Property in London as unaffordable as ever.

eMoov.co.uk the leading fixed fee estate agent, recentley released its latest research into the London property market, they found less than half of the houses up for sale were priced at the average £550,000 or less. The Capital is now as unaffordable as ever for aspiring homeowners, the average house price exceeds the half a…

Read More

House prices may have reached their peak

Property prices in the UK may have peaked is the stark warning in a report out this week. Paul Smith chief executive of Haart,  reportedly gave out the warning this week of a big slump in demand from buyers and that the prices of houses have now peaked, reportedly saying “We are starting to see…

Read More

1000 new built for rent homes for London

Recent press release from the Department for Communities and Local Government, Homes and Communities Agency and Brandon Lewis MP headlined ‘Boost to London Housing from 1000 homes Built to Rent’. Two multi-million pound deals that will see over 1,000 new homes built in the capital specifically for private rent have been welcomed by Housing Minister…

Read More

Mortgage lending growth falls back in April

British Bankers Association (BBA) today releases April 2016 figures for the high street banks. Gross mortgage borrowing of £12bn in the month was 12% higher than in April 2015. As expected, this was a slower month, following the inflated lending activity associated with borrowers completing purchases ahead of the stamp duty increase. Net mortgage borrowing is running…

Read More

London house purchase and remortgage lending up in Q1

Press release yesterday from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) headlined London house purchase and remortgage lending up year-on-year in first quarter (Q1) of 2016. Home buyers in London borrowed £7.1bn for house purchase in the first quarter of 2016, up 6% quarter-on-quarter and 41% on a year ago. They took out 21,400 loans, down 2%…

Read More

Paragon Group half year results.

The Paragon Group of Companies PLC  announced yesterday its half year results for the six months ended 31 March 2016. Commenting on the results, Nigel Terrington, Chief Executive of Paragon, said: “This has been another outstanding performance from Paragon, with strong profit growth complemented by significant progress in our lending activity and further development in…

Read More

BOE governor defends stance on EU referendum debate

bank of england interest rate

At a parliamentary select committee meeting yesterday The Bank of England governor Mark Carney strongly defended his stance on the EU referendum debate, he made no apologises for his comments on the “dangers of a recession” if Britain leaves the EU, he insisted that the BoE’s views were independent and a collective judgment of the…

Read More

Nationwide post pre-tax profits of £1.3bn.

Nationwide building society has reported a 23% rise in full-year pre-tax profits to £1.3bn. 2016 Annual Results Financial highlights 9% increase in underlying profit to £1,337 million 23% increase in statutory profit to £1,279 million Net lending of £9.1 billion (2015: £7.1 billion) a market share of 21.4% (2015: 31.2%) Nationwide chairman David Roberts said:…

Read More

April 2016 Transaction Data

Transaction data April 2016 released by the Land Registry published yesterday. Land Registry completed 1,567,627 applications. The South East topped the table of regional applications with 360,066. Birmingham topped the table of local authority applications by area with 24,189 The Transaction Data shows Land Registry completed more than 1,567,620 applications from its customers in April.…

Read More

Record rent rises across some regions.

  According to data released today rents are now rising at the fastest rate for six months, reaching an average of £793 across England & Wales. New all-time records for three separate regions – led by the East Midlands with 8.5% annual rent rises. Landlords see total annual returns (before costs) of 10.7% in year…

Read More

Zoopla leads in Brand Awareness

According to a recent Zoopla news release, recent research conducted by Harris Interactive revealed that following Zoopla’s latest marketing campaign it has now achieved a record level of national brand awareness. On prompted brand awareness, where consumers are asked if they recognise certain brands, Zoopla has now taken the top spot amongst UK property portals…

Read More

Positive UK Housing Market

Housebuilding is an industry which at present  continues to do well with various housebuilders reporting excellent results,   the governments ‘help-to-buy’ scheme is a major contributing factor to this. We have a situation at present where we have strong competion between mortgage lenders and mortgage rates are  at all time lows, indications are that this will…

Read More

April Gross Mortgage Lending less than March.

Press release published yesterday by The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) headlines “Gross mortgage lending grows 16% year-on-year”. The Council of Mortgage Lenders  estimates that gross mortgage lending reached £18.5 billion in April. This is 29% lower than March’s lending total of £26.2 billion, but 16% higher than the £16 billion lent in April last…

Read More

London Mayor getting to grips with Housing Crisis

New London Mayor Sadiq Khan has wasted no time since taking office, he immediately  requested an urgent audit of City Hall’s readiness to tackle the housing crisis, the audit revealed what the London Mayor called the “massive scale” of the challenge ahead. The previous Mayor Boris Johnson  came in for critiscm from Sadiq Khan for…

Read More