This article by Amanda Banks of Tax-News Global Tax News on November 5th, 2013 reveals George Osborne has declined to reports confirming that the govt. is considering moves to foreign investors.
UK Chancellor George Osborne has declined to confirm reports that the
Government is considering moves to make foreign investors pay Capital
Gains Tax on property sales in Britain, as a measure to calm property
prices in London.
Asked by the BBC, Osborne said that he would not comment ahead of
next month's Autumn Statement, but that the reports were "not a leak
that's come from anyone near me."
Currently, foreign investors are exempt from paying the tax, which is
imposed on UK residents who sell a property that is not their main
residence. The exemption has been described as an "extraordinary
anomaly" by Vince Cable, who is the Government's Business Secretary
and a member of the Coalition Government's junior partner, the Liberal
Democrats.
Lucian Cook, who is Director of Residential Research at estate agency
Savills, judged that move would be a "much more targeted and much less
controversial solution" to property prices than a proposed Mansion Tax
on the most valuable properties. However, the British Property
Federation (BPF) reacted by warning that reports about the tax would
cause uncertainty, and it has instead called for more homes to be
built.
Estate Agency Frank Knight was quoted as saying that around 70
percent of the most expensive new London properties have gone to
foreign investors, and that 65 percent of these buyers were buying
properties for renting out rather than to live in. Property prices in
London rose by 9 percent in August, against a national average of 2
percent.
Overseas purchasers are also thought to be responsible for house
prices rises in Hong Kong, Sydney, and Vancouver. Last year, Hong Kong
introduced a 15 percent stamp duty surcharge on purchases by buyers
who are not permanent residents, while a senior banker in Australia
recently made news by suggesting a 5 percent stamp duty surcharge for
foreign buyers.
Article Source: http://www.tax-news.com/news/Osborne_Said_To_Be_Considering_Tax_For_Foreign_PropertyBuyers____62574.html
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Showing posts with label residential. Show all posts
Showing posts with label residential. Show all posts
Wednesday, 6 November 2013
Monday, 14 October 2013
London Wealthy Leave for Country Life as Prices Rise
This article by Patrick Gower of Bloomberg on October 14th, 2013 reveals how wealthy left London to be living in a country life when house prices rise.
It took more than a year for Mark Hudson to find his six-bedroom home in the English countryside. Within weeks of moving in, he got a bid that topped the 1.75 million pounds ($2.8 million) the property cost.
“Somebody called offering a significantly higher sum,” said Hudson, a 55-year-old manager at a publishing company, who in August swapped his home in Clapham, a London district favored by young bankers and lawyers, for Dorset, the farm-dotted county 125 miles (202 kilometers) southwest of London that was the setting for Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles. “It looks like we caught it just at the right time,” he said.
Country homes are coming back into fashion, after lagging behind urban locations such as London’s West End since the 2007 financial crisis when banks cut off mortgages. Prices for manor houses, farmhouses and cottages valued at more than 750,000 pounds climbed at the fastest rate in more than three years in the third quarter, Knight Frank LLP said in a report today, as Prime Minister David Cameron makes reviving the housing market central to his efforts to pull the economy out of recession.
“It’s U.K. economic growth and broader housing-market confidence,” said Liam Bailey, global head of residential research at the London-based property broker.
The government last week introduced the second phase of its Help to Buy program, which offers mortgage guarantees that allow purchases with down payments as low as 5 percent. The first phase, which began in April, provided interest-free loans for buyers of newly built homes. The program has contributed to the strongest housing market since the financial crisis, even as two thirds of 31 economists surveyed by Bloomberg described it as “bad” policy.
Bigger Appetite
“Help to Buy has obviously been a catalyst that has encouraged people,” Bailey said by phone. “It’s stimulated appetite to get into the market and that’s not only the lower-end first-time buyers -- it’s right through into the prime sector.”
In July, homebuyers took out 3,900 loans of 500,000 pounds or more, the most since September 2007, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. There’s also more willingness to lend at higher loan-to-value ratios, according to Henry Knight, managing director at mortgage broker Springtide Capital Ltd.
Two years ago, Barclays Plc (BARC)’s Woolwich unit, Nationwide Building Society and Lloyds Banking Group Plc (LLOY)’s Halifax “stopped agreeing mortgages for more than about 1 million pounds, but now they’ve moved up to 2 million pounds and some have gone to 3 million,” Knight said by phone. “There are just more lenders playing in that market now.”
Prime Country
Knight Frank’s prime country-house index, based on data from the firm’s U.K. branches, shows that prices rose 0.8 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months. Gains were led by Virginia Water, Berkhamsted and Cobham, just outside London. Prices climbed 0.4 percent on an annual basis.
The measure includes manor houses, defined by Knight Frank as a large property standing in extensive grounds; farmhouses, which typically have six bedrooms and several acres of land including garden, paddock and barns; and cottages, which normally have four bedrooms and about an acre of land.
While demand for properties within commuting distance of London was strongest, prime country homes in every region of England climbed for the first time in two-and-a-half years during the quarter, according to a reported published by Savills Plc (SVS) last week.
“This is your last chance to buy before stock goes down and prices really start to rise,” Yolande Barnes, director of residential research at the London-based broker, said by phone.
