UK Housing Market

A perfect storm of soaring demand and limited supply of homes has pushed rents to unprecedented levels, according to the latest Goodlord Rental Index. Contact us today to speak with a specialist Commercial Mortgages Broker to discuss how we can assist you. The average cost of renting a property in England surged by 7.5% year-on-year, shattering previous records […]

The UK housing market is anticipated to experience a buoyant autumn, driven by a potential interest rate cut and enhanced political stability, experts suggest. Contact us today to speak with a specialist Commercial Mortgages Broker to discuss how we can assist you. Lower mortgage rates, resulting from a likely loosening of monetary policy by the Bank of England, […]

The housing market in England and Wales is showing signs of recovery, according to new data from e.surv. Contact us today to speak with a specialist Commercial Mortgages Broker to discuss how we can assist you. The average sale price of a home climbed nearly £1,500 (0.4%) to £360,175 in June, the strongest performance for almost a year. […]

UK HOME prices rose for a second straight month in April, according to official data, suggesting the housing market is stabilising after a dip last year. Contact us today to speak with a specialist Commercial Mortgages Broker to discuss how we can assist you. The average price of a home rose to £281,000 (S$482,970), a 1.1 per cent […]

With the UK general election on the horizon, many are speculating about its potential effects on various sectors, with the property market being a significant area of interest. Historically, elections tend to bring a degree of uncertainty, and this one is no different. Contact us today to speak with a specialist Commercial Mortgages Broker to discuss how we […]

The first-time buyer market has proven resilient this year, despite historic headwinds, analysis from Yorkshire Building Society has revealed. Contact us today to speak with a specialist Commercial Mortgages Broker to discuss how we can assist you. In partnership with business consultancy CACI, the society’s research found that first-time buyers make up a higher proportion of the home […]

The year is 2024 and for UK homeowners, navigating the mortgage landscape can feel like a tightrope walk. Interest rates are fluctuating, fixed-rate deals remain competitive, but a potential glimmer of hope shines through: tracker mortgages. For the uninitiated, tracker mortgages mirror the Bank of England’s base rate, meaning your interest rate adjusts accordingly. So, […]

The UK’s housing market is increasing driven by older, affluent individuals already firmly entrenched in home ownership, in the latest sign that younger generations are being squeezed out. The cost-of-living crisis, skyrocketing interest rates and stubbornly high house prices have made it increasingly hard for younger generations to move up the housing ladder, research from […]

The latest research by London lettings and estate agent, Benham and Reeves shows that the W1K postcode of Westminster sits top of the table as the nation’s priciest so far in 2023. Since the start of the year, the average home sold in the postcode has gone for a staggering £8m. Westminster also accounts for […]

James Quinn, founder of GB Home Surveys, looks at the measures the Bank of England has taken to tame inflation and its effect on the property market. It is undeniable that the last 12 months have been incredibly difficult for families and businesses across the UK. From soaring energy food prices brought by the ongoing […]

Carter Jonas predicts that 2023 will be an exceptional year for the prime central London (PCL) market following a recent spike in the number of cash buyers registering to purchase property in the heart of the capital. Most recently, the Marylebone and Mayfair office has seen all cash buyers, many of whom are dollar buyers […]

Annual house price growth has slowed, and the latest monthly figures show a fall, according to Nationwide. It follows the Bank of England’s decision to increase interest rates to 3%, meaning higher mortgage costs for many. Further rate rises are expected. What is happening to house prices?In the last two years, prices rose steeply – […]

RICS report says rise in repossessions will add to supply while soaring interest rates price buyers out of market. Homeowners will struggle to make mortgage repayments and repossessions will rise next year as soaring interest rates and falling prices mark the end of the UK’s 13-year housing market boom, according to a sobering report from […]

The number of house sales in August was 7.6% higher than in the same month in 2021, HMRC has revealed. The data shows that house sales were also 1.7% higher than in July. The figures are provisional seasonally adjusted estimates of the UK’s residential transactions and in August there were 104,980 properties sold. However, HMRC […]

The number of sites being developed for new homes increased 15% in the second quarter of the year compared to the corresponding period in 2021, the latest data shows. Figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal a sharp rise in housebuilding starts in April to June of this year, with 51,730 homes under construction. […]

Research by property purchasing specialist, HBB Solutions, reveals that properties which are slow to sell command an average price of up to -17% below England’s overall average house price with the biggest slow-seller markets found in London and the South East. Despite England’s housing market running red hot since 2020, some homes are still lingering […]

The UK property market proved to be resilient during the global pandemic and the biggest impact that had been witnessed was a sudden drop in enquiries – during the initial lockdown. It appeared to affect a particular section of the housing market, with a decline in queries from international buyers (unwilling to travel internationally) and […]

