BREAKING PROPERTY NEWS – 05/04/2022
Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.
PRESS RELEASE: 40 Year Home Loans Are Fuelling House Price Surge – NAPB
The growth of 40-year mortgages is set to fuel further house price rises, a leading property group has warned.
According to research released last week more buyers in their 30s and 40s are being forced to take out mortgages over a 40-year term, rather than the traditional 25 years, to keep repayments affordable.
Moneyfacts research found six in 10 home loans now offer buyers the option of a 40-year term.
The National Association of Property Buyers say this is “storing up issues for the future”.
Spokesman Jonathan Rolande said: “Much like the ultra-low interest rates we’ve enjoyed for the last few years, long term mortgages are making property that bit more affordable for people, spreading repayment of the debt over 30 or even 40 years. Whilst this is helping people to afford their ideal home, it is further fuelling price rises and creating an issue for the future. Will buyers in their 30’s now really be happy to work well in to their 70’s to repay a mortgage taken all those years ago? Based on past performance, in 40 years prices could be 10x what they are now so the mortgage will seem very low, but what if prices don’t keep rising?”
Mr Rolande, a director of House Buy Fast, added: “Many owners may be forced to sell a much-loved family home before they want to, to repay the mortgage and allow retirement. I hope that buyers taking these on will overpay the mortgage whenever they can to eventually reduce the term – their distant, older self will be very grateful!
Mr Rolande’s comments come days after a warning that the next generation of pensioners face a housing timebomb as millions will fail to clear their mortgage before they retire, while those who cannot afford to buy will have to pay rent throughout their final years.
As house prices rocket, more buyers in their 30s and 40s are being forced to take out mortgages over a 40-year term, rather than the traditional 25 years, to keep repayments affordable.
Six in 10 home loans now offer buyers the option of a 40-year term, according to Moneyfacts. However with the average first-time buyer now 34, such deals could run into their 70s. Halifax, Barclays, Santander and Nationwide all now offer 40-year terms, while NatWest and Virgin Money stretch to 35 years.
Someone who borrows £150,000 over 25 years at 2 per cent faces repayments of £635.78 a month, but stretching their mortgage term to 40 years reduces that to £454.24, saving £181.54 a month. However because they will repay the debt over an extra 15 years, total interest charges would shoot up from £40,734 to £68,035, an extra £27,301.
There is also expected to be a surge in the number of older people renting rather than owning in retirement, new research shows. One in three private rental properties are headed by somebody aged 45 or over, and this will jump to at least half by 2035, according to analysis on behalf of Paragon Bank.
The private rented sector will be getting older as many cannot afford to buy. Amy Norman, senior researcher at the Social Market Foundation, said: “We need to revisit our preconceptions about renting being the preserve of young, mobile households.” Older renters will want different types of properties, including accessible, ground-floor homes close to shops, transport links, health services and loved ones, Norman said.
Continuing to pay rent in retirement will be a burden on their finances, especially with pension incomes already squeezed.
Rents are rising sharply and this will further squeeze pensioners who rent rather than own. Coles added: “If you rent for life, you need to consider the toll this will take on your pension and make sure you’re building up enough savings to cover it.”
Yet renters typically have fewer pension savings than homeowners, Coles warned: “It’s going to be tough for many.”
PRESS RELEASE: illimity presents Quimmo, the proptech platform to make life easier for real estate buyers and sellers
Milan, 5 April 2022 – illimity Bank S.p.A. (“illimity” or the “Bank”), today presents Quimmo, the Italian prop-tech set up to respond to the needs of both private and institutional buyers and sellers. A latest-generation platform created to simplify the purchase and sale of real estate and cover the entire value chain.
Quimmo is the result of a significant investment made by the illimity Group in technology and the active experience it has gained in real estate brokerage over the past few years. This has already become one of illimity’s key activities and in 2021 alone generated 26 million visits to its portal, 900 thousand registered users and deals involving over 2,000 properties, thanks also to the presence of 200 professionals working in the Group’s central and local structures.
The arrival of Quimmo will enable the offer based on the judicial segment to evolve to a subsequent phase. In this respect, over the next few months the platform also aims to cover, even more completely, the needs of other kinds of sellers – real estate developers, builders, funds, banks, insurance companies and simply families.