Queen’s Castle
Current offerings of theirs include Park Place, an eight-bedroom period house on the edge of Windsor Great Park with cottages and stables on about 15 acres. The property, about an hour’s walk from Queen Elizabeth II’s Windsor Castle and close to English private school Eton College, is priced at 20 million pounds.
Savills, along with Hamptons International, is also selling Bayfields Farm, a country house in Hampshire, about 30 miles from Highclere Castle, where TV show “Downton Abbey” is filmed, for 2 million pounds.
The value of U.K. luxury homes had plunged in the wake of the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the ensuing credit freeze and recession. Average prices of homes in London’s most expensive neighborhoods fell 25 percent in 2008, while those in the countryside fell 20 percent, Knight Frank’s Bailey said.
Mortgages of more than 500,000 pounds to home buyers dropped by almost 50 percent between 2007 and 2008, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
Affluent Foreigners
London’s property market began to recover in 2009, in part because of affluent foreigners seeking a haven from turmoil in the Middle East and the wider European debt crisis.
These buyers, attracted by mansions a short walk from Harrods and Buckingham Palace, helped push the price of luxury homes in central London up 23 percent since their last peak in Autumn 2007. Prices of prime country homes remain down 20 percent, according to Knight Frank.
Now the recovery is spreading beyond London. The number of homes sold in the U.K. reached the most in nearly four years in July, according to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. That helped push the value of prime country homes up for the third consecutive quarter, Knight Frank said. House prices in affluent areas about an hour from London climbed 1.6 percent during the three months, while those in the remainder of the south of England climbed 1.2 percent, according to Savills.
Homebuilders Rise
U.K.’s homebuilders have been among the biggest beneficiaries of revived housing demand, with an index of the companies gaining 47 percent this year, compared with the 10 percent advance for the FTSE 100 Index. Persimmon Plc (PSN), the largest U.K. builder by market value, rose the most in almost two months on Oct. 9 after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) said the stock may increase by 70 percent within six months.
Homebuilders are increasing productivity to satisfy new demand, which may be a mixed blessing for country estates.
“Prices are moving up against a background of four years of low supply in the country-house market,” Bailey said. “If this positive sentiment pulls in more supply, that will hang a question mark over the sustainability of this growth.”
For Hudson, waiting to sell his London home proved fortunate as prices rose in the capital, while he said they fell last year where he was looking.
“You’d see a house listed and a few months later it would still be on the market and the price had dropped,” Hudson said. “When we finally bought it was more of a lifestyle choice, we were never sure it was going to be a good investment.”
After selling the home in Clapham for 1.3 million pounds, with an extra 475,000 pounds he could afford the six-bedroom country house with a cottage, swimming pool and eight acres of land.
“I had a feeling the time was right and London’s housing market was coming to a peak,” he said. “Maybe I was wrong on that point, because in fact that peak seems to go on getting higher and higher.”
Article Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-13/london-wealthy-leave-for-country-life-as-prices-rise.html
It took more than a year for Mark Hudson to find his six-bedroom home in the English countryside. Within weeks of moving in, he got a bid that topped the 1.75 million pounds ($2.8 million) the property cost.
“Somebody called offering a significantly higher sum,” said Hudson, a 55-year-old manager at a publishing company, who in August swapped his home in Clapham, a London district favored by young bankers and lawyers, for Dorset, the farm-dotted county 125 miles (202 kilometers) southwest of London that was the setting for Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles. “It looks like we caught it just at the right time,” he said.
Country homes are coming back into fashion, after lagging behind urban locations such as London’s West End since the 2007 financial crisis when banks cut off mortgages. Prices for manor houses, farmhouses and cottages valued at more than 750,000 pounds climbed at the fastest rate in more than three years in the third quarter, Knight Frank LLP said in a report today, as Prime Minister David Cameron makes reviving the housing market central to his efforts to pull the economy out of recession.
“It’s U.K. economic growth and broader housing-market confidence,” said Liam Bailey, global head of residential research at the London-based property broker.
The government last week introduced the second phase of its Help to Buy program, which offers mortgage guarantees that allow purchases with down payments as low as 5 percent. The first phase, which began in April, provided interest-free loans for buyers of newly built homes. The program has contributed to the strongest housing market since the financial crisis, even as two thirds of 31 economists surveyed by Bloomberg described it as “bad” policy.
Bigger Appetite
“Help to Buy has obviously been a catalyst that has encouraged people,” Bailey said by phone. “It’s stimulated appetite to get into the market and that’s not only the lower-end first-time buyers -- it’s right through into the prime sector.”
In July, homebuyers took out 3,900 loans of 500,000 pounds or more, the most since September 2007, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. There’s also more willingness to lend at higher loan-to-value ratios, according to Henry Knight, managing director at mortgage broker Springtide Capital Ltd.
Two years ago, Barclays Plc (BARC)’s Woolwich unit, Nationwide Building Society and Lloyds Banking Group Plc (LLOY)’s Halifax “stopped agreeing mortgages for more than about 1 million pounds, but now they’ve moved up to 2 million pounds and some have gone to 3 million,” Knight said by phone. “There are just more lenders playing in that market now.”
