Docklands News

British banks and building societies granted the fewest new mortgages for house purchase in more than a year in September. Bank of England (BoE) data shows that mortgage approvals fell to 72,645 in September from 74,214 the month before, the lowest since July 2020. The decline has been attributed in part to the winding down of the stamp duty holiday, with the tax break rolled out to support the market amid the pandemic withdrawn at the end of September. Despite a dip in the number of approvals, net mortgage lending for transactions that completed in September surged to £9.524bn. This was the highest total since June – the last month before the stamp duty holiday started to taper. Approvals for re-mortgaging rose slightly to 41,500 in September to the highest levels since March 2020.

Daily Mail (29/10/2021)   Evening Standard (29/10/2021)   Financial Times (29/10/2021)   Reuters (29/10/2021)  

Half of British homeowners have never remortgaged - even though one in three know it could probably save them money. A survey, of 2,000 people with a mortgage, found they still have an average of 45% of it left to pay. But 9% admit they have no idea exactly how much they still owe. and 49% believe the hassle and paperwork of remortgaging wouldn't be worth the financial savings. A spokesman for Barclays Mortgages, which commissioned the research, said: “It's clear from our research that many find remortgaging a tricky subject to understand, even though UK adults have been on the mortgage payment ladder for an average of 13 years and five months." 

Daily Mail (30/10/2021)   The Express (30/10/2021)   The Sun (30/10/2021)  

The original house that once hosted Channel 4’s Big Breakfast has gone on sale for £4.6m. The 5,200 sq ft, six-bedroom property is a short walk from the London Stadium in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, and comes with a swimming pool, a cottage, and bullet-proof glass walkways - and, uniquely, its own postcode.

East London Advertiser (01/11/2021)  

Boomerang effect fuels London house-price surge So-called “boomerang buyers” are fuelling London’s soaring property market, estate agents have claimed, as those who moved to the country during the pandemic are now flocking back to the city. Thousands of Londoners are thought to have quit cramped flats and houses in search of more space during lockdown, sending prices in the Home Counties soaring. But the return of commuting three or four days a week, combined with the opening up of theatres and restaurants, has persuaded many to come back. Others who were considering moving to the provinces are now putting their plans on hold as average home prices in London shot up 5.6% in August to an all-time high of £525,893. 

Evening Standard (22/10/2021)  

Detached homes accounted for a third of new build properties being registered in Q3 of 2021 – the highest proportion since 2002, according to an industry body. Around 36% of new homes registered to be built in the third quarter of 2021 were detached, compared with 28% in 2020, according to the National House Building Council (NHBC). Flats made up just 13% of new home registrations in the third quarter of 2021, falling from 29% in the same period last year. Total new home registrations were up by 14% compared with a year earlier to 33,779 in the third quarter of 2021, with the highest rises in the East Midlands, North East and Yorkshire and the Humber. 

The i  

Experts are predicting that sub-1% mortgage rates will completely disappear in the next month. The Bank of England has hinted heavily at an interest rate rise next month and mortgage lenders have started pulling their cheapest rates from the market. The number of fixed-rate sub-1% mortgages has fallen by almost a third in the past two weeks, from 131 to 93, according to Moneyfacts. Samuel Tombs, of consultancy Pantheon Macroeconomics, said more sub-1% deals were likely to disappear in the next month. "There has been a rapid reassessment of how quickly rates will rise. Lenders do not have the scope to absorb this, so they will have to pass the cost of a base rate rise on to borrowers,” he said. 

The Daily Telegraph (22/10/2021)