House Prices On The Increase

More news about the UK property market from Dibben and Dibben - as house prices rose by around 0.8% in August 2009 compared with July2009 - this is the second monthly rise in a row, reports the Halifax. Property values were 10.1% lower in the three months to August compared with the same period a year ago, the survey found. On average, a UK home was now valued at £160,973, said the Halifax, a lack of houses on the market and greater demand for homes has pushed up prices in recent times.

Prices in the three months to August compared with the previous three months were 1.7% higher, the biggest rise in this measure since July 2007.

The latest rise pushed the price of the average UK home to a few pounds higher than it was at the end of 2008, but still £13,268 lower than in August 2008. A lack of new homes coming on to the market was a significant factor in the latest round of rising prices, and so prices could stabilise again if potential sellers surged into the market.

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UK Interests Rates To Stay Low

More news about the UK Property market from Dibben and Dibben - record numbers of home buyers and owners can look forward to enjoyong the low interest rates until at least the end of next year, econimic experts predicted this week. The Bank of England will be forced to keep them at 0.5 per cent throughout 2010 to balance low inflation and counter expected tax rises.

The news that maintaining interest rates at current levels is “almost inevitable” will be a boost to consumers struggling through the recession. However, savers are likely to be dismayed by the forecast, particularly those who rely on the interest from their savings to supplement their income.

It is generally considered that this will be a shot in the arm for public confidence, not least because home owners will take advantage of low rates to overpay their mortgage and pay it off early. If the interest rates remains at such a low figure then it is certainly good news for the property market. First-time buyers and home movers will be encouraged to enter the market knowing their repayments aren’t going to shoot up.

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New Rules For Building Societies

More property market news from the UK from Dibben and Dibben as Building societies say that the planned new regulations will make it very difficult for them to compete with the major high street banks. The proposals from the Financial Services Authority, the City watchdog, include plans to limit and restrict the riskier types of lending by building societies. These could include high loan-to-value mortgages for borrowers with very small deposits and even the buy-to-let mortgages.

The Building Societies Association (BSA) says that the proposals would disadvantage and damage the industry. The BSA has made a formal submission to the FSA following a consultation period on the proposals. Building societies hold 20% of retail bank deposits and have a share of more than 20% of the mortgage market.

The FSA also wants societies to have senior managers who are sufficiently skilled to oversee any riskier lending. The plan follows in the wake of the collapse of the Dunfermline building society and the forced rescue of several other societies last year.

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NAEA - Summer Housing Market Strong.

More property news from Dibben and Dibben as the National Association Estate Agents reports that the housing market emerged from summer with estate agents welcoming an increase in the number of properties on the market – and reporting that the traditional summer “dip” was less severe than expected.

For the first time since April 2009, the number of properties available to buy rose, from 59 in July to 64 in August, according to the National Association of Estate Agents.

This suggests that as the market picks up the stock of properties should increase as a result of buyers working their way through the system. As expected during the summer holiday period, estate agents recorded a fall in the number of people looking to buy a property, from 292 in July to 238 in August – the lowest number of any month in 2009.

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New Mortage Deal To Kick Start Sales

More property market news from Dibben and Dibben as the HSBC bank is trying to gain an even larger share of the mortgage market by launching a new deal at just 1.99% for borrowers with a 40% deposit. The low rate lasts for two years and is set at a 1.95% discount to the bank's standard variable rate of 3.94%.

Its deal is a sign of the continued easing of the mortgage market which currently has 1,676 deals available, more than at any time this year.

The deposit required to buy a home has increased sharply over the past year as lenders have rationed their funds. The financial information service Moneyfacts says 27% of new mortgage deals require a deposit of 40%. A year ago that figure was just 7%.

"There has been a slight increase in the 10% deposit tier, which is encouraging news for first-time buyers who seem to be propping up the mortgage market at the moment," said Darren Cook of Moneyfacts.

Both property sales and prices have picked up this year, after the credit crunch and the recession caused an unprecedentedly sharp slump from the autumn of 2007 to the end of 2008.

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Rise In House Prices Hits High

More news about the economy and UK property market from Dibben and Dibben. As widely reported in the UK national press this week, house prices in England and Wales rose by 1.7% in July compared with June - the biggest monthly leap in house price value since July 2004. A report from the Land Registry shows that every region across the UK recorded a monthly rise in prices, with the average home valued at £155,885.