Prime Country
Knight Frank’s prime country-house index, based on data from the firm’s U.K. branches, shows that prices rose 0.8 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months. Gains were led by Virginia Water, Berkhamsted and Cobham, just outside London. Prices climbed 0.4 percent on an annual basis.
The measure includes manor houses, defined by Knight Frank as a large property standing in extensive grounds; farmhouses, which typically have six bedrooms and several acres of land including garden, paddock and barns; and cottages, which normally have four bedrooms and about an acre of land.
While demand for properties within commuting distance of London was strongest, prime country homes in every region of England climbed for the first time in two-and-a-half years during the quarter, according to a reported published by Savills Plc (SVS) last week.
“This is your last chance to buy before stock goes down and prices really start to rise,” Yolande Barnes, director of residential research at the London-based broker, said by phone.
Queen’s Castle
Current offerings of theirs include Park Place, an eight-bedroom period house on the edge of Windsor Great Park with cottages and stables on about 15 acres. The property, about an hour’s walk from Queen Elizabeth II’s Windsor Castle and close to English private school Eton College, is priced at 20 million pounds.
Savills, along with Hamptons International, is also selling Bayfields Farm, a country house in Hampshire, about 30 miles from Highclere Castle, where TV show “Downton Abbey” is filmed, for 2 million pounds.
The value of U.K. luxury homes had plunged in the wake of the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the ensuing credit freeze and recession. Average prices of homes in London’s most expensive neighborhoods fell 25 percent in 2008, while those in the countryside fell 20 percent, Knight Frank’s Bailey said.
Mortgages of more than 500,000 pounds to home buyers dropped by almost 50 percent between 2007 and 2008, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
Affluent Foreigners
London’s property market began to recover in 2009, in part because of affluent foreigners seeking a haven from turmoil in the Middle East and the wider European debt crisis.
These buyers, attracted by mansions a short walk from Harrods and Buckingham Palace, helped push the price of luxury homes in central London up 23 percent since their last peak in Autumn 2007. Prices of prime country homes remain down 20 percent, according to Knight Frank.
Now the recovery is spreading beyond London. The number of homes sold in the U.K. reached the most in nearly four years in July, according to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. That helped push the value of prime country homes up for the third consecutive quarter, Knight Frank said. House prices in affluent areas about an hour from London climbed 1.6 percent during the three months, while those in the remainder of the south of England climbed 1.2 percent, according to Savills.
Homebuilders Rise
U.K.’s homebuilders have been among the biggest beneficiaries of revived housing demand, with an index of the companies gaining 47 percent this year, compared with the 10 percent advance for the FTSE 100 Index. Persimmon Plc (PSN), the largest U.K. builder by market value, rose the most in almost two months on Oct. 9 after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) said the stock may increase by 70 percent within six months.
Homebuilders are increasing productivity to satisfy new demand, which may be a mixed blessing for country estates.
“Prices are moving up against a background of four years of low supply in the country-house market,” Bailey said. “If this positive sentiment pulls in more supply, that will hang a question mark over the sustainability of this growth.”
For Hudson, waiting to sell his London home proved fortunate as prices rose in the capital, while he said they fell last year where he was looking.
“You’d see a house listed and a few months later it would still be on the market and the price had dropped,” Hudson said. “When we finally bought it was more of a lifestyle choice, we were never sure it was going to be a good investment.”
After selling the home in Clapham for 1.3 million pounds, with an extra 475,000 pounds he could afford the six-bedroom country house with a cottage, swimming pool and eight acres of land.
“I had a feeling the time was right and London’s housing market was coming to a peak,” he said. “Maybe I was wrong on that point, because in fact that peak seems to go on getting higher and higher.”
Article Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-13/london-wealthy-leave-for-country-life-as-prices-rise.html
Tuesday, 24 September 2013
West Bromwich Raises Interest Rates for Buy-to-let Mortgage Borrowers
This article by Rupert Jones of theguardian on September 23th, 2013 states that borrowers with tracker mortgages will see their rate rise by two percentage points.
Thousands of customers holding buy-to-let mortgages with West Bromwich building society will see their monthly costs rise sharply after the terms of their deals were changed.
Angry borrowers are already pledging to fight the move after it emerged that about 6,700 customers will be hit by the society's decision to increase their interest rates by two percentage points on 1 December. This is despite the fact that the Bank of England base rate, which these mortgage deals track, has been at 0.5% since March 2009 and seems unlikely to rise for at least two years.
Some of those affected – for example, those currently paying a rate of 1.49% – will see their mortgage rate more than double at a stroke.
The change follows a similar move earlier this year involving 13,500 Bank of Ireland UK customers, which prompted an outcry and later led to the bank cutting the numbers of people affected.
The West Bromwich said the 6,700 borrowers were all BTL landlords with mortgages that track the base rate. The affected customers took out their deals from early 2006 onwards and are on a variety of different interest rates. They all signed up with the West Bromwich Mortgage Company, a division of the building society.
A spokesman for the society said: "The West Bromwich has advised a number of BTL borrowers who have tracker mortgage accounts with the West Bromwich Mortgage Company that their rates of interest will be increasing by 2% from 1 December 2013. All borrowers affected are landlords of multiple property portfolios.
