Election fever hots up, but there’s little new information on housing manifestos. 5 Fact Friday – 20 June 2024 Rightmove Asking Price Index “Flat” (but actually they’re not) https://www.rightmove.co.uk/news/content/uploads/2024/06/Rightmove-HPI-17th-June-Final.pdf ONS House Price and Rental Index for April 2024 Rent inflation eases as stock soars: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/privaterentandhousepricesuk/june2024 https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/property-listings-surge-by-36-in-londons-lettings-market-foxtons.html Construction Bond Provider exits market Bank of England holds… Continue reading Rates not cut again. 5 Fact Friday 20 June 2024
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Housing Market News Overload.
5 Fact Friday 14th June 2024 Mortgage arrears total up 45% https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-13517137/Mortgage-arrears-surge-45-year-reality-rate-hikes-sets-in.html Construction output falls sharply https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/constructionindustry/bulletins/constructionoutputingreatbritain/april2024 Housing Market Activity Stalls in May – RICS https://www.rics.org/content/dam/ricsglobal/documents/market-surveys/5._WEB_May_2024_RICS_UK_Residential_Market_Survey_tp1.pdf GPD growth stalls – flat at 0% in April 2024 Gov Planning Application Statistics – Q1 2024 – All Metrics down approx 10% year on year https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/planning-applications-in-england-january-to-march-2024 Reform… Continue reading Housing Market News Overload.
Five Fact Friday 7th June 2024. FFS.
Rents increase but not as much as ONS says and Zoopla says rental growth to fall to 5% https://www.goodlord.co/newsagent/goodlord-rental-index https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9rrx74vy5xo HMRC Housing Transaction Volumes fall 9% in April from March https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/monthly-property-transactions-completed-in-the-uk-with-value-40000-or-above/uk-monthly-property-transactions-commentary–2 Nigel Farage enters election, changing the likely shape of the future House of Commons https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/jun/03/conservatives-equality-act-labour-general-election-campaign-uk-politics-live-3-june Labour announces FTB scheme. But it’s nothing new. https://labour.org.uk/updates/stories/labour-party-homes-policy-how-we-will-keep-mortgage-rates-low-and-help-first-time-buyers-with-a-new-freedom-to-buy-scheme/… Continue reading Five Fact Friday 7th June 2024. FFS.
UK Political Parties Ranked on Housing Priority.
Political Parties Website 2024 Housing Manifestos – I have not compared policies, I’ve just looked at how much care and attention has been given by each party to the topic of housing. First Place: Lib Dem Housing Policy (last updated Sept 2023) https://www.libdems.org.uk/conference/motions/autumn-2023/f31 Second Place: Worker Party Manifesto contains the word ‘housing’ 19 times. https://workerspartybritain.org/manifesto-britain-deserves-better/… Continue reading UK Political Parties Ranked on Housing Priority.
Housing Politics is about who can deliver the least bad outcome.
We are in the housing mess we’re in for one reason bigger than all the others put together: Politics. NOTHING has a bigger impact on the housing market than politics. Nothing else comes close. Consider the shocking state of our housing industry, spiralling rents, mortgage payments and affordability nightmares. 100% of these situations are a… Continue reading Housing Politics is about who can deliver the least bad outcome.
Bring out the Stig.
5 Fact Friday 31 May 2024 Leasehold Reform Bill Passed https://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2024/may/leasehold-and-freehold-reform-bill–completes-final-stages-and-becomes-law Nationwide HPI reports house price increase https://www.nationwidehousepriceindex.co.uk/resources/px24m-0qca4-6f5ur-t8ucc-hf0ou Zoopla House Price Index – Supply at 8 year high https://assets.ctfassets.net/02vwvgr6spsr/4sHzGQN1lF7UlfgJRxDBLt/f533e04da53ce7a53654714310b53e8e/HPI_April_2024_final.pdf Bank of England shows highest mortgage approvals since mini-budget https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/boeapps/database/fromshowcolumns.asp?Travel=NIxSUx&FromSeries=1&ToSeries=50&DAT=RNG&FD=1&FM=Jan&FY=2020&TD=31&TM=Dec&TY=2024&FNY=&CSVF=TT&html.x=121&html.y=35&C=10Z&Filter=N Eurozone Inflation higher than forecast – doubts on rate cuts https://www.ft.com/content/566c85f0-8a76-421b-a9b1-a20471363cff https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/euro-zone-inflation-rises-just-ecb-prepares-cut-rates-2024-05-31 Leasehold Reform Summary: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/leasehold-reforms-become-law#:~:text=The%20Act%20%E2%80%93%20which%20has%20officially,more%20security%20in%20their%20home.
It’s General Election time! 5 Fact Friday
5 Fact Friday – 24th May 2024 Headline CPI Inflation down not as far as hoped to 2.3% but Owner Occupier Housing inflation up to 6.6% https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/april2024 BoE Rate Cut now not expected until September earliest. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-22/pound-rallies-traders-pare-bets-on-rate-cuts-after-uk-inflation Yearly change in Average UK “House Prices” [sic] turns positive in April 2024 for the first time since… Continue reading It’s General Election time! 5 Fact Friday
Wages up, mortgage rates down 🎉 (right?)
5 Fact Friday – 17th May 2024 – 5 Facts hitting UK housing hardest Real Wages rise again, but more slowly https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/averageweeklyearningsingreatbritain/may2024 Unemployment rises, job vacancies fall, again https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/employmentintheuk/may2024 Britain is officially the worlds worst in homelessness Why Britain is the world’s worst on homelessness Agent Regulation Abandoned after 5 years 3 banks cut mortgage… Continue reading Wages up, mortgage rates down 🎉 (right?)
It’s getting harder to sell your home.
5FF 10th May 2024 Brit Retail Consortium Figures show Retail sales fell 4% in April https://brc.org.uk/news/corporate-affairs/dismal-weather-disappointing-sales-1/ Housing Ladder Broken – Building Society Report. https://www.bsa.org.uk/getmedia/e1daa383-54e1-4544-8545-2f4aa835aa74/BSA-First-Time-Buyers-Report-2024-(Interactive-Single-Page)-(1).pdf London Stock Exchange Red Flag Report Failing Businesses https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/BEG/latest-red-flag-alert-report-for-q1-2024/16441805 RICS April Survey: Stock Levels Climb, buying interest levels off https://www.rics.org/content/dam/ricsglobal/documents/market-surveys/uk-residential-market-survey/UK-Residential-Market-Survey_April-2024.pdf Bank of England Base Rate held at 5.25% https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy-summary-and-minutes/2024/may-2024 Left out:… Continue reading It’s getting harder to sell your home.
House prices facing long term decay?
5 Fact Friday 3 May 2024 March Mortgage approvals rise https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics/money-and-credit/2024/march-2024 April Nationwide Index Price Falls -0.4% https://www.nationwidehousepriceindex.co.uk/reports/april-sees-slowing-in-annual-house-price-growth BoE Net Lending continues to contract https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/boeapps/database/fromshowcolumns.asp?Travel=NIxSUx&FromSeries=1&ToSeries=50&DAT=RNG&FD=1&FM=Jan&FY=2014&TD=31&TM=Dec&TY=2024&FNY=&CSVF=TT&html.x=111&html.y=29&C=KN2&Filter=N House Price Decay may be a long term trend as real values have fallen 11% already https://www.newstatesman.com/business/2024/05/housing-market-house-price-crash EPCs often wrong, need overhaul – Which? Probate delays rising