The Land Registry, which records all completed property sales in England and Wales, is widely regarded as producing one of the most authoritative house price reports, although it does lag behind data from lenders. It compares the price of properties sold now with the price paid when they were sold previously. However, repossessions and property transfers following a divorce are excluded from the sample.

The recovery in the housing market has been revealed in a series of surveys in recent months, including the Nationwide building society's index which is based on mortgage data, which this week revealed prices had risen by 1.6% in August compared with July.

On a national and regional level, the biggest month-on-month rise in property values came in Wales, where prices rose by 3.1% in July compared with June. At the other end of the scale, prices rose by 0.9% during the same period in Yorkshire and the Humber. The Land Registry analysis is one of the very few reports that maps out house prices changes at a local level.

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Mortgage Rate Approval Increases Again

More economic news from Dibben and Dibben. As widely reported today in the UK national press the number of mortgages approved for house purchases by the major High Street banks has risen for the seventh month in a row. The British Bankers' Association (BBA) has reported that mortgage approvals in July stood at 38,181, a rise of 7.4% compared with June. The report suggests that the rise in proprty market activity and house prices could stretch into the autumn.

The BBA said slower housing market activity meant it was taking longer for mortgage approvals for house purchase to work through into the gross and net lending figures. It added that the number of people remortgaging continued to be subdued, with only 30,600 loans arranged by people switching to a better deal during the month. But the group said the figure appeared to have stabilised and was slightly up on both the previous month and the recent six month average.

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House Builder 'fairly optimistic' about the future

More property and economic news from Dibben and Dibben - as reported over the weekend in the UK press 1 of the UK's largest firm of house builders has resumed work on nearly all of the projects it put on hold in Wales last year at the height of the recession. House Builders Redrow has suffered heavy losses like many other of its major competitors, which has seen cuts in almost half of the workforce across the whole of the UK. At its peak, the Flintshire firm was building more than 800 homes a year, but that was cut dramatically.

The company has reported that the market changed in the spring time and that work had increased ever since. In south Wales, work has started on building between 30 and 350 homes across 10 sites, where over 400 sub-contractors are being employed. Over the next year Redrow predicts that more than 370 homes will be built from scratch or finished off at the sites it stopped work on last year.

The company said the new levels of activity showed an increased confidence in the market and greater affordability.

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Mortgage lending still increasing

More news from Dibben and Dibben. As widely reported in the UK national press this week - mortgage lending continues to rise, according to the latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). Gross lending in July stood at £16bn, 26% higher than in June, though still more than a third lower than in July last year. Mortgage lending, house sales and property prices have all picked up in the past few months after a dramatic slump caused by the banking crisis.

Typically, would-be borrowers now have to put down an average deposit of 25% if they want to take out a mortgage. The latest "Trends in Lending" report, from the Bank of England, said there had been little sign of this rationing of the home loan market easing up.

"In line with rising mortgage approvals, gross lending for house purchase has continued its recovery since the beginning of the year, but remortgaging activity remains very subdued," the Bank said in its August report.

"The major UK lenders reported that over the past month there had been no further increase in their appetite to lend at high loan-to-values (LTVs)," it added.

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Housing Recovery Improves Furniture Sales

More news from Dibben and Dibben - as reported in the UK press this week the recovery in the housing market drove sales of furniture and electrical items last month and helped retail sales rise by an unexpected 0.4 per cent, according to the latest official figures. The rise sent annual growth to its highest level for 14 months, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The recorded sales of household goods on a month-on-month basis soared to their highest level since August 2006, this is a reflection of a recent upturn in the UK property market. Food store sales have so far been resilient amid the recession, but ended a five-month run of increases last month with a 1% fall.

James Knightley, economist at ING Bank, said the figures were good news for the UK economy.

''The gains in retail sales give us greater confidence that gross domestic product will rise in the third quarter, meaning that the UK exits recession,'' he said.

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Europe Out Of Recession?

More economic news from Dibben and Dibben. As reported in the world press today is would appear that the French and German economies both grew by 0.3% between April and June 2009, bringing to an end year-long recessions in two of Europe's largest economies. French Finance and Economy Minister Christine Lagarde was reported as saying; "The data is very surprising. After four negative quarters France is coming out of the red." Very few analysts expected the economies to come out of recession this early.