Consumer confidence in the housing market shows little change despite the cost of living crisis, according to OnTheMarket. The property website reports that high levels of buyer and seller sentiment continued unabated in March, with the proportion of active purchasers and vendors confident that they can purchase or sell within three months unchanged from February. […]

Demand will outstrip supply as house prices continue to rise, according to a local property expert. Keith Moseley, the owner of X-Press Legal Services Staffordshire and West Midlands, predicts another lively year in the sector. However, he says, it’s not all bad news, with these factors supporting a resilient market, complemented by the continuation of […]

June 30th marks the end of the Stamp Duty Holiday at the current £500,000 threshold, with it set to stagger back to the normal rates before the final deadline at the end of September. But what will the end of the Stamp Duty Holiday mean for the property market, and when is the best time […]

House prices have seen record rises between March 2020 and 2021, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics. In spite of worries about the economy and the housing market since the onset of the global pandemic, property prices in Kent and the UK more broadly have remained strong. Overall, our county has […]

London firm Urbanist Architecture has seen a 65% increase in enquiries for homes in the countryside since Q4 2019, research from architecture and planning firm Urbanist Architecture has found. With the UK population confined to their homes for the majority of 2020, lockdown has caused an increasing number of city dwellers to rethink their current […]

Homes in the West Midlands are going for as much as £30,000 more than their asking prices as the housing market in the region booms after the coronavirus lockdown. Nationally, the cost of a house in the UK rose by a little over £3,000 last month as the property market hit new highs – with […]

UK homeowners have typically spent just over £4,000 on renovating their properties since the lockdown began in March, the Renovation Nation Report from money.co.uk has revealed. Garden upgrades (34%) top a list for the most popular lockdown renovation projects, closely followed by the living room (23%), bedroom (22%) and kitchen (22%). Almost a quarter (24%) […]

Residential property transactions were up 16% on a monthly basis in May as the UK eased its way out of lockdown. HMRC figures revealed that there were 48,450 residential transactions during the month, but that is still 49.6% lower than in May 2019. Non -residential property transactions stood at 5,880, 42.2% lower than May 2019 […]

Most sellers already on the market, and those with a sale already agreed, are continuing with their plans to move once it is deemed safe enough, Rightmove’s House Price Index has found. Despite the lockdown total stock for sale has only fallen by 2.6% since the lockdown. Rightmove said there weren’t enough properties coming to […]

In the past decade Harlow in Essex has recorded the highest house price growth, CashLady analysis of Land Registry data has found. Over the period prices have risen by 74.92% in Harlow, followed by Southend-on-Sea (74.85%), Watford (74.75%), Thurrock (73.20%) and Cambridge (73.03%). In December 2019 prices in Harlow averaged at £290,068, up from £165,829 […]

Despite the flood risk and problems across the UK now and over the last decade, it seems to not have affected property price growth in flood risk areas. Research by GetAgent, using house price data for the areas marked as the most at risk in England by the Environment Agency, shows that in the last […]

One in four properties are listed as an Airbnb in some parts of the country, amid concerns the short-term lets are deepening the UK’s housing crisis. In Edinburgh Old Town there were 29 active listings for every 100 properties, while in the north-west Skye, there were 25 listings for every 100 properties. The analysis by […]

Property predictions for 2020 are in with a key focus on house prices, first-time buyers and Brexit. Combining data from last year, the property experts at Good Move have predicted what we are likely to see take place this year based on a number of factors. Whether you’re planning on buying your first home or […]

The price of a home in the UK has more than trebled since the turn of the century, new research has revealed. The average UK price in 1999 was £91,199 and has now risen to £279,997, representing an increase of over 200 per cent. In Scotland, prices have risen by 173 per cent, from £68,959 […]

As we await the result of the ­pre-Christmas general election and what changes this may or may not bring to the position of Scotland in the UK and Europe, it feels like something of a renaissance is afoot. Although the overall level of confidence in the economy remains fragile, the news is not all doom […]

The U.K real estate could rebound over the next half a decade According to Savills, the average UK property prices are expected to jump by 15.3% Savills warns that the growth will be slower due to higher taxes and rising interest rates The UK real estate could be headed for a major bounce back in […]

Buyers spent a total of £2.06 billion on super prime properties in London in the year to May 2019. This was marginally higher than a figure of £2.05 billion in the previous 12 months, according to super prime sales market insight report for Winter 2019 from international real estate firm Knight Frank. The market for […]

Prospective buyers have been deterred from purchasing new-build homes in the UK because they are “unattractive” and “devoid of character”. Roughly half of homebuyers and property investors believe new-builds are usually unattractive, while 63 per cent consider them to lack distinctive features, according to a new survey. Two-thirds of potential buyers criticised the style of […]

