Will lower stress tests for mortgages fuel a first-time buyer boom? June 13, 2025 Easier access to mortgages might replace the stamp duty holiday as fuel for the starter homes market, with prices forecast to soar if affordability improves. The average price paid by a first-time buyer grew by 2.1 per cent in the first quarter and by 7.1 per cent year on year, according to government data. While [...]
UK housing market: ‘Not fixed, but less broken’ June 12, 2025 Decades of underinvestment, underbuilding and overegulation have clobbered the housing market. The UK is now short about 4.3m homes, with the worst crisis in cities. Labour, which made solving that crisis a central mission of its first year in government, has made tracks to get Britain building again – reforming planning, trying to bridge the [...]
Spending Review: Reeves leaves London short-changed June 11, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ inaugural Spending Review fell short for London, the capital’s business advocacy group has said. Reeves’ announcements on infrastructure, transport and skills were received warmly but BusinessLDN has said the Chancellor had failed to fully deliver, leaving the capital “short-changed”. The Spending Review included a four-year settlement for Transport for London with the [...]
Optimism on construction boom lifts housebuilder stocks June 11, 2025 Shares in the UK’s major housebuilders have all risen in the past five days as news of government investment buoys the chances of a construction market boom. Vistry and Crest, which have recently boosted their focus on affordable homes, were particular winners: Vistry has risen by more than 20 per cent since June 6, while [...]
Build-to-rent: UK boom in purpose-built properties June 2, 2025 The number of build-to-rent completions in the last year has shot up in another sign the sector is here to stay in the UK. Completions of built to rent properties – which refers to purpose built, institutionally owned and professionally managed residential blocks of flats – have risen by 16 per cent year on year, [...]
Mortgage lending plummets in April as estate agents cross fingers for rate cut June 2, 2025 Mortgage lending dropped in April after the market ‘reset’ following the end of the stamp duty holiday, according to new figures. Net borrowing of mortgage debt decreased sharply by £13.7bn to -£0.8bn in April, according to the Bank of England’s latest data. Net mortgage approvals for house purchases also fell for the third consecutive month, [...]
Government slashes red tape to tackle housing crisis May 28, 2025 The government will slash red tape to get more construction by smaller building firms off the ground, and to “get working people on the housing ladder,” Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has said as Labour looks to promote its pro-business credentials. A relaxation of environmental protections is expected, including Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requirements which [...]
Happy Cost of Rent Day Londoners – for the rest of the year your money is yours May 27, 2025 With the average London tenant needing to work 146 days a year just to pay off their rent, today marks a miserable milestone, writes Sebastian Charleton.
New rules could see housebuilders who leave sites unfinished stripped of land May 24, 2025 Housebuilders who leave vital development sites unfinished for years could face losing their land to local councils under new Government rules. For the first time, developers will have to commit to delivery time frames before they get planning permission. They will also have to submit annual reports showing their progress to councils to keep them [...]
London house price growth cools as rents continue to climb May 21, 2025 Annual house price growth in London was just under one per cent in April, although rents continued to climb above the national average. Average house prices in the UK as a whole increased by 6.7 per cent £296,000 in England in the 12 months to April 2025, according to new data from the ONS. Prices [...]