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.

The NI Residential Property Price Index indicates that residential property prices rose by 2% between the first and second quarter of the year.

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

Property Asking Price Discounts in the UK are Falling Sharply

This interesting article by the Property Wire on August 20, 2013 shows how property market accumulate new figures displaying a part of discounted properties for sale has greatly fallen.

As the UK property market picks up new figures show that the proportion of discounted properties for sale has fallen from 37% to 32% over past 12 months.
 
Average asking price discount on the original asking prices has come down to 6.3% from 7.6% a year ago but there are regional differences.

The North/South property divide remains clearly evident in the Zoopla research, showing all of the top 10 areas with the highest proportion of discounted properties being in the North and nine of the top 10 areas with the biggest discounts on offer also being in the North.

For example, some 42.7% of properties currently for sale in Barnsley have had their asking price reduced at least once since being put on the market, with Rotherham at 42.3% and Wakefield at 42.1% not far behind.

London continues to have the lowest proportion of discounted properties on the market with less than a quarter, 22.8%, of properties for sale in the capital today having seen their asking price reduced since being listed for sale.

Edinburgh at 27.7% has the second lowest proportion of price reduced properties on the market currently, followed by Wolverhampton at 29%. Poole has the biggest average discount in the UK today, currently standing at 9.9%.

‘A fall in the proportion and level of asking price discounts suggests sellers are feeling more confident and happy to wait it out to achieve their target asking price. First time buyers are finally getting a look in due to improved mortgage availability which in turn is lifting the whole market,’ said Lawrence Hall of Zoopla.

‘Banks, sellers and buyers are all more bullish about the state of the economy, which bodes well for the months ahead. And the Bank of England’s forward guidance on interest rates has generated a greater sense of certainty about the future, which should lead to even more activity,’ he added.

Article Source: http://www.propertywire.com/news/europe/uk-asking-price-discounts-201308208136.html

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

UK Property Asking Prices Up 5.5% Year/Year in Aug

According to Rightmove on Monday Britain's asking home prices are 5.5% up compared to last year as revealed on this article by Reuters on August 18, 2013.

Aug 19 (Reuters) - Asking prices for homes in Britain are 5.5 percent higher than a year ago, property website Rightmove said on Monday as it urged the government to boost the supply of new homes to avoid a house price bubble.

Rightmove figures, which are not seasonally adjusted, show the price of property coming on to the market has risen 8.8 percent in the first eight months of the year.

Record low mortgage rates, government lending incentives and rising optimism in Britain's economic recovery have fuelled a marked pick up in house price inflation in recent months.

Mortgage lender Halifax reported prices rose an annual 4.6 percent in July and a survey last week from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors suggested house prices were rising at their fastest pace since 2006.

The rally has been most marked in London where prices are up 10.2 percent on the year, according to Rightmove.

With house prices already rising faster than inflation, the government is under pressure from some quarters to abandon plans to offer state-backed guarantees to riskier homebuyers.

The scheme, part of the "Help to Buy" initiative announced by the government in their March Budget, is due to take effect in January.

"Demand is already on the up, and that's before the roll-out of phase two of the Help to Buy stimulus," said Rightmove director Miles Shipside. "It is now critical that the supply of property improves so that the goal of a significant increase in transaction numbers is not over-shadowed by an unsustainable boom in property prices."

The first phase of the government's "Help to Buy" scheme took effect in April and offers subsidies to buyers of new-build properties.

Article Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/18/britain-property-rightmove-idUSL6N0GH1KA20130818

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.

Article Source: http://www.expressandstar.com/business/uk-money/2013/08/15/private-rents-edge-up-slightly/

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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