"These changes, which are permitted under the terms and conditions of the accounts, are a reflection of market conditions and the need for us to carry out our business prudently, efficiently and competitively."
Customers have already started to post comments on websites. On the Property118 website Gavin Ewan said: "I will be phoning them on Monday to complain, as there is nothing in my acceptance of offer suggesting that they can increase it. Basically it is a tracker BOE [Bank of England] base rate +0.99%, ie 1.49% until the term end (25 years from November 2006)."
He added: "I expect there are going to be a lot of very unhappy people."
Another, Shaun McAllister, said: "I shall be fighting them all the way."
In February 2013, Bank of Ireland prompted fury after revealing it was triggering a "special condition" clause in loan agreements that allowed it to increase the "interest rate differential" on some of its UK base rate tracker mortgages.
The changes would have affected about 13,500 residential and BTL customers. However, in May the bank wrote to 1,200 of the borrowers to advise them they would not face the rise in payments after all, following a review of customer complaints.
Article Source: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/sep/23/west-bromwich-interest-rates-buy-to-let-mortgage
Thousands of customers holding buy-to-let mortgages with West Bromwich building society will see their monthly costs rise sharply after the terms of their deals were changed.
Angry borrowers are already pledging to fight the move after it emerged that about 6,700 customers will be hit by the society's decision to increase their interest rates by two percentage points on 1 December. This is despite the fact that the Bank of England base rate, which these mortgage deals track, has been at 0.5% since March 2009 and seems unlikely to rise for at least two years.
Some of those affected – for example, those currently paying a rate of 1.49% – will see their mortgage rate more than double at a stroke.
The change follows a similar move earlier this year involving 13,500 Bank of Ireland UK customers, which prompted an outcry and later led to the bank cutting the numbers of people affected.
The West Bromwich said the 6,700 borrowers were all BTL landlords with mortgages that track the base rate. The affected customers took out their deals from early 2006 onwards and are on a variety of different interest rates. They all signed up with the West Bromwich Mortgage Company, a division of the building society.
A spokesman for the society said: "The West Bromwich has advised a number of BTL borrowers who have tracker mortgage accounts with the West Bromwich Mortgage Company that their rates of interest will be increasing by 2% from 1 December 2013. All borrowers affected are landlords of multiple property portfolios.
"These changes, which are permitted under the terms and conditions of the accounts, are a reflection of market conditions and the need for us to carry out our business prudently, efficiently and competitively."
Customers have already started to post comments on websites. On the Property118 website Gavin Ewan said: "I will be phoning them on Monday to complain, as there is nothing in my acceptance of offer suggesting that they can increase it. Basically it is a tracker BOE [Bank of England] base rate +0.99%, ie 1.49% until the term end (25 years from November 2006)."
He added: "I expect there are going to be a lot of very unhappy people."
Another, Shaun McAllister, said: "I shall be fighting them all the way."
In February 2013, Bank of Ireland prompted fury after revealing it was triggering a "special condition" clause in loan agreements that allowed it to increase the "interest rate differential" on some of its UK base rate tracker mortgages.
The changes would have affected about 13,500 residential and BTL customers. However, in May the bank wrote to 1,200 of the borrowers to advise them they would not face the rise in payments after all, following a review of customer complaints.
Article Source: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/sep/23/west-bromwich-interest-rates-buy-to-let-mortgage
Thursday, 12 September 2013
Prime Property Prices in Central London Up 116% in Last 8 Years
Research shows that in the past 8 years prime Central London house
prices have more than doubled and it is up by 116% outpacing the RPI by
86%, according to this recent article on September 11th, 2013 of the
Property Wire.
Prime central London house prices have more than doubled in the past eight years, up by 116 and outpacing the Retail Price Index by 86%, new research shows.
By contrast the average UK property price is 19.3% down on the same period, according to the research from Savills which tracks the expansion of the market since its indices were launched in 1979 and analyses in detail the performance of different locations in the latest market cycle.
It shows that prime central London property prices have grown on average 4.9% per annum since 1979. This compares to just 3.6% above inflation across greater London and a UK average of 2.9%, opening the gap between prime London and the rest to its widest ever.
Mayfair tops the growth chart with growth of 139% since the middle of 2005, followed by Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Chelsea with growth of at least 128%. All are now at least 30% above peak.
The analysis points out that supply has failed to keep pace with demand, resulting in an expansion of prime London from its Belgravia core in the 1950s to a swathe that runs from Richmond in the south west to Islington in the north, from Chiswick in the west to Canary Wharf in the east.
‘London is seen as one of the premier world cities in which to both live and invest. London’s economy has been put at nearly a third the size of that of the whole of the UK. Like other global cities, London attracts capital from around the world,’ said Yolande Barnes, head of world residential research.
She pointed out that the demand catchment for London housing is therefore global and the appetite for investment remains strong. Also London is physically limited in size and by very low levels of new supply so real house prices have risen much faster than elsewhere.
‘London is a honey pot for wealthy real estate buyers but many of these buyers also live and work in London. It would seem that London’s housing market is inextricably tied with its economic success but it has been failing for some time to increase supply at a sufficient rate to curb price growth,’ explained Barnes.
This means that the lack of housing supply is playing out most visibly in London’s prime housing markets where the wealthiest home owners can compete most effectively for space.
