Now RBS caps UK mortgages June 3, 2014 RBS yesterday joined Lloyds in cutting back mortgage lending for the most expensive houses, in the latest sign that banks are worried that the market could overheat. The move came as Nationwide reported house prices are at a record high, while ex-City watchdog boss Lord Turner said he is worried about the towering pile of [...]
Average UK house price hits record high as Help to Buy fails to take off in London June 3, 2014 UK house prices rose by 11.1 per cent annually last month, according to the latest figures from Nationwide. That takes the cost of an average UK home to £186,512 – overtaking the previous peak reached in pre-crisis October 2007 for the first time. In April, the average cost was £183,577. The building society’s house prices [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 02 June 2014 June 2, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Tony Blair to call for Europe reform Tony Blair will today call for Europe to reform itself in the wake of victories for anti-EU parties across the continent last week. In his first big speech on the subject since the European election results last weekend, the former prime minister will tell leaders in [...]
Use of Help to Buy scheme picks up pace May 29, 2014 INTEREST in chancellor George Osborne’s controversial Help to Buy scheme is accelerating among buyers, even amid warnings that it is doing nothing to boost the UK’s supply of homes. Up to March, 7,313 applications for the mortgage guarantee part of the scheme had been approved. Demand was much stronger in the later months of the [...]
How rich are Help to Buy users? May 29, 2014 Today the Treasury released their figures on the use of the controversial Help to Buy scheme – specifically for the second (mortgage guarantee) part of the policy. It has been used 7,313 times so far – but Berenberg’s Rob Wood notes that the figures lean heavily towards more recent months. Only 818 mortgages were [...]
London house price boom set to cool down May 28, 2014 LONDON’S housing market is likely to slow down over the summer and return to normal levels of growth in the coming years, Britain’s biggest building society said today. Prices in the capital have shot up by as much as 20 per cent in the last year, but are likely to gradually slow down to increase [...]
Value of London mortgages rockets 37pc May 28, 2014 Another sign of the surging housing market: the value of mortgages to home buyers in Greater London jumped 37 per cent from a year earlier in the first quarter of this year – to £5.6bn. The figure was actually down 10 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2013 – a seasonal dip impacting lending, [...]
Full steam ahead at Nationwide as chief issues warning on housing market May 28, 2014 Nationwide has reported its best ever annual results, but has warned that the housing market may well start seeing a “natural correction”. “At some point buyers just start saying no”, said the mutual's chief executive, Graham Beale, to the BBC’s business editor Kamal Ahmed. The prognosis came as Nationwide reported that it opened 430,000 new [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 23 May 2014 May 22, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Corrupt companies face higher fines British companies that bribe foreign officials to win contracts, commit fraud, or launder money, face fines of up to 400 per cent of their illicit profits, under new penalty guidelines. In the most serious cases companies will pay fines comparable with those meted out in the US, where [...]
The UK housing market needs Help to Supply – not Help to Buy May 21, 2014 THE UK housing market needs Help to Supply, not Help to Buy. The government’s housing scheme has helped first-time buyers get a leg-up onto the property ladder, but that privilege has come at a price – with house prices higher than otherwise, as the subsidy became capitalised in prices. The planning system has created a [...]