But economic activity in the eurozone fell by 0.1%, showing the region as a whole is still in recession. Both the French and German economies last grew in the first quarter of 2008.

The German economy, Europe's largest, contracted by a revised 3.5% in the first three months of the year. And while exports rose 7% in June, the fastest pace in nearly three years, few analysts had expected a return to overall economic growth so quickly. The country's Federal Statistics Office said that household and government expenditure had boosted growth. It added that imports had declined "far more sharply than exports, which had a positive effect on GDP growth". First reports suggest that analyst reaction to Germany's recovery was mixed.

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The Number Of Mortgages On The Increase

News from Dibben and Dibben. The number of mortgages for homebuyers granted in June in the UK rose by around 23% compared with May, according to UK lenders. Around 45,000 home loans were granted for house purchases - just 6% lower than the same month the previous year, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has reported today. The CML also said the mortgage market had stabilised, although this was far from a return to the housing boom. First-time buyers were still being squeezed, as they required to find an average deposit of 25% of a home's value.

The CML figures also showed that the number of loans granted in June to people buying a house was at its highest level since July of last year, when the housing market was already entering the doldrums, and amounted to £5.9bn.

CML economist Paul Samter. was quoted as saying; "Low interest rates and realistic selling prices have helped generate a welcome increase in transactions. But there is some way to go before we reach normal levels of activity," He continued by saying ; "There are tentative signs that lending criteria are easing, but remortgaging demand is likely to remain subdued whilst interest rates stay at current levels."

The average house purchase loan rose from £105,000 in March to £111,000 in June, signalling the recent increase in the typical house price.

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Bright Spots In The Housing Market

Housing market - Summer Report from the National Association Of Estate Agents; THE UK housing market remained in a strong position in July compared to the previous year, despite the traditional summer dip in activity. Despite July and August traditionally marking one of the lower points of the year for estate agents, the average agent sold nine properties last month, according to new figures from the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA). That is compared to six the same time last year, and ten in June 2009. 22 per cent of last month’s sales were made to first time buyers.

The NAEA’s July market report, released today, also revealed that the number of house hunters is increasing – with 100 more people registering to look for property with each agent than at the same time last year. On average, an agent had 292 house hunters registered in July, compared to 192 in July 2008 and 290 in June 2009.

Supply of houses remains low this year, with 59 properties available at each branch. This means that there are five registered house hunters for every property available.

President of the NAEA, Gary Smith, said: “Estate agents expect a drop in activity over the summer months, but there is no doubt that the market is in a considerably stronger position than a year ago.

“Agents sold more in July than in any month last year. That is concrete evidence that the housing market, while not recovered, has potentially been through the worst.

“It is now up to the Government and the banks to lead the way. The NAEA will continue to lobby hard for responsible lending from the banks and effective Government policy to ensure that they do.”

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Undervaluing 'slowing down home sales'

As reported in the UK press today, property sales and remortgage deals are collapsing because some mortgage lenders and surveyors are deliberately undervaluing homes, estate agents say. It has been suggested that properties are typically being undervalued by at least 10%, said the National Association of Estate Agents. It said surveyors afraid of being sued by lenders were being overcautious.

However the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors have strongly denied the claim, claiming that the housing market was constantly changing and still had lots of "imperfections". Mortgage lenders, such as banks, routinely commission surveys to ensure the price agreed for a sale reflects the property's current value.

A spokesperson from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, was quoted as saying; "We are dealing with a market where there are lots of imperfections and there will be a range of valuations that the valuer will look at before they arrive at their opinion of value." He continued; "that opinion of value could well be different from another opinion of value and could fluctuate over a period of time as well."

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Housing Market Autumn 2009

The autumn is likely to bring a flurry of activity from buyers who need to be in a new home by Christmas and sellers who, after not being sure if they should put their home on the market are likely to test it to see if they can sell. However, the number of properties for sale that will sell are likely to remain at an all time low unless the banks that are making money start to lend fairly to buyers.

For the market to have a chance of recovering, lenders need to be offering mortgages with five to 10% deposits. The ‘average’ house price statistics are not at all reflective of what will be happening in YOUR area. Some areas are doing much better and will continue to do so into the autumn, with so few properties on the market, buyers are now offering the asking price and sometimes above. Good properties in great locations are even selling in a matter of weeks.

