The UK's independent property help portal
February 2, 2012

NewBuy Guarantee scheme launches in March

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by Gill Montia

NewBuy Guarantee scheme launches in March
Housing Minister, Grant Shapps, has unveiled a range of measures aimed at helping first-time buyers and boosting prospects for house builders. From March, the NewBuy Guarantee scheme will be on hand to help those buying newly-built properties. The scheme brings lenders, builders and ...

February 1, 2012

Nationwide: house prices slip 0.2%

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by Gill Montia

Nationwide: house prices slip 0.2%
UK house prices slipped by 0.2% in January, according to Nationwide, with the annual rise pared down to 0.6% (December 1%). The value of the typical home currently stands at £162,228 but the lender is not surprised by the soft start to 2012 ...

January 31, 2012

House prices down 1.3% over 2011

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by Gill Montia

House prices down 1.3% over 2011
December figures from the Land Registry show house prices in England and Wales down 1.3% on the year, to an average £160,384. Overall, there was no monthly change from November to December, although the North West experienced an impressive rise (+1.5%) ...

January 30, 2012

Buying 6% cheaper than renting

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by Gill Montia

Buying 6% cheaper than renting
Buying a home in Scotland is cheaper than renting, according to Bank of Scotland. For a three-bedroom house, the typical mortgage payment in the region amounted to £510 in December, or 6% less than the monthly rent of £540 for the same ...

January 28, 2012

Moving costs rise faster than house prices

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by Gill Montia

Moving costs rise faster than house prices
The cost of moving house in the UK has risen at a faster rate than house prices over the past decade, according to new research by Lloyds TSB. Since 2001, house prices have jumped 64% whereas the average cost of ...

January 26, 2012

Mortgage lending rallies in December

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by Gill Montia

Mortgage lending rallies in December
Gross mortgage lending of £9 billion in December was at its strongest for the whole of last year, according to the British Bankers' Association, with the total up 12% on the same period of 2010. However, repayments by homeowners remained high and ...

January 25, 2012

Lower / middle earners stuck as tenants

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by Gill Montia

Lower / middle earners stuck as tenants
A new report on Britain's "squeezed middle" claims that a radical shift is taking place in the housing market among under 35s in the low to middle income bracket (LMI). According to the Resolution Foundation, household income for LMIs typically amounts ...

January 23, 2012

CML: mortgage funding prospects “uncertain”

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by Gill Montia

CML: mortgage funding prospects
Gross mortgage lending in December stood at an estimated £11.7 billion, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). The total falls 12% short of the £13.2 billion recorded in November but is up 12% year-on-year. In fact, December was the fifth ...


Rents rise 4% over 2011

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by Gill Montia

Rents rise 4% over 2011
Monthly rents across England and Wales fell for the second consecutive month in December, showing a seasonal dip of 0.8% to an average £711, according to the latest Buy-to-Let Index from LSL Property Services. Seven out of nine regions saw falls, with the ...

January 20, 2012

House price sentiment steady

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by Gill Montia

House price sentiment steady
The Knight Frank/Markit house price sentiment index remained steady in January with some 19% of households questioned saying the value of their home had fallen since December, and around 5% reporting a rise. The resulting house price sentiment index of 43.2 is down ...

January 18, 2012

Councils to help elderly rent out homes

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by Gill Montia

Councils to help elderly rent out homes
Housing Minister, Grant Shapps, is calling on councils to give elderly people more choice and control over where they live, so they are not forced into selling homes that no longer meet their needs. Under the FreeSpace project piloted by the ...

January 17, 2012

Mortgage payments most affordable in 14 years

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by Gill Montia

Mortgage payments most affordable in 14 years
Mortgage payments for new borrowers have almost halved as a proportion of disposable income, down from a peak of 48% in the third quarter of 2007 to 27% at the end of 2011. According to new Halifax research, repayments for both ...

January 16, 2012

Sharp rise in home buyer interest

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by Gill Montia

Sharp rise in home buyer interest
Early indications from Rightmove suggest strong interest from potential home buyers in 2012, despite the lack of mortgage finance. Search activity on the property portal shot up 27% in the first 10 days of January, compared with a year earlier. However, the supply ...


November mortgage lending revival

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by Gill Montia

November mortgage lending revival
Mortgage lending rose in November, for only the second time in 2011. According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), loans for house purchases totalled 47,000 with the figure up 4% on a month earlier and 3% on a year earlier. First-time buyers took out ...

January 13, 2012

House prices show “remarkable resilience”

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by Gill Montia

House prices show
House prices in England and Wales rose 0.2% during December, to an average £220,385, but fell 0.5% annually. According to the latest LSL/Acadametrics index, London property prices ended the year 3.1% higher, with Wales the only other region to show annual house price ...

January 12, 2012

Social housing sub-letting to be criminalised

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by Gill Montia

Social housing sub-letting to be criminalised
Housing Minister, Grant Shapps, has set out proposals to make unlawful sub-letting and "key-selling" in the social housing sector criminal offences. According to Mr Shapps, thousands of homes could be freed up for those on social housing waiting lists if the practices ...

January 11, 2012

Timely tips for first-time landlords

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by Gill Montia

Timely tips for first-time landlords
Real estate specialist, Knight Frank, is expecting UK property prices to fall 5% this year, and the prospect of a new batch of forced landlords entering the private rental market has prompted the National Landlords' Association (NLA) to issue some timely tips ...

January 10, 2012

House sales steady but prices fall

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by Gill Montia

House sales steady but prices fall
UK house sales remained steady in December, despite a rise in the amount of new stock coming to market and no signs of a revival in mortgage lending. According to the latest housing market survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors ...

January 6, 2012

2011 shaves 1.3% off house prices

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by Gill Montia

2011 shaves 1.3% off house prices
House prices in the final quarter of 2011 were 0.1% lower than in the previous quarter, according to Halifax. The value of the typical home slipped 0.9% between November and December, to £160,063, but modest increases earlier in the year meant prices ...


Mixed outlook for mortgage lending

Permalink: Mixed outlook for mortgage lending
by Gill Montia

Mixed outlook for mortgage lending
UK mortgage lending was broadly unchanged in the three months to mid-December, compared with the previous quarter, the Bank of England reports. Lenders had been expecting a slight increase and blamed tighter wholesale funding conditions and fears over house price falls for the ...