Docklands News

The Bank of England is considering ditching the stress test which requires lenders to check if a borrower can afford a mortgage if they have to pay their lender’s standard variable rate plus three percentage points. The Bank is consulting on a plan to replace the stress test with looser Financial Conduct Authority rules which are based on expected future interest rate rises and require a minimum stress test of one percentage point above a borrower’s mortgage. Research suggests that the present stress test restricts 30,000 borrowers a year to smaller mortgages than they wanted. George Nixon in the Sunday Times says that it might seem an unusual time to change mortgage rules, with bills, costs and interest rates rising, but notes suggestions that the stress test has been too restrictive. James Daley from consumer group Fairer Finance said limiting mortgages based on income multiples was a “crude” way of doing things, arguing that a borrower’s outgoings, commitments and career were as important. “As long as people can afford it — including if interest rates go up significantly — I don’t think we should be too concerned about lending people more,” he said. It is noted that in 2010, 10.6% of mortgages were for four or more times a person’s income, while this year 12.9% were at this income multiple or higher.   

The Sunday Times (06/03/2022)  

Redrow and Peabody have teamed up to build a £50m, 130-home development at Pontoon Reach in the Royal Docks. The build-to-rent project, which includes a mix of studio, one, two and three-bedroom apartments, has been funded by Pictet Alternative Advisors in joint venture with Pinnacle Investments, and the apartments - 53 of which are set aside for shared ownership - are anticipated to be available from summer 2022 and form part of the wider regeneration of the Royal Docks area. "The scheme will be a great addition to this exciting regeneration area, and we’re here for the long term, with affordable homes to rent and buy, and great open spaces for all to enjoy", said James McMylor, regional development officer at Peabody. 

Evening Standard (01/03/2022)  

The cost of an average UK home rose by a record £29,162 in the last year, according to Nationwide. The lender said it was the biggest cash increase in property prices since it started collecting comparable data in 1991. It pushed up the price of an average UK home to £260,230 in February, it said. Property values are being driven by continued demand from buyers who are competing for relatively few properties on the market. Nationwide, one of the UK's larger mortgage lenders, said that its data suggested UK house prices had risen by 12.6% in the year to the end of February. That was an acceleration from the 11.2% annual increase recorded in January. 

BBC News (01/03/2022)  

Figures from the Bank of England show mortgage approvals for house purchases lifted in January. The figures show some 73,922 mortgage approvals during last month. This is the highest approval number since July 2021, when 75,900 mortgages were given the green light. It also represents the third best January performance in the past decade and is higher than the 12-month pre-pandemic average up to February 2020 of 66,700. 

City AM (02/03/2022)  

Banks are limiting how much buyers can borrow when they take out a mortgage because of rate rises and the increasing cost of living. Barclays and TSB have revised their affordability calculators, which help to work out what borrowers can afford to pay in mortgage costs each month, and Santander will follow suit this week. "We can expect more lenders to take living costs into consideration, especially when the energy price cap is removed in April", said Chris Sykes from the mortgage broker Private Finance. "This means we can expect tighter affordability for some and lower loan amounts." 

The Sunday Times (27/02/2022)  

Ljubomir Jankovic, professor of advanced building design at the University of Hertfordshire, discusses how a study by his team shows that a radical overhaul of the construction industry is needed to reach net zero goals. The research found that due to embodied carbon emissions only building all new housing using naturally grown materials with negative embodied carbon will allow the UK housing industry to be net zero by 2050. In addition to drastically ramping up the energy efficiency requirements for new builds, we should also urgently develop regulations for retrofitting existing houses, he argues. Better education of architects, engineers and construction managers is required, and detailed modelling of buildings will be required, too. 

The Independent (25/02/2022)