Looking forward, the analysis suggests that the strength of outer London prime markets will be dictated by the creation of new wealth from the London economy and the flows of wealth between prime markets.
The report says that generally, over the next five years, London and the south east are expected to lead the economic recovery in the UK. In London, the economic growth from the all important financial and insurance sector is likely to be on a par with the average for the capital. The highest economic growth is forecast from the professional scientific and technical and information and communication sectors.
‘These sectors will, like financial services before them, also attract international investment and human capital which is expected to be reflected in overseas demand for housing. This is likely to widen the profile of buyers and support underlying housing demand for prime property beyond central London,’ it points out.
It also suggests that an increased proportion of prime demand is likely to be focused on the commuter zone given the gap between pricing in these markets and prime domestic London.
‘We expect to see a continued displacement of wealth from the prime central London markets into other parts of prime London and beyond. The markets in closest proximity to prime central London will see continued overseas buying activity, mainly from full time residents in the capital. This means the prime central London and other prime markets will remain linked,’ adds the report.
Article Source: http://www.propertywire.com/news/europe/london-prime-property-analysis-201309118224.html
Prime central London house prices have more than doubled in the past eight years, up by 116 and outpacing the Retail Price Index by 86%, new research shows.
By contrast the average UK property price is 19.3% down on the same period, according to the research from Savills which tracks the expansion of the market since its indices were launched in 1979 and analyses in detail the performance of different locations in the latest market cycle.
It shows that prime central London property prices have grown on average 4.9% per annum since 1979. This compares to just 3.6% above inflation across greater London and a UK average of 2.9%, opening the gap between prime London and the rest to its widest ever.
Mayfair tops the growth chart with growth of 139% since the middle of 2005, followed by Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Chelsea with growth of at least 128%. All are now at least 30% above peak.
The analysis points out that supply has failed to keep pace with demand, resulting in an expansion of prime London from its Belgravia core in the 1950s to a swathe that runs from Richmond in the south west to Islington in the north, from Chiswick in the west to Canary Wharf in the east.
‘London is seen as one of the premier world cities in which to both live and invest. London’s economy has been put at nearly a third the size of that of the whole of the UK. Like other global cities, London attracts capital from around the world,’ said Yolande Barnes, head of world residential research.
She pointed out that the demand catchment for London housing is therefore global and the appetite for investment remains strong. Also London is physically limited in size and by very low levels of new supply so real house prices have risen much faster than elsewhere.
‘London is a honey pot for wealthy real estate buyers but many of these buyers also live and work in London. It would seem that London’s housing market is inextricably tied with its economic success but it has been failing for some time to increase supply at a sufficient rate to curb price growth,’ explained Barnes.
This means that the lack of housing supply is playing out most visibly in London’s prime housing markets where the wealthiest home owners can compete most effectively for space.
Looking forward, the analysis suggests that the strength of outer London prime markets will be dictated by the creation of new wealth from the London economy and the flows of wealth between prime markets.
The report says that generally, over the next five years, London and the south east are expected to lead the economic recovery in the UK. In London, the economic growth from the all important financial and insurance sector is likely to be on a par with the average for the capital. The highest economic growth is forecast from the professional scientific and technical and information and communication sectors.
‘These sectors will, like financial services before them, also attract international investment and human capital which is expected to be reflected in overseas demand for housing. This is likely to widen the profile of buyers and support underlying housing demand for prime property beyond central London,’ it points out.
It also suggests that an increased proportion of prime demand is likely to be focused on the commuter zone given the gap between pricing in these markets and prime domestic London.
‘We expect to see a continued displacement of wealth from the prime central London markets into other parts of prime London and beyond. The markets in closest proximity to prime central London will see continued overseas buying activity, mainly from full time residents in the capital. This means the prime central London and other prime markets will remain linked,’ adds the report.
Article Source: http://www.propertywire.com/news/europe/london-prime-property-analysis-201309118224.html
Thursday, 22 August 2013
Report Shows First Total Rise in Northern Ireland House Prices Since 2007
House prices in Northern Ireland have shown an
increase across the board for the first time since 2007, according to this new report by BBC News on 21th of August, 2013.
All property types have increased in value.
This is the first time since the second quarter of 2007 that all property types have shown an increase.
However, prices are still 3% lower than this time last year, and 11% lower than in the first quarter of 2005.
The figures, released every three months by the government's statistics and research agency, are considered the most accurate measure of the state of the housing market in Northern Ireland.
Finance Minister Simon Hamilton said the results of the index were promising and confirmed "the views of local commentators that the property market here is beginning to stabilise".
In the second quarter of 2013, the most rapid rise in price was in the north of Northern Ireland at 6% (Ballymoney, Coleraine, Londonderry, Limavady, Moyle and Strabane ).
The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency has calculated that in the second quarter of 2013 the average house price in NI was £96,327.
The average price for a detached house was £153,063, semi-detached £95,903, terrace £62,690 and apartment £76,884.
Economist John Simpson said houses were still worth less than they were 12 months ago.
Article Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-23777997
Tuesday, 20 August 2013
Affordable Homes to Rent – Not Buy – Will Rebalance the Property Market
John Banham of The Independent on 18th August, 2013 stated that affordable homes to rent will help property market back into line.