Quimmo is setting its sights on a significant growth in volumes in 2022, aiming at 34 million visits, 1.4 million registered users and deals involving more than 3,000 properties.
Quimmo brings the property to the fore and provides clear and complete assistance in order to accompany the buyer and seller throughout the whole process – whatever the proposed method of sale, from online auctions to private deals – and at any stage whatsoever – from the selection of the property through to the purchase.
Homes, offices, commercial and industrial properties have always been fundamental items of life in general and the economy. And in a very wide world the property sales market is worth over 120 billion euro a year, and is undergoing a considerable evolution as far as tools and services are concerned, even if still at a low level of digitalisation. Quimmo has been set up to respond to this need, to make both the buying and selling process more effective and more efficient and provide a contribution to bringing the benefits of digitalisation to this sector too.
EVERYTHING NEEDED FOR BUYING AND SELLING REAL ESTATE
Quimmo is a competitive new prop-tech model because it brings together, in one single place, everything that is needed to buy and sell a property, reassembling the existing fragmentation of estate agents, portals and services. It will be possible to have the visibility of the large portals, the assistance of estate agents and digital buying and selling processes led by the data in one single platform.
In addition, Quimmo will also include value-added services, since both the buyer and the seller need assistance in selecting all the professional skills required when buying and selling, such as for example a network of specialists and a network of affiliated notaries. All built into a single interface from start to finish.
FROM A PERFECTLY INTEGRATED DIGITAL PLATFORM TO PROFESSIONALS WHO ACCOMPANY THE PROCESS AT ALL STAGES
Quimmo takes the best in terms of technology, processes and products and combines these with a simple user experience and the ability to accompany the customer, buyer or seller, throughout all the stages of the purchase or the sale, with top quality services and swift, transparent and digital procedures. But not only this. In addition to being able to perform many of its functions automatically, Quimmo also provides the assistance of specialist professionals, throughout Italy, centrally coordinated and led by a single digital mind.
DETAILED INFORMATION ALWAYS ON-HAND
Quimmo produces the information and depending on the case shares it with buyers and sellers to guide their strategies and decisions.
Private and institutional sellers can access a wealth of data about their potential customers, their properties and their reference market. Sellers are able to know who has visited their property, virtually and physically, who has downloaded documents, who has requested information and who has asked for an appointment to view. They will have access to their dashboard and will have awareness of the path, and they will be able to talk with the professionals to analyse the data gathered and redirect their strategy, in this way speeding up the sales process. Buyers have a personal account in which they can file research and be informed about available opportunities and those corresponding to their interests.
ACCESS TO ALL TYPES OF SALE
Quimmo multiplies the possibilities because it enables access to all properties regardless of the reference market, including those often considered too “complicated”, such as the judicial market. Each seller is able to deal with a single market, in which everything is available for sale and not only put in the window. Quimmo has been created to give every seller the possibility of meeting up with every buyer and removing the distance between them.
Quimmo is one of the portals controlled by abilio, the illimity Group company specialising in digital intermediation. Find out more on: Quimmo.
Corrado Passera, CEO and Founder of illimity, commented: “Quimmo is an initiative with significant entrepreneurial prospects and one that is immensely useful for the real estate brokerage sector. We have accumulated experience – the illimity Group is today already one of the leading players involved in the digital intermediation of moveable and immoveable assets – we have invested in innovative technologies and in the field we have built a network of specialised professionals. We can accompany both buyers and sellers with a model which we consider to be unique, effective and efficient and which will continue to be enriched over time. As envisaged in our 2021-25 Strategic Plan, the tech component, and therefore one that is highly scalable, will continue to grow within our portfolio of activities.”
Renato Ciccarelli, Head of the Quimmo project, stated: “With Quimmo we wanted to create a unique platform and model in the real estate market that covers the entire value chain and simplifies the buying and selling process. We have made the real estate sector democratic by bringing the property to the fore and providing the widest possible variety of selling methods, ranging from auctions to private deals. To do this we have developed a hybrid paradigm, a formidable blend of an innovative business model with the human touch, by digitalising all the purchase and sale stages, building in the analysis of the big data companies and putting these innovative tools at the service of our agents throughout the country.”
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.
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