Most home purchases made by first-time buyers in 2018, research shows February 23, 2019 The majority of home purchases were made by first-time buyers last year for the first time in 23 years, according to new research. The number of first-time buyers reached 372,000 in 2018, the latest Halifax First-Time Buyer review shows, and now account for more than 50 per cent of all house purchases with a mortgage. [...]
January deals flat as uncertainty weighs on housing market February 21, 2019 Buyers and sellers in Britain’s housing market remained subdued in January, as stamp duty and Brexit uncertainty added to the traditional New Year slowdown. Data released this morning from HMRC has found that residential deals nudged up by 0.8 per cent between December and January, marking a 1.3 per cent rise on the same period [...]
A Brexit-induced price drop won’t fix the housing crisis February 21, 2019 The last 30 years have seen house prices in London soar to dizzying heights. The average home has leapt from £81,536 in 1988 to £473,882 in 2018 – that’s a 481 per cent increase. If the cost of a pint of milk (26p in 1988) had jumped up at the same pace, it would now [...]
Number of first-time buyers soars to 12-year high February 19, 2019 The number of first-time buyers in Britain reached a 12-year high in 2018, with more competitive asking prices and government schemes such as Help to Buy providing a much-needed boon for hopeful homeowners. According to data released by UK Finance this morning, there were 370,000 new first-time buyer mortgages completed in 2018, marking the highest number [...]
Housebuilder MJ Gleeson chief executive: ‘Our customers do not give a damn about Brexit’ February 14, 2019 MJ Gleeson’s profits have surged while other housebuilders are struggling to break even because its customer base is unfazed by the Brexit uncertainty gripping some buyers, according to its chief executive. Speaking to City A.M., CEO Jolyon Harrison said the firm’s profits had risen 62.8 per cent because “our customers do not give a damn [...]
London house prices: Prime postcodes dip as Brexit uncertainty weighs on market February 12, 2019 House prices in London’s most expensive neighbourhoods tumbled in the run-up to Christmas, continuing on a downward trend in the wake of uncertainty from both buyers and sellers. According to new data from Lon Res, prime property prices in the fourth quarter of 2018 fell 5.7 per cent when compared with the same period in [...]
UK house price growth falls to six-year low in weak start to 2019 January 31, 2019 UK house prices almost stopped growing altogether in January as the annual growth rate fell to almost a six-year low, figures reveal today. The 0.1 per cent growth rate was just a fifth of December’s own sluggish 0.5 per cent rate of annual growth, Nationwide’s data showed, and its worst since flat growth in February [...]
Should we be worried about the rise of the Bank of Mum and Dad mortgage? January 30, 2019 In the years leading up to the financial crisis, it was relatively easy for wannabe homeowners to get loans for the full value of a property – otherwise known as a 100 per cent loan-to-value mortgage. Of course, we know the problems caused by these mammoth loans, and since then, affordability criteria have become stricter [...]
Ilford named as London’s most burgled postcode while Chelsea is the least at risk January 25, 2019 East London's Ilford has been named as the most targeted area in the capital for burglaries, new figures show. Analysis from over two and a half million insurance claims revealed the postcode areas in the UK and London most at risk of burglaries, as well as the safest. Henley-in-Arden in Warwickshire, on the outskirts of [...]
Opinion: Property raffles are 500 times easier to win than the EuroMillions but they’re not going to go mainstream until they’re transparent January 18, 2019 Property raffles have certainly generated national media column inches over the past few years. There has been a huge buzz around the concept and it’s easy to see why – the thought of owning a multi-million pound home for the small cost of a ticket could turn an ordinary person struggling to get a foot [...]