Headlines about rising house prices may persuade observers that the housing crisis is over, and that the nation can safely return to the behaviour that caused the financial crisis in the first place. This would be a tragic waste of a huge economic opportunity.
The national housing crisis has been a long time in the making: a lack of housing that can be afforded by young working families, while rents soar; the future of farming at risk, because there is nowhere for retiring farmers to live; unsustainable villages becoming the preserve of wealthy retirees, with schools and post offices closed down.
For decades, in contrast to every other developed Western economy, Britain has been underinvesting in new homes. The consequences are all too apparent: two million families on council waiting lists for affordable homes, annual expenditure of over £20bn on housing benefit. The number of new homes built every year needs to treble, to around 300,000. No wonder Shelter could only raise half a cheer for last week's news that housing starts in England rose 7 per cent to 110,000 in the year to June, generating headlines that "Britain is building again".
Half of the new homes should be for rent or shared ownership, built on brownfield land in urban areas and in small developments alongside villages where the new homes house local families, are welcomed by local people, and where the land is invested through a Community Land Trust.
In a report published at the end of last year, the Future Homes Commission showed how the housing crisis could be turned into a massive opportunity for economic growth. Trebling the number of new homes built every year for 20 years would add at least 3 percentage points to annual GDP growth, an economic prize comparable to the impact of shale gas on the North American economy. If half of the new homes are in sustainable communities of rental or shared ownership properties, these would be funded by pension funds and international real estate investors. No additional government funding would be needed.
Despite the scale of the housing crisis and the size of the economic growth opportunity, local authority pension funds' pressing need for better investment returns, and the relaxation of Treasury constraints on these funds (which could free up as much as £30bn for investment in rental housing and infrastructure projects), progress towards the goal of trebling the number of new homes built every year has so far been disappointing. The Government's Help to Buy scheme does nothing to make housing more affordable or for would-be tenants, and a new house-price bubble could form.
Far from being embraced as a massive economic and social opportunity, the housing crisis is deepening; and millions of couples are having to postpone setting up home together. Nationally, the average age of first-timers buying without parental help is 33; in rural areas, where wages are lower and house prices are higher, it takes even longer. Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) are backing affordable housing, and Lord Heseltine ensured that over £5bn of EU growth funding was allocated directly to LEPs, bypassing both Whitehall and local councils. Now there is no planning bureaucracy standing in the way of local communities having the homes they want and at prices they can afford: well-designed and energy-efficient homes can be built for £100,000. LEPs could kickstart the expansion of build-to-let homes and communities.
By separating developments of homes for rent and shared ownership from market housing, both sectors would benefit. Market housing would not be compromised by the need to accommodate a percentage of "affordable" homes (which are anything but). Towns and villages could have the number of new homes they wanted, rather than huge developments which rarely go ahead. Existing social landlords would be well-placed to manage the completed developments. These, in turn, could be sold on to pension funds and other investors, freeing up LEP funds for more local schemes.
The LEPs now have all the tools to address the local housing crisis and generate economic growth of over 3 per cent a year which will be sustainable for a generation, without leading to another house-price bubble. Now it could be harvest time, turning the local housing crisis into the economic and social opportunity for which the countryside has been waiting for decades.
Sir John Banham, chairman of the Future Homes Commission, is a former director general of the CBI
Article Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/affordable-homes-to-rent--not-buy--will-rebalance-the-property-market-8772635.html
Headlines about rising house prices may persuade observers that the housing crisis is over, and that the nation can safely return to the behaviour that caused the financial crisis in the first place. This would be a tragic waste of a huge economic opportunity.
The national housing crisis has been a long time in the making: a lack of housing that can be afforded by young working families, while rents soar; the future of farming at risk, because there is nowhere for retiring farmers to live; unsustainable villages becoming the preserve of wealthy retirees, with schools and post offices closed down.
For decades, in contrast to every other developed Western economy, Britain has been underinvesting in new homes. The consequences are all too apparent: two million families on council waiting lists for affordable homes, annual expenditure of over £20bn on housing benefit. The number of new homes built every year needs to treble, to around 300,000. No wonder Shelter could only raise half a cheer for last week's news that housing starts in England rose 7 per cent to 110,000 in the year to June, generating headlines that "Britain is building again".
Half of the new homes should be for rent or shared ownership, built on brownfield land in urban areas and in small developments alongside villages where the new homes house local families, are welcomed by local people, and where the land is invested through a Community Land Trust.
In a report published at the end of last year, the Future Homes Commission showed how the housing crisis could be turned into a massive opportunity for economic growth. Trebling the number of new homes built every year for 20 years would add at least 3 percentage points to annual GDP growth, an economic prize comparable to the impact of shale gas on the North American economy. If half of the new homes are in sustainable communities of rental or shared ownership properties, these would be funded by pension funds and international real estate investors. No additional government funding would be needed.
Despite the scale of the housing crisis and the size of the economic growth opportunity, local authority pension funds' pressing need for better investment returns, and the relaxation of Treasury constraints on these funds (which could free up as much as £30bn for investment in rental housing and infrastructure projects), progress towards the goal of trebling the number of new homes built every year has so far been disappointing. The Government's Help to Buy scheme does nothing to make housing more affordable or for would-be tenants, and a new house-price bubble could form.
