London house prices set to fall again this year as buyers struggle to save for a deposit February 8, 2018 London house prices look set to fall again this year as would-be homeowners struggle to save for a deposit. Chartered surveys expect house prices to fall in London over the next 12 months, according to a survey released this morning by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics). Last year, Nationwide recorded a 0.5 per [...]
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is wrong – empty luxury flats are not causing the UK’s housing crisis February 1, 2018 Donned in obligatory high-vis luminous green jackets, chancellor Philip Hammond and communities minister Sajid Javid spent Thursday mooching around a housing development in Leicester, celebrating the construction of new homes. The announcement of an extra £10m to support housebuilding in the area was hardly groundbreaking, yet both men are thought to be considering more radical [...]
Sorry, homeowners: London is now officially a “buyer’s market” January 30, 2018 London’s housing market is at a critical point, new figures have revealed, with heavy discounting by homeowners desperate to sell their properties tipping the capital into a buyer’s market. The average home in London is now sold at four per cent below its original asking price, up from just 0.5 per cent in 2014, the [...]
It’s pensioners, not first-time buyers, who should get stamp duty relief January 18, 2018 Stamp duty is in the news again. Earlier this week, Labour’s shadow housing minister, John Healey, called on the government to extend the tax break introduced in the November Budget to first-time buyers who use the shared ownership scheme. Policies that are seen to help struggling first-time buyers always go down a treat from [...]
Millennial mortgages are here: Automatic switching is go at proptech startup Trussle December 19, 2017 The era of millennial mortgages has arrived. A couple from London are the first homeowners to switch their mortgage automatically and entirely online, without the hassle of searching new deals and lengthy paperwork, thanks to an innovative property technology startup. Trussle's switching alert lets users know when they should remortgage to find a better deal. [...]
UK house prices: Property price growth has fallen for the third month in a row December 12, 2017 House price growth in the UK dropped again in October, according to official figures, the third month in the row it has fallen. Property prices rose 4.5 per cent in the year to October, down from 4.8 per cent in September and 5.1 per cent in August. On a monthly basis, prices fell 0.5 per [...]
Opinion: The stamp duty cut for first time buyers will make a difference to individuals, but not to the housing market at large November 24, 2017 The chancellor made a bold move to remove Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) for most first-time buyers in the Budget on Wednesday. Raising the threshold to £300,000, immediately and indefinitely, will lift 80 per cent of them out of the tax. To account for higher prices in some parts of the country, all first-time buyers [...]
The avocado toast generation needs houses, not lectures on frugality November 17, 2017 The avocado toast generation just can’t catch a break. On Tuesday, a contrarian estate agent published a report guaranteed to antagonise everyone under 40, claiming that a millennial couple could easily save up the £90,000 average deposit for a first home in London, if only they spent less on silly things like sandwiches and lottery [...]
UK house prices just hit their highest on record (again) November 7, 2017 UK house prices hit their highest on record in October, having grown at their fastest since the beginning of the year. The average UK house price rose to £225,826 in October, up 2.3 per cent in the three months between August and October, their fastest rise since January this year. Year-on-year growth hit 4.5 per [...]
Let’s scrap stamp duty and stop exacerbating the housing crisis October 30, 2017 Often when we talk about taxes, we just weigh out how much they raise and who pays, and assume any change is about handing out cash to a favoured group. But this is misguided. Some taxes distort the economy far more than others for every pound they raise for the Treasury. By this measure, stamp [...]