However, other areas that are suffering economically, perhaps with a large local employer shedding their workforce, are still very much in the doldrums with people offering on average 90% of the asking price, so if a property is up for £150,000, offers of £135,000 are being received. Properties are taking eight to 12 weeks to sell and require a lot of buyers to visit.

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Housing Boom Slow To Return

As reported today in the UK National Press, it would appear that there is very little chance of a quick return to a housing boom in the property market despite the possibility of UK house prices actually rising over the course of forthcoming year, surveyors say. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has changed its forecast of a price fall of 10-15% this year amid a "considerable shift" in the market.

But it warned that tight credit, limited transactions and job losses could see prices slip back in 2010. The outlook for the next year to 18 months remained "clouded", as spokesperson for Rics said.

RICS senior economist Brigid O'Leary was been quoted as saying: "There has been a clear change in the housing market over the past few months and, as a result, it is unlikely that we will now see the kind of house price falls widely predicted at the start of the year." And then concluded; "Instead, the return of buyer demand and the limited availability of housing on the market could be enough to support prices, so it wouldn't be surprising to actually see prices increase further from here in the short term."

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House Sales Slow In July

The latest results from July's Agency Express Property Activity Index show that sales activity is cooling down reflecting the traditionally slower summer holiday season. The index, based on the volume and activity status of for sale and sold boards across the UK, reveals that the number of sold signs instructed by estate agents in July fell by 6.1% compared to June. However, there is still an upward trend in sales.

The three-month rolling average to the end of July increased by 4.3% on the three-month period ending in June. And, compared to December – the lowest month on record - the number of sold signs erected in July was up 150%.

The three cities that experienced the greatest monthly increases in the number of properties sold in July were York that topped the charts with a massive 89.9% increase in sales on June, followed by Leicester up 46.2% and Edinburgh up 36.8%.

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Homes May Increase In Value In 2009

As reported widely in the Uk press in the last day or so the UK's largest building society believes there is a "reasonable chance" that house prices could end the year higher than they started 2009. Such an outcome was "unthinkable" a few months ago, the Nationwide's chief economist said. This latest boost to the housing market is as a result of The Nationwide's latest house price survey showed prices rose by 1.3% in July compared with the previous month.

The average UK home costs £158,871, with the annual rate of property value falls slowing sharply to 6.2%, it said. The three-month on three-month comparison of property prices - considered a less volatile measure than the monthly data - rose from 1% in June to 2.6% in July. This was the highest level seen since February 2007, when the housing market was booming.

Property values in July were 6.2% lower than the same month a year earlier, but this was a significant deceleration compared with the 9.3% annual house price fall seen in June. "House prices have been remarkably resilient so far this year, despite a recessionary economic background with sharply rising unemployment," said Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide's chief economist.

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Banks Approve More Mortgages

As reported widely in the UK National press this week more good news for the UK housing market- mortgage approvals by the major high street banks increased to a 15-month high in June, according to the British Bankers' Association (BBA). Around 35,235 mortgages were approved for house purchases in June 2009 , up from around 31,919 the previous month, the BBA said. The figures reflected the banks' increased ability to lend and was 65% up on the same month a year earlier.

The increase in mortgage approvals raises hopes that there will be subsequent rise in activity in the property market. The average value of a mortgage being approved by the major banks stood at £136,400, nearly 11% lower than a year earlier - reflecting falls in house prices. Gross mortgage lending rose slightly, the first increase since April 2008. The number of approvals for remortgaging rose slightly in June, compared with May, to 28,133, but this was down 52% on a year earlier.

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Summer Rise In Mortgage Lending

More good news for the property market was annouced today as The total amount of UK mortgage lending rose sharply in June compared with the previous month, according to lenders. The amount lent by members of the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) reached £12.3bn in June, up from £10.5bn a month earlier. The rise however was mainly the result of the common seasonal increase in moving home and the figure was still some 48% lower than in June 2008.

There have been some signs of greater interest from home buyers recently, and the CML's estimated gross lending figure is the highest of any month this year. "The pick-up in June's lending largely reflects seasonal factors, and these may well support lending volumes at moderately higher levels over the rest of the summer," said CML economist Paul Samter. Mr Samter said that the mortgage market had shrunk in terms of both the number of lenders offering home loans, and the actual number of these loans on offer.

Some brokers believe that a supply of more affordable loans, with lower deposits, could bring back interest from buyers.

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