BREAKING NEWS – top 5 stories 17/06/2021

HOUSING MARKET FLYING AHEAD – BUT PRIVATE RENTAL MARKET HAS 800,000 IN ARREARS

It may be Boom time for the residential housing sector, but the National Residential Landlords Association feels that as many as 0.8M tenants are behind with the rent to their respective private landlords.

The pandemic is seen as the common factor, with NRLA hypothesising that over three-quarters of tenants in arrears racked up the debt during the period of the pandemic. The situation is not being helped as the government is not giving additional direct cash to ease the situation.

AVERAGE HOUSE PRICE DROPPED BY 1.9% ACCORDING TO LATEST LAND REGISTRY DATA

Latest analysis just in from HMLR shows that in the recent period average house sale prices have actually dropped by nearly 2% in recent months, though the annual national picture shows an almost 10% rise. It will be interesting to see if this is just a blip caused by many factors – or it continues in coming months.

AGENTS SAYS PRESSURE TO GET EXCHANGED AND COMPETED BY MONTH END IS BITING

A large Independent agent has said that,

‘Because many buyers are looking at up to a 15K saving on stamp duty if they complete by the last day of June, we are getting repeated calls daily to get the sales across the line. But the solicitors and lenders just are not responding. There is going to be a lot of upset people.’

COMMERCIAL LANDLORDS ‘ANOTHER NINE MONTHS OF PAIN’

The government has just announced that ‘commercial tenants’ cannot be evicted for another nine months. Whilst this gives some businesses respite, commercial landlords will be powerless to start with a new tenant who can pay being in situ. The government needs to think long and hard about the repercussions.

MARKET COOLING? OR IS IT THE EUROS

Some agents are saying that although instructions are low, the pace seems to be dying down from would be buyers. They are not sure if it is the good weather, which makes people think of socialising, the football or just the market is going into a cooling down phase, as is typical as the seasonal trends of holidays plays into the market.

If you have a view – please let us all know by emailing me at [email protected] – Andrew Stanton Executive Editor – moving property and proptech forward.