BREAKING PROPERTY NEWS – 07/06/2022
Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.
The Guild: Property market remains robust
Much has been spoken about the potential impact of the economic headwind; however, the property market continues to be brisk as the imbalance of supply and demand continues to underpin market activity. This is according to Iain McKenzie, CEO of The Guild of Property Professionals, who notes that buyer enquiries are up 31% compared to the last ‘normal’ market in 2019. “We continue to find ourselves in a market where mortgage approvals and sales are up, but there is half as many properties available to buy, and according to Rightmove, stock levels are down 55%. This prolonged mismatch between demand and supply continues push housing prices up,” he adds.
McKenzie says that on average properties are selling subject to contract in just 31 days, the quickest time ever recorded. “Competition for properties is fierce, which means homes are selling quickly and often for over asking price. In fact, Rightmove reports show that asking prices have hit their fourth consecutive record high in as many months,” he comments.
According to HMRC, over 433,000 homes in the UK changed hands in the first four months of 2022, making it the third busiest start to a year since 2007. Last year was an exceptional year due to Covid-19 and 2016 saw a surge prior to the introduction of the 3% additional homes surcharge. Except for last year, April 2022 has been the busiest since 2007.
While demand is high, and the market is brisk, economic headwinds are mounting and this will filter through to the property market. “Expectations of global and UK economic growth have been pared back, while consumer confidence has plummeted to its lowest level since records began in 1974. Optimism is weaker than during the global financial crisis, Brexit or Covid-19. The Covid recovery, war in Ukraine and rising energy and food prices, alongside a strong labour market and low unemployment have created a perfect storm. Inflation is pushing a 40-year high. Thanks to fixed-rate mortgages, many households are cushioned from the impact of the latest base rate rise, but day-to-day budgets are increasingly feeling the squeeze. These growing pressures will no doubt have an impact on the market, and it is likely that we will start it begin to moderate. Unlike the rapid emergency brake scenario seen during the global financial crisis in 2008, any gear change in the property market is liable to be slow and steady,” says McKenzie.
Even with the economic pressures, forecasters anticipate that we will continue to see positive house price growth over the course of the year. “The average price of a home is now nearly £47,000 more than in March 2020. This compares to a rise of less than £9,000 in the two years previously. Month-on-month price growth continues across nearly all regions of the UK, all the main property price indices indicating the annual rate of price growth remains firmly in positive territory. The average price of a property now equates to over eight times current average annual earnings. With earnings growth failing to keep pace with property price rises and cost of living increases, the relative affordability of property is rising up the agenda,” McKenzie concludes.
Press Release: How Nalu is Redefining the Industry with an Orchestrated Integration Platform as a Service
Every once in a while, a company comes along to change the face of an entire industry. From social media platforms to search engines, ticket hosting services, and everything in between; in one way or another cutting-edge technology always comes out on top. The commercial real estate industry has just debuted its leading innovator, Nalu. Nalu AI Technologies is thrilled to formally announce the release of Nalu, the purpose-driven platform designed to create better data that benefits ownership.
Nalu leverages cutting-edge AI technology to retrieve vast amounts of relevant data for a specific location which is then combined to fuel powerful machine learning models to forecast intelligence. “Every location is inherently unique and we wanted to get surgical with every address and its surrounding neighborhood. The technology we have developed is the result of four years of hard work paired with over 400 years of real estate experience we have on our collective investors and advisors and a talented team of technologist,” Jim Cooksey, Co-Founder.
As the world around us changes, we need modern solutions to match, and groundbreaking technology for the digital renaissance. Nalu opens up a new world of opportunity for investors, developers, and real estate aficionados alike. Under the paid subscription, Nalu empowers users to leverage the powerful insights of unlimited transactions, while the basic version provides three searches free of charge without any credit card information required.
“The holy grail of the real estate industry is identifying value and executing on it. Our team utilizes Nalu to show investors across the globe the value proposition of a location.” – Ryan Lang, Vice Chairman, Newmark.
Through proof of concept, dedication to innovation, and unwavering commitment to revolutionizing CRE software, Nalu AI Technologies’ purpose-driven vision has come to fruition. We are very excited to create better data and solutions to trade and operate real estate.
If you have a view – please let us all know by emailing me at editor@estateagentnetworking.co.uk – Andrew Stanton Executive Editor – moving property and proptech forward.
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