London home buyers are willing to pay almost 10 per cent more on a house in order to live closer to a station, according to Nationwide. The building society found Londoners are willing to pay a whopping 9.4 per cent premium for a house located 500 metres away from a station. That amounts to approximately […]

Liverpool has seen the highest drop in house price value since 2008 in England and Wales, according to the latest research by GetAgent. GetAgent investigated Middle Layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs) and compared the average house price change for these areas since the financial crisis. Using MSOA area codes, the research revealed that the 023 […]

Older people are staying in their homes longer and locking younger buyers out of family properties or homeownership all together. Economic uncertainty has depressed buying and selling activity among existing homeowners, Nationwide Building Society said, and potential first time buyers are feeling the consequences. The mortgage lender said homeowners aged 55 to 64 have been […]

Land could come under ‘common ownership’, inheritance tax could be abolished and the buy-to-let market could be tightened under housing proposals floated by the Labour party yesterday (June 3). In a paper entitled Land for the Many, written by a group of academics, economists and land experts for the Labour leadership, and published by the Labour […]

Recent research has shown that buy to let investors can improve their rental yields by ensuring that WIFI connectivity in the property is good. The research from real estate connectivity certifications provider WiredScore and the HomeOwners Alliance has found that two-thirds of residential developers can rent properties with good connectivity services at a higher price […]

A Community Benefit Society working to end the housing crisis by providing affordable and emergency housing to people who need it most is launching the second round of its secure property-based financing arrangement. Providing an “ethical alternative to buy-to-let”, Reap from Equfund sees ethically minded investors lend their money to provide decent, safe, and affordable housing for people at […]

The number of first-time buyers reached a new high last year – with the catalyst being Help to Buy, the scheme that helps purchasers of new-build homes only. According to trade body UK Finance, there were 370,000 new first-time buyer mortgages completed last year, some 1.9% higher than in 2017. This is the highest number […]

Modular has long been hailed as a solution to a housing crisis that has left workers in England and Wales needing to fork out eight times their annual income to buy a house, according to ONS data published in 2018. The homes are quick to assemble and are cost-efficient, they are built to last and they […]

Social housing is low cost rented housing and low cost home ownership for people who may not be able to access the private market. It includes council housing and homes provided by housing associations. In this piece we’ll be focusing on rented accommodation available in the social housing sector. Housing is a devolved issue so the […]

Every investor wants to be sure they’re making the right decision with their next investment, and location plays a big part in the success of any property venture. Certain areas of the UK are more prosperous than others when it comes to the housing market, with more opportunities and potential found up North compared to […]

Millennial couples are delaying having children and “putting their lives on hold” because of the sky-high cost of housing, “shocking” figures show. Young couples are two times more likely than 35-54-year-olds to delay having children in a bid to get onto the property ladder, according to numbers crunched by mortgage broker Trussle. The analysis also […]

One in ten rental properties being advertised on Zoopla explicitly exclude anyone who is claiming benefits, research claims. Analysis by the National Housing Federation (NHF) of 85,912 properties listed for rent across England on Zoopla this year found 8,710 that openly said “No DSS” or similar. Separately, Shelter has conducted a mystery shopping exercise on […]

There are many benefits to being a young adult – better health, more freedom, and almost-endless career options. But being able to purchase your own home and moving out from under your parent’s wings is becoming increasingly difficult for many. Over the last two decades, UK home ownership figures have revealed that approximately 40% of young […]

EA reports on key takeaways from our inaugural Building Sustainable Towns & Cities conference, with the housing crisis arguably the biggest conundrum facing UK government aside from Brexit. With the battle to deliver the government’s ambitious housing target of 300,000 new homes per year – and with consideration of environmental impacts, climate resilience and net gains […]

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued an extremely concerning report on the worldwide housing market. The IMF believes that house prices in some of the world’s largest economies could be overvalued by an average of 12%. When you consider the average price of a UK property this equates to a potential “overvaluation” of almost […]

As it stands 69% of the UK’s housing equity is owned by over-55 year olds, The Intermediary Mortgage Lenders report, ‘developments in later life lending to an ageing population’, has found. The number of over-65 homeowners has risen 52% in the last 20 years while the over-65 population in general has risen just 28%, with […]

Winchester is home to the most vulnerable rental market as tax changes magnify the threats to landlords, Gatehouse Bank has found. Tax changes including the second home surcharge and tapering of mortgage interest relief have constrained the buy-to-let market in recent years, resulting in an environment where yield alone can no longer be the primary […]

