their property in the coming year, compared to 57 per cent who think it will be a good time to buy.

This indicates a continuing shortage of properties, forcing prices up.

 
The recent Help To Buy scheme is partially to blame for the increase in prices [GETTY]

Meanwhile, another report reveals parents are paying tens – and sometimes hundreds of thousands of pounds – over the odds to live near the country’s top state schools.

The average price of a home in the postal districts of England’s top 30 state secondary schools is £295,972, £31,500 more than those in neighbouring areas, Lloyds Bank found.

In London, parents desperate to get their children enrolled at Henrietta Barnett school in Barnet, north London, pay £400,000 more for homes up to £863,340 inside the catchment area, compared to £460,740 outside.

In Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, parents pay more than £600,000 – double the cost of average local homes – for children to be eligible for a place at Tiffin School for boys and Tiffin Girls’ School.

Nitesh Patel, of Lloyds, said demand had led prices to rocket “out of reach for many buyers on average earnings”.

Article Source: http://www.express.co.uk/news/property/439603/House-prices-rising-200-a-day

Details of Foreign Buyers of Property in London

This article by Property Wire on October 24th, 2013 reveals the large number of foreign buyers in London especially in prime property market according to new research from Knight Frank.

There has been a lot of talk about the huge number of overseas buyers in London, especially in the new build prime property market, but a new detailed analysis shows that only a small proportion do not live in the UK.
 
Of all £1 million plus prime central London new build sales in the 12 months to June 2013, just 28% were to buyers not resident in the UK, according to an analysis report from Knight Frank.

While most analysis to date has concentrated on the nationality of purchasers, this research focuses on a buyer’s residence. In a city as diverse and globally connected as London, where, for example, 38% of inner London residents were classified as foreign born in the 2011 census, this is perhaps more accurate when assessing foreign demand, the firm said.

The research reveals that over the 12 months to June 2013 49% of all £1 million plus sales in prime central London went to foreign buyers by nationality and the 28% who were not resident in the UK were mostly investors looking to earn an income by letting their properties to Londoners.

To understand the scale of international purchases across Greater London Knight Frank’s research team assessed a sample of 3,500 property titles for new build property purchased in the 24 months to June 2013. This involved developments in all 33 Greater London boroughs, with sales prices ranging from £200,000 to £5 million.

Residence of ownership was based on the proprietor record in each title from the Land Registry. Where there were companies or trusts the researchers took a view that with the exception of registered social landlords, or other obviously UK based entities, these records represented international purchasers.

The research found that 51% of new build purchases in the relatively small prime central London market were to UK residents over the past two years. Across the remainder of inner London the portion rises to 80%. In outer London, that is the remaining 19 boroughs, more than 93% of sales were to UK residents.

Overall the most number of foreign buyers come from Europe, the Middle East and Russia, the research also shows.

‘Our estimate is that over the past two years 85% to 90% of all new build purchases in Greater London have been to UK residents,’ said Liam Bailey, global head of residential research.

‘When we considered the two year period covered by our sample of new build sales records there was no indication of a shift towards higher non resident purchases over that period. While some developers have noted rising interest from overseas buyers in areas outside central London, these appear to be localised examples,’ explained Bailey.

‘Our research points to the fact that the majority of demand for new build property in London from overseas remains focussed on the relatively small and concentrated market made up of the central London postcodes,’ he added.

Article Source: http://www.propertywire.com/news/europe/london-international-buyer-research-201310248384.html

Cranes point to upturn in city's property market

According to this article by Manchester Evening News on October 16th, 2013 Manchester now leads the property market and is soaring ahead of its regional rivals

Research by Deloitte Real Estate shows that 19 major new developments are underway in the city centre – compared to 13 in Birmingham and eight in Leeds.

Eight new residential developments, three new hotel developments, two student housing schemes and one new office development have contributed to Manchester’s growth, according to the Deloitte Crane Survey.

The new residential developments are around Salford, Ancoats and the Northern Quarter and between them add up to 963 new homes, the highest number under development in the central Manchester area since 2009.

The two new student housing schemes will add 1,246 new bedrooms.
Hotel development is already gathering speed – and expected to be one of the fastest growth areas in 2014, say the authors of the Crane Survey.


They report that 633 new hotel bedrooms are under construction. Four further hotel developments could add another 830 beds, with two of the projects likely to start on site imminently.

The office market is also improving, says Deloitte. The company says that 324,500 sq ft of new office space is under construction, half of which is already let to occupiers. Deloitte warns that the supply of new office space will soon run short.

The total under construction is well below the 480,000 sq ft averaged over the last ten years and so far no new developments are planned to complete construction work in 2015 or 2016.

Meanwhile, demand for office space is rising, with total take-up of all grades of city centre office space up 49 per cent in the first half of 2013.

Last year, they recorded just five developments for Manchester across all sectors.
The Deloitte report comes as other economic data points to an upswing in the fortunes of the city’s economy.

Earlier this week, the latest Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking North West PMI index revealed that levels of new business across the north west expanded for the eighth consecutive month in September.

Article Source: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/business-news/research-deloitte-real-estate-shows-6192874