Far from being embraced as a massive economic and social opportunity, the housing crisis is deepening; and millions of couples are having to postpone setting up home together. Nationally, the average age of first-timers buying without parental help is 33; in rural areas, where wages are lower and house prices are higher, it takes even longer. Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) are backing affordable housing, and Lord Heseltine ensured that over £5bn of EU growth funding was allocated directly to LEPs, bypassing both Whitehall and local councils. Now there is no planning bureaucracy standing in the way of local communities having the homes they want and at prices they can afford: well-designed and energy-efficient homes can be built for £100,000. LEPs could kickstart the expansion of build-to-let homes and communities.
By separating developments of homes for rent and shared ownership from market housing, both sectors would benefit. Market housing would not be compromised by the need to accommodate a percentage of "affordable" homes (which are anything but). Towns and villages could have the number of new homes they wanted, rather than huge developments which rarely go ahead. Existing social landlords would be well-placed to manage the completed developments. These, in turn, could be sold on to pension funds and other investors, freeing up LEP funds for more local schemes.
The LEPs now have all the tools to address the local housing crisis and generate economic growth of over 3 per cent a year which will be sustainable for a generation, without leading to another house-price bubble. Now it could be harvest time, turning the local housing crisis into the economic and social opportunity for which the countryside has been waiting for decades.
Sir John Banham, chairman of the Future Homes Commission, is a former director general of the CBI
Article Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/affordable-homes-to-rent--not-buy--will-rebalance-the-property-market-8772635.html
Friday, 16 August 2013
Private Rents Edge Up Slightly
This August 16, 2013 article by Express & Star reveals that private rents has only lifted a slight pace.
Private rents have edged up by just £1 on average over the last couple of months as more people find it easier to get on the property ladder, according to a major lettings network.
Rents saw a small 0.2% increase in July to reach £738 a month typically, following a flat month in June, according to LSL Property Services, which owns chains Your Move and Reeds Rains.
The findings mean that rents across England and Wales have risen by just £1 typically since May, LSL said.
Its report comes in the same week that the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said that first-time buyer numbers have soared to their highest levels since 2007.
A range of Government schemes have made it easier for people with smaller deposits who may have found themselves previously "trapped" in the rental sector to get access to a mortgage.
London is the only area where rents have lifted at a faster pace than inflation over the last 12 months, with an annual increase of 5.7%. Rents in London rose by 0.3% month-on-month to reach a new high for the study of £1,118 typically.
Wales and the South East saw the strongest month-on-month increases in rents, both recording rises of 0.8%. By contrast, rents in the South West fell by 1.1% and the North East saw rents drop by 0.8% on a monthly basis.
Across England and Wales, rents are around 1.8% higher than they were a year ago, which is well below consumer price index (CPI) rate of inflation of 2.8% in July.
The easing pressure on rents led to an improvement in tenants' finances. Some 8.1% of rent across England and Wales was late or unpaid in July, edging down from 8.3% in June.
LSL said that in the medium-term it still expects rents to at least keep up with wider inflation as demand in the sector is still strong, despite the softening in demand due to people getting on the housing ladder.
David Newnes, director of LSL Property Services, said: "This summer, the house purchase market has jerked into motion. And everyone is feeling the impact of that sudden change of gear.
"Buying a first home might only be possible for those with a big enough deposit and sufficient earnings, but the effects are reverberating through the rental market too."
He added: "It's unlikely July will be typical after the initial change of pace in the purchase market, but a few months of more affordable rents are win-win for everyone."
The findings are based on rents achieved on 19,000 properties.
Thursday, 15 August 2013
Property Sales on the Rise in Cheltenham say Estate Agents
Good news for property buyers because property sales are prospering in Cheltenham according to this article by Gloucestershire Echo on August 14th, 2013.
PROPERTY sales are booming in Cheltenham, according to local estate agents.
There are less houses on the market than there are willing buyers, making demand for homes the highest it has been in four years.
During July, the number of potential buyers looking to enter the market nationally grew at the fastest rate in the UK since July 2009.
Since the start of the year, buyers have gradually been returning to test the market and the number of would-be buyers seen have grown.
Erling Lindoe, branch partner for RA Bennett & Partners based in Bath Road, Cheltenham, said: "Everything is wonderful.
"The housing market is booming and there are not enough properties to go around.
"If you have got a property that is priced well, it will sell, which is probably due to demand.
"Over the past four years, rents have been increasing and have caused borrowing to stay very low." With rising buyer confidence, more potential sellers looked to test the market and place their homes up for sale.
Last month, 15 per cent more respondents reported rises rather than falls in new instructions.
Mr Lindoe said: "I wasn't necessarily aware that there is a major issue in the market.
"The market in Cheltenham is a very simple case of demand and supply. Demand is currently exceeding supply which helps. But I don't see that house prices are rising at the moment."
As part of continued growth, a Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) residential market survey expects sales to rise rather than fall over the next three months.
RICS global residential director Peter Bolton King said: "These results are great news for the property market as it looks like at long last a recovery could be around the corner.
"Growth in buyer numbers and prices have been happening in some parts of the country since the beginning of the year but this is the first time that everywhere has experienced some improvement.
