PROPERTY NEWS
BACK TO THE BOOM YEARS FOR PUTNEY
The property boom years are back, at least in Putney. An eight-bedroom house in Heathview Gardens has just sold for £5.3m, one of the highest prices ever paid for a property in SW15. Russell White, franchisee of Winkworth Putney who handled the sale, said: “The Putney sales market has enjoyed a strong pick-up in the first half of 2010. The sale of Heathview Gardens demonstrates that confidence has come back to the market since the turmoil of the financial markets in 2007.”
INCREASE IN SUPPLY TO DRIVE UP ACTIVITY
The number of properties coming onto the market in central London has risen 28 per cent in the past six months while demand has stayed strong. Peter Rollings, managing director of Marsh & Parsons, said: “The rise in supply of homes for sale is a healthy development for the London property market. There is now a greater balance between supply and demand for properties and this will encourage more activity in the housing market and see house prices rise at a more sustainable pace.”
RICS: POSITIVE OUTLOOK FOR UK RENTS
Buy-to-let investors will be cheering the RICS’s positive outlook for rents: 33 per cent more surveyors expect rents to increase in the next quarter than fall. This is supported by rising tenant demand in the three months to July, according to the RICS Residential Lettings Survey out today. The survey shows 26 per cent more agents reporting a rise in demand for property rather than a fall. Encouragingly, the pace of decline in new landlord instructions is moderating.
LEEDS’ NEW FIVE-YEAR FIXED RATE MORTGAGE
Uncertainty about the future for interest rates is prompting more prospective buyers to take out fixed-rate mortgages. Leeds Building Society has just launched a new five-year fixed mortgage range available from 3.94 per cent for those with a 40 per cent deposit. Those with smaller deposits can pay a slightly higher monthly rate.
The mortgage is fully portable should customers wish to move and 10 per cent capital repayments are allowed each year without penalty.