The column inches written about the dysfunctional British housing market are legion. Too few homes, at too high a price, built for too few people. Two years ago, the Farmer Report commissioned by the Government concluded that the British construction industry, using a medical analogy, was a dying patient. Fast forward to today, it still lies on its […]

Britain is moving towards a “German housing model” with a greater percentage of the population renting, a study has claimed – with two thirds of renters saying they have no intention of purchasing a property. The report found that people increasingly said they did not want to be tied down to living in a specific […]

Homelessness in Britain could be eradicated within 10 years with the correct measures in place, according to a report. Government policies needed to end homelessness have been set out in a report by charity Crisis called Everybody In: How To End Homelessness In Great Britain. The plan has been endorsed by experts in the US, Canada and Finland, […]

UK house prices are 106 times higher than they were when England won the World Cup in 1966, according to research from online mortgage broker Trussle. Average house prices have gone up from £2,006 to £211,000, the company found, while wages have risen at around a third of the rate, moving from £798 to £26,500. […]

A record number of landlords are now exiting the market, letting agents say. The ARLA Propertymark Private Rented Sector Report shows that the number of landlords exiting the market rose to five per branch in April, up from four in March, the highest since the data started being recorded in 2015. The figure had risen for […]

Investing in real estate within the UK has long been a favourite of both British and international investors. The moderate political climate and general stability that the UK sees has given rise to a traditionally safe and secure property market in which to place your money. While the market can naturally go up and down, […]

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has released figures that show where homes are being built including those on flood risk zones and potentially contaminated land. Its figures for 2016-17 show that more homes were built on flood risk areas and the green belt. More than one in ten (11%) of new […]

London boroughs were among the worst performing areas for rental growth last year, with Kensington and Chelsea taking the wooden spoon. According to research from buy-to-let mortgage lender Landbay, six of the bottom ten ‘rental fallers’ over the past year were all in London, including Kensington and Chelsea , Kingston upon Thames, Hammersmith and Fulham, […]

Since the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme was launched on 1 April 2013, a total of 158,883 properties have been bought with an equity loan up to the end of 2017. The latest government figures show that the total value of these loans was £8.27 billion, with the value of the properties sold under […]

London is the worst place in the UK to buy a home for first-time buyers, according to price comparison website Money Super Market’s First Time Buyer Index. The inaugural survey analysed 35 UK cities against key criteria for first-time buyers, including the cost of a one-bedroom property, crime statistics, job opportunities and average salary in […]

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has released a short analysis illustrating the individual relationships between some important housing market pressures and house prices. The report is not intended to be exhaustive and has limitations, but uses relationships estimated from the affordability model in the 2007 and 2008 reports by the National Housing […]

Official figures show that hundreds of houses and flats on the Isle of Wight have been standing empty for at least half a year. The charity, Empty Homes Agency, said it was concerned official statistics might underestimate the scale of the problem. Hundreds of houses and flats on the Isle of Wight have been standing […]

The South East Home Truths 2017-18 report by the National Housing Federation estimates that the average home now costs almost £395,000 in the Brighton and Hove City Council area. This is 14 times the typical local salary, the report said, making home ownership impossible for many. The report also said • The cost of renting privately […]

The size of the social housing sector has been decreasing over time. The proportion of the population living in social housing in Great Britain halved between the early 1980s and early 2010s, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The IFS puts this down to two key developments: the introduction of Right to Buy in 1980, which […]

The average first-time buyer is now seven years older than in 1960 and needs to save around £20,000 to be able to buy a home, a study has found. Researchers who polled 2,000 adults found a huge difference in the profile of someone buying their first home through the generations. Today, first-time buyers will be […]

Glasgow can boast the most buoyant housing market in Scotland and some of the quickest sales turnaround times in the UK, according to property experts. The healthy state of the market has been put down to a series of property hot-spots and the continued “gentrification” of the east end of the city. Glasgow is said […]

The number of houses in Scotland worth at least £1 million is increasing nearly twice as fast as the UK average, according to new research which shows thousands more Scots have become so-called ‘property millionaires’ over the past 18 months. There are now more than 11,000 homes across the nation valued at least £1m, an […]

House price growth looks set to judder to a halt in 2018 or at best manage a small below-inflation rise, as the twin spectres of Brexit and rising interest rates put the brakes on the property market. Following what some have called a lacklustre year, homeowners and those looking to sell in the coming months have been […]

Larry Elliott suggests five steps to fix the housing market (Britain’s broken housing market – and how to fix it, 9 October) which include Kate Barker’s idea of “acquiring” large sites abutting urban areas at a modest premium to their existing use. That would effectively part-nationalise development value and might help supply, although the Tories wouldn’t […]