"It is clearly good news those parts of the property market that were struggling are at last showing some signs of life."
Article Source: http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/Property-sales-rise-Cheltenham-say-estate-agents/story-19655110-detail/story.html#axzz2c02FvAzB
Wednesday, 31 July 2013
Investors Looking Beyond Property
This latest article by James Weir posted in stuff.co.nz on July 31, 2013 reveals how rental property lost its ranking being an asset to give best returns.
For the first time in nine months, rental property has lost its ranking as the asset that investors say is most likely to give the best returns. It now shares honours with term deposits, according to an ASB Bank survey.
"Rental property or nothing" used to be the catchcry of many investors, but they are now more open to other forms of investment, such as shares, according to ASB head of wealth advisory Jonathan Beale.
Overall, investor confidence went south for the winter, the June quarter survey showed. The confidence index fell 7 points from a net 18 per cent positive in the March quarter to a net 11 per cent in the three months to June.
That reflected a fall in confidence in April, when investors were worried about events in Cyprus.
The ASB Bank survey shows that, nationwide, rental property dipped two points, to be favoured by 17 per cent as the asset giving the best returns.
Term deposits jumped two points to 17 per cent of those surveyed, to share the top spot.
Beale said that change was a reflection of house-price concerns.
"Optimism for returns on rental property may have been affected by talk of an overheated house market and the Reserve Bank reaching for its macro-prudential tools."
The prospect of rising interest rates next year was also likely to lower confidence in property, he said.
The survey results reflected investors' views of what would give the best returns, rather than actual returns from investments.
At best, term deposits would return 4 per cent to 4.5 per cent, Beale said.
Property Investors' Federation president Andrew King said this week that returns on property had been rising in recent years, and were now about 7.7 per cent on average across the country, up from 6.5 per cent in 2007.
Yields peaked at 10.2 per cent in 2002.
But Beale said rental returns might be good if people had bought a few years ago, paid a good price and the rent was high.
If investors were buying now, when prices were high, the returns might not be so good.
Some people were also moving out of investment property because of "hassle factors", such as difficult tenants, he said.
In the past two years there had been a definite shift in investors willing to look at putting money into New Zealand and Australian shares.
People were now much more open to talking about shares and managed funds, Beale said.
Article Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/8983238/Investors-looking-beyond-property
For the first time in nine months, rental property has lost its ranking as the asset that investors say is most likely to give the best returns. It now shares honours with term deposits, according to an ASB Bank survey.
"Rental property or nothing" used to be the catchcry of many investors, but they are now more open to other forms of investment, such as shares, according to ASB head of wealth advisory Jonathan Beale.
Overall, investor confidence went south for the winter, the June quarter survey showed. The confidence index fell 7 points from a net 18 per cent positive in the March quarter to a net 11 per cent in the three months to June.
That reflected a fall in confidence in April, when investors were worried about events in Cyprus.
The ASB Bank survey shows that, nationwide, rental property dipped two points, to be favoured by 17 per cent as the asset giving the best returns.
Term deposits jumped two points to 17 per cent of those surveyed, to share the top spot.
Beale said that change was a reflection of house-price concerns.
"Optimism for returns on rental property may have been affected by talk of an overheated house market and the Reserve Bank reaching for its macro-prudential tools."
The prospect of rising interest rates next year was also likely to lower confidence in property, he said.
The survey results reflected investors' views of what would give the best returns, rather than actual returns from investments.
At best, term deposits would return 4 per cent to 4.5 per cent, Beale said.
Property Investors' Federation president Andrew King said this week that returns on property had been rising in recent years, and were now about 7.7 per cent on average across the country, up from 6.5 per cent in 2007.
Yields peaked at 10.2 per cent in 2002.
But Beale said rental returns might be good if people had bought a few years ago, paid a good price and the rent was high.
If investors were buying now, when prices were high, the returns might not be so good.
Some people were also moving out of investment property because of "hassle factors", such as difficult tenants, he said.
In the past two years there had been a definite shift in investors willing to look at putting money into New Zealand and Australian shares.
People were now much more open to talking about shares and managed funds, Beale said.
Article Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/8983238/Investors-looking-beyond-property
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
The Retirement Home Where Your Neighbour is the Queen
If you're planning to buy a luxurious property, then you might as well consider checking Castle View.
IF YOU fancy living in the shadow of the Queen, work has now started on a new retirement scheme called Castle View in Windsor, Berkshire
Savills has been appointed to market the off plan sales of apartments, which are designed around the latest ideas in retirement living from the UK and overseas.
Each property has either a balcony or outdoor space and residents will enjoy a number of central facilities including a cafe, roof top terrace, garden room and a family lounge with spectacular views of Windsor Castle.
Prices start at £270,000 for a one bedroom apartment and the care home will be placed in close proximity to the apartments so residents can live independently yet still have as much or as little help as required from the care staff.
Castle View is one of four new projects by RCVP, founded by Robin Hughes with New Zealander Kevin Hickman, of Ryman Healthcare. Robin previously worked on luxury villages in the New Forest, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.
Article by: Express
Article Source: http://www.express.co.uk/news/property/416350/The-retirement-home-where-your-neighbour-is-the-Queen
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